Ad of the Day: Scroll to trek 9 miles with Sierra Leonean schoolchildren in web experience from David&Goliath
David&Goliath (D&G) partnered up with non-profit Shine on Sierra Leone to illustrate the harrowing three-plus hour-long journey for students in the African nation.
To raise donations for a new school close to students in the country, D&G created a web experience that illustrates how far young Sierra Leoneans currently have to go — nine miles. That trek from home takes the children through dirt roads filled with poisonous snakes, in humid weather (sometimes monsoons), past abandoned diamond mines with malaria-laced pools of water, and in the midst of sexual predators.
A button allows you to skip to the next mile, as long as you understand these children don’t have that luxury. And when school is over, there is no bus to pick them back up or parent waiting in a car or minivan: just the same treacherous road home. During this scroll, an odometer lets you know how far your fingers have gotten you as you walk with the students, learning new information with them. By mile three, you will see a prompt, showing the location of a new school Shine on Sierra Leone is creating with D&G’s help.
“We have so much to be thankful for in the US, from work opportunities to technology to clean water and especially access to education. These are liberties we often take for granted,” said David Angelo, founder and chairman of D&G. “When I think about the kids in Sierra Leone who, under some of the worst conditions, walk nine miles each way for an education, I am both inspired and humbled. They show true bravery and self-determination every day. We wanted to shine a spotlight on the plight of these amazing kids by creating a virtual experience of their commute to help raise awareness – and eventually funds – to build a school that’s in their backyard.”
To help bolster the campaign, celebrity influencers like Zoe Kravitz, Rosario Dawson, Saul Williams and Cree Summer lent their Instagram accounts to detail the cyber-trek through the roads of Sierra Leone.
