Six young South Africans are about to set off on a journey – a long journey. They plan to travel from Cape Town – the southern tip of Africa to London via Cairo. That is a long trip. IAG has decided to offer its website as a vehicle for people interested in travel to keep track of these six young people as they embark on a serious trip; a trip of a life time. Please follow their adventures with us and if you are so inclined, use the links below to offer any support you can. The official site for the adventure is love2africa.org.

We will be posting updates on their adventure on this site. You can learn more about them at doingitforafrica.com. We wish them bon voyage and safe travels. Below is the first blog posting from James Cumming,
Doing It For Africa, Team Leader and Project Manager. (james@doingitforafrica.com)
———————
Volunteer Tourism or ‘voluntourism’ is growing globally. People are changing the way they travel. More and more, jetsetters and ‘gap year’ students alike are beginning to turn their backs on the architecture, museums and galleries of Europe in search of a more altruistic form of travel that takes them to the underprivileged and least developed corners of our planet. Agencies are springing up all over the world to meet this demand, shipping volunteers from the first world to the third. South America, the Far East and Africa are the most common destinations.

This philanthropic travel sounds wonderful but who does it really serve? Some have gone as far as calling it glorified colonialism – benefiting the tourist more than the so called beneficiary. It is very likely that in many cases this is true and one could argue that profit generation could be a major driver of this distortion: Agencies simply looking to make a buck by getting a willing volunteer tourist to a project imposing some form of good on a ‘needy’ community – no questions asked, no assessment of skill, no sustainability research conducted. Surely we should be asking: what do you want, what do you need and why?

The Heart of Healing, a Non Profit Organisation based in Cape Town, South Africa has stepped in, offering a unique and sustainable solution. They have just launched a new project: Love to Africa (www.love2africa.org). It is their aim to develop an African-wide non-profit volunteer tourism network, linking sustainable developmental and charitable projects with suitable volunteers and each other. One site, a plethora of projects, an entire continent. The project was launched in January this year and set in full motion when the pioneer expedition was confirmed in March. The Doing It For Africa (DIFA) team has come on board and will be driving from Cape Town to London in 2008. This team of six pioneers will be travelling in two 4×4 vehicles up the East Coast of Africa. Along their route they will be finding accommodation with developmental and charitable projects in exchange for working as volunteers. More importantly, during their stay they will be profiling these projects – asking the right questions, conducting sustainability research and gathering all the information necessary to fully understand specific resource needs and the potential for volunteer opportunities. These extremely detailed profiles will then be uploaded onto the Love to Africa web-portal where they can be viewed by the world. Once in place, the Love to Africa team will begin to facilitate the supply of volunteer resources from around the globe to the profiled projects: matching specific resources with specific needs. The DIFA team’s on-the-ground research in conjunction with the experience of the Love to Africa command centre will unfold into a stringent screening process thus sending the right volunteers to the right projects.

DIFA will be leaving in mid February of 2008 and plan to arrive in London in early September of the same year. In Africa they will be travelling through South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. From Tunis they will board a ferry and arrive in Naples, Italy where they begin their promotional leg – giving presentations at universities, corporations, tourist centres and to the general public. The rest of this leg takes them through France, Germany, the Netherlands and finally Britain.

This philanthropic, research based adventure is going to be exciting to follow and you can do this here as the team will be sending in blogs every three days. Having satellite phones and durable laptops enables them to do so. Also, surf their site for more detailed information and to learn how you can get involved. See the pictures and hear the stories, watch DIFA and Love to Africa help improve the lives of others and serve the development of Africa.

Although Love to Africa and DIFA have had significant buy in from South African companies and foundations they are still in need of a great deal of funding and other forms of assistance for the project to take on its optimal form. If you would like to make a donation or get in touch with either of the teams visit www.love2africa.org or email DIFA at info@doingitforafrica.com. Lend them a hand and you will be aiding an efficient and innovative African development tool.

Six young South Africans are about to set off on a journey – a long journey. They plan to travel from Cape Town – the southern tip of Africa to London via Cairo. That is a long trip. IAG has decided to offer its website as a vehicle for people interested in travel to keep track of these six young people as they embark on a serious trip; a trip of a life time. Please follow their adventures with us and if you are so inclined, use the links below to offer any support you can. The official site for the adventure is love2africa.org.

We will be posting updates on their adventure on this site. You can learn more about them at doingitforafrica.com. We wish them bon voyage and safe travels. Below is the first blog posting from James Cumming,
Doing It For Africa, Team Leader and Project Manager. (james@doingitforafrica.com)
———————
Volunteer Tourism or ‘voluntourism’ is growing globally. People are changing the way they travel. More and more, jetsetters and ‘gap year’ students alike are beginning to turn their backs on the architecture, museums and galleries of Europe in search of a more altruistic form of travel that takes them to the underprivileged and least developed corners of our planet. Agencies are springing up all over the world to meet this demand, shipping volunteers from the first world to the third. South America, the Far East and Africa are the most common destinations.

This philanthropic travel sounds wonderful but who does it really serve? Some have gone as far as calling it glorified colonialism – benefiting the tourist more than the so called beneficiary. It is very likely that in many cases this is true and one could argue that profit generation could be a major driver of this distortion: Agencies simply looking to make a buck by getting a willing volunteer tourist to a project imposing some form of good on a ‘needy’ community – no questions asked, no assessment of skill, no sustainability research conducted. Surely we should be asking: what do you want, what do you need and why?

The Heart of Healing, a Non Profit Organisation based in Cape Town, South Africa has stepped in, offering a unique and sustainable solution. They have just launched a new project: Love to Africa (www.love2africa.org). It is their aim to develop an African-wide non-profit volunteer tourism network, linking sustainable developmental and charitable projects with suitable volunteers and each other. One site, a plethora of projects, an entire continent. The project was launched in January this year and set in full motion when the pioneer expedition was confirmed in March. The Doing It For Africa (DIFA) team has come on board and will be driving from Cape Town to London in 2008. This team of six pioneers will be travelling in two 4×4 vehicles up the East Coast of Africa. Along their route they will be finding accommodation with developmental and charitable projects in exchange for working as volunteers. More importantly, during their stay they will be profiling these projects – asking the right questions, conducting sustainability research and gathering all the information necessary to fully understand specific resource needs and the potential for volunteer opportunities. These extremely detailed profiles will then be uploaded onto the Love to Africa web-portal where they can be viewed by the world. Once in place, the Love to Africa team will begin to facilitate the supply of volunteer resources from around the globe to the profiled projects: matching specific resources with specific needs. The DIFA team’s on-the-ground research in conjunction with the experience of the Love to Africa command centre will unfold into a stringent screening process thus sending the right volunteers to the right projects.

DIFA will be leaving in mid February of 2008 and plan to arrive in London in early September of the same year. In Africa they will be travelling through South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. From Tunis they will board a ferry and arrive in Naples, Italy where they begin their promotional leg – giving presentations at universities, corporations, tourist centres and to the general public. The rest of this leg takes them through France, Germany, the Netherlands and finally Britain.

This philanthropic, research based adventure is going to be exciting to follow and you can do this here as the team will be sending in blogs every three days. Having satellite phones and durable laptops enables them to do so. Also, surf their site for more detailed information and to learn how you can get involved. See the pictures and hear the stories, watch DIFA and Love to Africa help improve the lives of others and serve the development of Africa.

Although Love to Africa and DIFA have had significant buy in from South African companies and foundations they are still in need of a great deal of funding and other forms of assistance for the project to take on its optimal form. If you would like to make a donation or get in touch with either of the teams visit www.love2africa.org or email DIFA at info@doingitforafrica.com. Lend them a hand and you will be aiding an efficient and innovative African development tool.

Flying in Africa takes some courage as these images testify.

Landings are rather intense and passengers sometimes are too eager to meet the plane. These gents were determined not to miss the flight and were right at the front of the upgrade line. Since the pilots were probably Russian, you can imagine the howls and shrieks of laughter on the flightdeck when this picture was taken.

Not to be negative, at least the plane above made it to the runway. Sometimes this does not happen; see below. This gives new meaning to "short final".

And Nigeria's aviation experience has been among the worst. This image is of the remnants of the Sosoliso Air after the crash at the Port Harcourt International Airport. Read about it here.

The last image comes from the 2005 movie Lord of War. Here you see Nick Cage pondering an AN-12 – though its from the movie, it amusingly reflects the reality of African "bush flights".

Flying in Africa takes some courage as these images testify.

Landings are rather intense and passengers sometimes are too eager to meet the plane. These gents were determined not to miss the flight and were right at the front of the upgrade line. Since the pilots were probably Russian, you can imagine the howls and shrieks of laughter on the flightdeck when this picture was taken.

Not to be negative, at least the plane above made it to the runway. Sometimes this does not happen; see below. This gives new meaning to "short final".

And Nigeria's aviation experience has been among the worst. This image is of the remnants of the Sosoliso Air after the crash at the Port Harcourt International Airport. Read about it here.

The last image comes from the 2005 movie Lord of War. Here you see Nick Cage pondering an AN-12 – though its from the movie, it amusingly reflects the reality of African "bush flights".