Warwick students attempt to top three peaks for charity

On 9 July, almost 70 University of Warwick students will be undertaking the Three Peaks Challenge, aiming to raise £20,000 for the Warwick in Africa programme.

68 Warwick students will be attempting to climb Ben Nevis (1344m), Scafell Pike (987m) and Snowdon (1085m), the three highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales respectively, in just 24 hours. The challenge was organised by Maths and Physics student Emma Towlson to raise funds for Warwick in Africa, a programme that sends Warwick students out to Africa to improve teaching and enhance the education of young people in Africa.

Towlson has been involved in the project for the past two summers. She has helped to teach Maths and Physics to schoolchildren in Alexandra in South Africa, and this year is the organiser for the Warwick students undertaking the Three Peaks Challenge. When asked why she volunteered for the programme two years ago, she said: “I just wanted to do something more… two girls did a presentation [in one of my lectures]… I thought: wouldn’t that be amazing?”

She also spoke of her experiences: “It was terrifying at first… now I have so much love for the place and love for the country…[we went over during] the public sector strikes, all the schools were shut and we didn’t want to just sit around and do nothing, so we turned the community centre into a school… it was incredible, and only possible because of the money we’d raised… we had [about] 300 people a day [turn up].”

Towlson added that she decided to organise the Three Peaks Challenge this year because she wanted to “do something big… it’s hard, but accessible for anyone”.

It began in 2005 when a small group of Warwick students were sent out to South Africa to attempt to improve the quality of Maths teaching in the local schools and make it more engaging. The project successfully improved both attendance and performance in the schools. Warwick in Africa is now a developing project expanding in both subjects and countries, currently supporting teaching in Maths and English in South Africa, Tanzania and Ghana.

The aims for this year’s project are to build on its already established success: secure more long-term funding, raise funds to increase the average stay for at least 50 students, develop the IGGY (International Gateway for Gifted Youth) and to establish links with at least two international universities. The programme also aspires to build on the success of last year by developing the summer schools programme in Ghana for Maths and English that supported over 700 learners.

Last year master classes were launched for 180 teachers in Ghana, a local IGGY group was established in Johannesburg, 12 scholarships were awarded for learners to attend the IGGY U in Botswana, seven African teachers were funded to attend a Warwick study programme and the programme gained accreditation from the Clinton Global Initiative.

Lucia Gobbi, a second-year Economics student, will be undertaking the challenge this year. She is heading out to be a student teacher in Alexandra as part of the project later this summer. “Being an economics student most people on my course were looking for internships in the city/finance, but this didn’t appeal to me… when I saw the e-mail about getting involved in Africa and watched the video it sounded like an amazing opportunity to be a part of! It’s a really sustainable project where you really can make a difference to the education of these kids.”

When asked about the Three Peaks Challenge in particular, she commented that it “sounded like a great way to try and raise the £250 required, all of which we spend on the schools out there.” Gobbi spoke of how excited she was to be going, but also how the township she will be visiting, Alexandra, is one of the poorest in Johannesburg, and how the schools lack vital resources and the teachers the training they require. “Hopefully with the money raised [we] can get valuable resources for my school… I hope I can inspire and motivate the kids I teach, encourage them to take education further, but also think I have a lot to learn from them.”

All the money raised goes directly towards the schools, not funding the trip. Anyone wanting to donate can go to the team’s [JustGiving page](http://www.justgiving.com/teams/wiathreepeaks) and sponsor an individual.