News

“Rural isolation is a root cause of poverty; connection is the foundation for opportunity.”

In February 2020, a select team from Walter Lilly and our friends at Price & Myers will be travelling to Rwanda to build a bridge between two communities who currently lack safe access between their villages.

The charity behind this project is Bridges to Prosperity (B2P), who work with isolated communities to create access to essential health care, education and economic opportunities by building footbridges over impassable rivers.  They have built more than 250 footbridges, serving over 1 million community members throughout the world.

Rural isolation is a root cause of poverty:  When farmers can’t access the market to sell their crops, they lose their income. When rivers flood and a student’s commute to school becomes life threatening, that student loses out on their education. If a mother goes in to labour, but cannot safely cross the river to go to the hospital her likelihood of having complications during birth drastically increases. With a single innovation, a footbridge, we are able to transform this reality and impact households across multiple dimensions.

B2P’s newest initiative in transforming rural access now extends to Rwanda which will include building 355 pedestrian footbridges nationwide, serving over 1.1 million Rwandese.  Individuals who are currently isolated will have the opportunity to pursue a brighter future.

The Walter Lilly team, comprising Bob Byrne, Harrison Burgoine, Benny Feddon, Greg Richardson & Robbie Higgins are looking forward to their trip, but there is a huge amount to do before February to ensure their trip funding is in place.  As such, we are now reaching out to organisations and individuals to aid the construction of the bridge, as well as assisting them raise money for some basic resources and materials, which will be necessary to complete the project.

We would love to hear from you if you are able to help by:

• Donating to our charitable auction/raffle, whether this be by providing prizes or purchasing tickets;
• Providing company sponsorship, such as marketing on clothing that will be worn when constructing the bridge and captured in images throughout the trip posted onto our social media channels;
• By simply donating money to our cause via our giving page listed below:

https://www.kindlink.com/charity/bridges-to-prosperity-uk-charitable-trust/2497/fundraising