Thank you for visiting my fundraising page!

My name is Karen Hardy and I am the founder, along with my daughter and husband, of Educate Malawi, Inc. 

This small non-profit organization was started in 2008 by myself, my daughter and my husband.  Shannon, my daughter, was the first to travel to the small African country in 2005, she and I went in 2007 and after we started the non-profit, Stephen made his first trip to Malawi.

The mission of Educate Malawi, Inc. is to provide resources to the children of Malawi in the form of school supplies and scholarship money.  We also wish to raise awareness of the great needs of the country in the area of education.  

Our current project is to build a classroom block in the District of Zomba at the Namitsitsi primary school.  There are about 900 students in attendance and 8 teachers; 8 grades.  Two of the classes do not have a classroom to attend school in, so they sit in the dirt to learn; when it rains they are unable to attend classes properly.

We have begun to award educational scholarships to female students who wish to become teachers; there are very few female teachers for many reasons but economic hardship is a factor.

I am planning to ride 500 miles through 5 New England States starting on September 1, 2011.  I have been riding a bike for fun mostly in these last several years, and have increased challenges for myself through these years.  This is my greatest challenge yet and it is the largest fundraiser I have planned for myself.  My goal is to raise $10,000.  Though it sounds like a really big number (even to me and I picked the number), I figure that with 450 people donating $20 each, that's $9,000...I am most of the way to a thousand right now!!!

Please help me reach my goal!  To follow fundraising visit the website at

www.educate-malawi.org/karens_ride_for_malawi  and to follow training progress and during the ride in September:

www.educate-malawi.blogspot.com

Donating through this website is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to support my fundraising efforts.

Many thanks for your support -- and don't forget to forward this to anyone who you think might want to donate too!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!

Warmest wishes,

Karen