Join us for a leisurely paced walk to celebrate International Women’s Day. Men warmly welcomed.

There is no charge for the walk, but we do request a suggested £5-25 donation to be made to our chosen organisation ‘Feminenza’ Feminenza is a small, international organisation promoting the development of women and mutuality between the genders. They are doing some fantastic work and have a special connection with Africa, running a couple of projects, including the campaign ‘Give a Girl a Chance’. Meet Lionella and read how Feminenza is supporting her below.

The walk
Hassocks, East Sussex - Circular walk of ca. 8.5 miles
Starting at 10.50am from Hassocks Station – we will be back at Hassocks by ca. 3.30pm

We will start and end our walk in Hassocks following trails up on to the South Downs, past the ‘Jack and Jill’ windmills and along to Ditchling Beacon before dropping down to the picturesque village of Ditchling for a pub lunch and a return walk along an old roman road to Hassocks.

An exhilarating walk with wide, sweeping views across Sussex and down to the coast. One moderate and longish ascent and descent from the Downs where we will set out own pace and in some places it will be muddy underfoot.

We will be walking whatever the weather and we recommend:
• Good walking boots
• Waterproofs
• Long trousers
• Day pack
• Drinking water

Getting there
Trains travel from Victoria Station or Blackfriars. Check out www.trainline.com or call National Rail Enquiries on 08458 48 49 50 for all train timetables and charges. From Victoria we would recommend catching the 09:32 arriving at Hassocks at 10:38, or from Blackfriars the 09:33 arriving at 10:45. Please do check these times the day before you travel.

There is a free parking at Hassocks station for those driving.

Cost
A suggested donation of £5-25 to Feminenza, offered on the day OR, you can pay direct here Donate button at bottom of Feminenza Projects page.

All of the money goes to Feminenza, we’re not charging for the walk.

Feminenza ‘Give a Girl a Chance’ Campaign

Meet Lionella

In 1993 Burundi was torn apart as long standing tensions between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes exploded into violence that was to last until 2005. Over 300,000 people were killed during these years and hundreds of thousands of people fled the country to neighbouring Tanzania and Congo seeking shelter in primitive refugee camps. Poor conditions in the camps led to many deaths from cholera and dysentery.

One of these refugees was a young girl called Lionella Tendry Kanyaru, aged 8 when the violence started. She escaped from Burundi with her family and moved from Congo to Tanzania and eventually to Kenya where they settled. There is little support for refugees in Kenya and life is very hard for the family. Their father returned to Burundi and established a new life for himself leaving the family to fend for themselves.

Give a Girl a Chance met Lionella in 2006 when we visited Unilac University in Nairobi. Unilac was established by refugees from Burundi, Rwanda and the Congo to provide education for young people displaced by the violence in their countries and to promote peace amongst the various tribes.
Lionella is studying Community Development and life for her is a continual struggle to find the money to pay for her studies and help to support her family. Even in the face of this her wish is to return to Burundi and help to make the country a better place.

Her courage is evident in this quote from our first meeting with her - “Never give up, no matter what you do, never give up. Situations may go down, you may feel bad today, you may feel like everything is over for you, but believe me you’ll manage. You just have to be strong. And be able to deal with the challenges that are ahead in life.”

Give a Girl a Chance has been sponsoring Lionella through college and she is now in her final year of studies.

“When women are empowered, we as men are empowered.
When women grow, we as men grow,
And society grows, and the country grows, and the whole world grows.
When women are given the chance to live a better life,
Then the whole world becomes a better place to live”

Christopher Oloishuru Murray, Tasaru Girls’ Refuge Centre, Kenya