By Emmanuel Elebeke
In May this year, just before the eLearning Africa conference, a diverse group of eLearning professionals from across the globe will join their African counterparts to climb Mount Meru, in Tanzania, as part of the EAST Challenge.

The aim of the challenge is to raise scholarship funding for low-income African teachers and education professionals to attend the eLearning Africa conference in Dar es Salaam from the 25th to the 27th of May.

eLearning Africa, it will recalled  has made a major contribution towards transforming the lives and prospects of many ordinary Africans by encouraging the sharing of knowledge, expertise and best practice about technology-enhanced education.

Recent studies have shown that there are thousands of educators throughout Africa, who  can’t afford to travel to the event and thus miss out on the opportunity to learn, share ideas, network and discuss the many exciting new initiatives in education, which are beginning to make a real difference in many parts of Africa.

In light of the above, the East Challenge team has decided to help by raising enough money to fund a series of bursaries. This is the first in a programme of initiatives being organised by the EAST Trust to support education-related projects in Africa.

The organisers of the event, Dr. Harold Elletson and Bjorn Everts said: ‘We plan to make the EAST Challenge an annual event, providing a unique opportunity to get involved and make a direct contribution to supporting our African colleagues and enhancing the quality of education in Africa.’

Mount Meru is Africa’s fourth highest mountain and the climb will take four days. It will be strenuous and challenging but without the extra altitude problems of Kilimanjaro. The route will offer the team an opportunity to look at some interesting flora and fauna and traverse the spectacular crater rim on the way to the summit.