During its conference last month, The Travel Agent Next Door raised approximately $46,000 for the charity Pencils for Kids. TTAND has been raising funds for Pencils for Kids for the last five years, with this year’s contribution bringing the total raised to $171,000.

“We are extremely grateful not only to our travel agent partners but to our generous suppliers, without whom this would not have been possible,” said Flemming Friisdahl, Founder, The Travel Agent Next Door.

“Suppliers contributed financially as well as through donations to the silent auction. This was a team effort between our agent partners, our suppliers and the TTAND head office team.”

The money raised has gone towards things including five computers and 450 books by African writers for a library and three computers for communal use at a town Hall and school library in Niger. The funds also purchased chairs and tents for rentals to provide ongoing income-- and also 30 sewing machines for the community. As well, three young women were sent to nursing school and two of them have returned to their community to put their skills to work.

Funds raised by TTAND also have been put towards the cost of building two permanent kindergartens in Niger, in addition to furnishings such as desks, chairs, blackboard, teacher's desk, and student resources. The schools were launched in the past few months, and now an additional two schools will be built using the funds raised from this conference.

The kindergartens are being built to replace ones made of straw that are no longer allowed in the country because of a tragic fire that killed children of kindergarten age in April 2021 in the capital city of Niamey.

“When that happened, Pencils for Kids was determined to rebuild any kindergarten of straw in the community of Libore where we were helping -- 13 of them -- so that all children of kindergarten age would be able to still go to school,” said Robin Mednick, President and Executive Director, Pencils for Kids.

“Every kindergarten we erect is built in memory of the children who perished in that first fire and there is a plaque to this effect on each and every one we build.”