Croydon charity celebrates 10 years fighting poverty in Africa (From Your Local Guardian)

Croydon charity celebrates 10 years fighting poverty in Africa

2:46pm Saturday 11th October 2008 in

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A Croydon charity working to relieve poverty and boost education in Africa is celebrating its 10th anniversary today with some very special guests.

African Child Trust (ACT) is welcoming mayor of Croydon, Councillor Jonathan Driver as well as the High Commissioners from Zambia and Tanzania to a special celebration at the Whitgift School in South Croydon.

A child sponsored by the charity and the ACT director of projects from Tanzania have also flown in specially from Africa to join in with the celebrations.

The charity works in the six African countries of Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Burkina Faso and Nigeria.

Kunle Onabolu, founder of ACT and a Croydon resident for 21 years, said: “The work of charities such as ACT is crucial in making it possible for African countries to take closer steps to achieve the Millennium Development Goals for education and gender parity.

“We are honoured that the mayor of Croydon, and the High Commissioners are able to recognise our decade of success and talk to guests about the impact we have made so far.”

In the ten years since the charity was formed, almost 600 disadvantaged children and orphans have received support to continue their education with 84 having completed secondary school and seven currently studying at university.

The charity has also given 460 widows counselling and financial support, and 150 have benefited from the ACT business skills training project.

For more information about the charity, visit africanchildtrust.org.uk