Help Poni, a young South Sudanese girl reach University

Hi, I'm Ruth and I am fundraising for Poni, a wonderful, determined young lady to get to University to study for a degree. Please allow me to share a little about why this is important to me.

I lived in South Sudan for almost 8 years and in 2013 for a few weeks I was privileged to have Poni, then an 11 year old girl live with me due to some difficulties, this was all in cooperation with the local government as some things were sorted out for her. Sadly, both Poni's parents have died, neither of natural causes, and she has not had a supportive wider family.

I have been able to help Poni through the end of her primary and then secondary school, and she has stayed in Juba, the capital of South Sudan. Poni is really keen to go to University, and, despite my telling her that is out of my ability to support her financially to do this, has continued to find different doors and push them to see what might happen looking at both universities and scholarship programmes. She has had a weekly programme on Advance Youth Radio called Sports Extra, which she enjoyed presenting amassing a lot of followers and presently volunteers with the South Sudanese Football association and has traveled with them to a number of East African countries to take photos and writes reports on their activities including their training for which she receives a small allowance. Poni is committed to playing her part in this as well, hoping to secure a job once in Egypt to pay for her every day living expenses.

She sees sport as a way to work towards peace building - something which is hugely needed in the young country as it has had so many years of war and still has such insecurity and really wants to further a career in this area. She says 'my vision is to bring people together and strengthen dialogue between communities in a sustainable way through sports by organising tournaments and training's.'

She has secured a place at the University of Britain in Egypt, subject to an English test, which she would need to travel to Cairo for, and for which she needs to pay a deposit, and will then also need a flight to get to Cairo for the test. She still needs to secure a scholarship, but there is a chance this will also be a % of the total costs.

I would really value your support in this, to encourage a young girl in a troubled nation to achieve the education she wants to be a positive change in her community. Should there be an event where she is unable to take this course, any money raised would continue to go towards her, or potentially others who need help and support, but in a cautious way so as not to build a dependency which can be debilitating.

If you are able to share this fundraiser I would really appreciate it, money will be paid direct to the university and flights bought from the UK with some money going to help Poni as she goes for her English test and in her first few months as she settles and finds a job to be able to contribute herself to her daily living. Every amount given will be so precious and help us to reach our goal.