CNN, CARTOON NETWORK AND TCM BUILD A SCHOOL IN MALI

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Twenty volunteers from Turner Broadcasting Europe's UK, Italian and German offices have raised the money to build a school in Mali, West Africa and will spend a week helping with construction.

The school and new water system will transform the community and allows Turner to show its viewers, staff and other stakeholders how CNN, Cartoon Network and its other channels can help the communities they serve. The project was chosen as Mali is a developing nation and so of interest to CNN, and because it benefits children who are the audience for Cartoon Network. The building and staffing of the school will be done by local people using local materials so provides employment and an excellent example of sustainability. It fits with Turner's Environmental policies and is within the company's broadcast area of Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The programme has been designed to touch as many stakeholders as possible now and in the future.

20 staff will be spending a week helping to build the school and CNN will report on it in 'Backstory'. CNN has also donated several million pounds worth of commercial airtime to promote Plan International, the charity that is organizing the build, and viewers are donating through their advertisements on CNN's website. In future Turner and Plan hope to provide scholarships and other opportunities for the school children and roll out a programme of school building throughout its broadcast region.

About the Village and the School

At the Farada School in Kangaba children are currently taught in temporary classrooms made of wood and straw constructed by the local community. They have no latrines and the village well cannot provide sufficient clean water for the whole community. As a result the children are receiving a very poor standard of education, and regularly miss classes due to ill health.

This project will immediately benefit the 150 current students at the school, and the three teachers by providing:

• 3 new classrooms, with furniture and equipment
• School latrines, with separate cubicles for boys and girls
• A borehole with a handpump
• Trees to give shade in the school grounds during the hottest parts of the year
• Training for the School Management Committee on water and sanitation systems maintenance
• Health and hygiene awareness and capacity building workshops for the whole community

As well as having a positive impact on those already attending the school this project will also indirectly benefit all 1,351 community members who will have access to the new borehole and handpump.

For more information please contact:

Nick Hart

Head of Corporate Social Responsibility

Turner Broadcasting Europe

nick.hart@turner.com

+44 207 693 1228