AKASH'S BIRTHDAY APPEAL
It was Akash Mehta's tenth birthday on December 21, 2007. He decided once again to forego birthday gifts
and instead asked for donations to Kids for a Better Future. The donations poured in, totalling $4,000.

(This included a matching grant of $1,750 from The Unemployed Philosophers Guild who matched donations above $100.)

SUPPORTING CONGOLESE KIDS

This year, money raised will support an organization called Ajedi-Ka working for children’s rights in the Congos. We are supporting Ajedi-Ka because it works with children. It mostly works with child soldiers of both sexes, trying get them not to join the army, and trying to get them to leave the army, and go to school.  Fifty percent of children in the Congo do not go to school, and $100 dollars is what it costs to send one child to school for one year.  Ajedi-Ka works with former girl soldiers and other women victims of sexual violence. We have learnt that sexual violence has been a huge problem during and after the terrible war in the region. Children that were born out of rape are called by the Congolese “Children of The Enemy”, and those children are outcasts of the society.  That term “Children of The Enemy” upsets me greatly, and I will never use this term except to say how awful it is. We will ask Ajedi-Ka to spend any money we raise on the rights of the Congolese girls and children who were born of rape during or after the war.

Military Camp in the Congo	Armed Child Soldiers in the Congo