THANK YOU!

I would like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has supported me!! And I am excited to share that I have raised my $3000!!!!!

This could not be possible without the following amazing people/organizations:

• Mom and Dad
• Merv, Carley and Amy Rogers
• Baba and Grandma
• Yiayia
• Aunt Penny and Uncle Nick
• Aunt Mary and Uncle Paul
  
• Gail Rock
• Donna Longmoore
  
• Gail Campbell
• Lee Del Zotto
• Paul Keeling
  
• Jill and Lee Fishleigh
• David Ippolito
  
• My Lafontaine Parents
• Jen Bottrill
• Kim and Karl Koehn
  
• The Alumni Association
• University of Windsor Student Alliance
  
• School of Dramatic Art
  
• Global Resource Centre
• OPIRG

I really cannot thank you all enough for supporting me in this once in a lifetime opportunity! With all my heart and love, thank you!

Now.. what are the Millennium Development Goals, you ask?
While overseas, I will work in collaboration with Ghanaian counterparts within local organizations involved in primary education for all in hopes of achieving Millennium Development Goal #2: Universal Primary Education by 2015. As a student in Drama in Education and Community, I am eager and excited to put my education to use and further explore the complexities of education in a developing nation while staying with a host family to truly experience Ghanaian culture! Living with a family I'm sure will be where most of my learning takes place; observing their family dynamics, their daily routines, food, lifestyle, living conditions, culture! I cannot wait!

In September 2000, 191 nations collaborated, agreeing that there were major international development and human rights problems that could no longer be ignored, and agreed to the United Nations Millennium Declaration, which lead to 8 goals which are to be achieved by 2015 (however, we are not on pace to meet the goals).
The eight goals are as follows:

1. Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
2. Achieve Universal Primary Education
   
3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
   
4. Reduce Child Mortality
   
5. Improve Maternal Health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and other Diseases
7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability
   
8. Develop a Global Partnership for Development

As you can see, they are all-encompassing goals that tackle the massive issues of poverty, environmental degradation, health, and inequalities; however, we are half way to 2015 but not half way to achieving these measurable, realistic, NECESSARY goals. For more detailed information on the progress towards the goals I encourage you to visit http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/index.html and http://www.undp.org/mdg/tracking_countryreports2.shtml.

In my next post I will go in depth on progress towards MDG 2, and discuss Educational Challenges in Ghana specifically!

Thanks so much for reading and thank you to everyone for their kindness and support!

Sincerely and with love,

Robin