Raised so far: £670.00
Donate now

My story

 
On January 31st my friend Mark and I are entering the Tough Guy challenge.

This is a 6(ish) mile cross country run followed by a 20 obstacle assault course. Sounds relatively simple but browsing the website reveals it may not be that simple!

Some links for browsing:

Tough Guy overview: http://www.toughguy.co.uk/?q=node/170

The course: http://www.toughguy.co.uk/?q=node/168

Needless to say we are doing this for charity. Being Traffic and Transportation Engineers we wanted to do it for a charity which we both had a connection to. Transaid may not be one of the more well known charities but they do a lot of good work in Africa.

We'll leave them to explain what they do:

About Transaid

Transaid is an international development charity that seeks to reduce poverty and improve quality of life through providing better access to essential services such as healthcare, education and economic opportunities in Africa and across the developing world. By working with the European transport and logistics industry, Transaid builds local skills and knowledge within the transport sector to make transport cheaper, safer, cleaner and more effective.

Transaid was founded by Save the Children and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), under the patronage of HRH The Princess Royal.

Why we exist

Transport is essential for life and for the achievement of the Millenium Development goals which aim to halve world poverty by 2015. However, the reality for many of the poorest people in Africa and across the developing world is that access to transport is poor, inadequate, unavailable or non-existent.

Lack of transport denies people access to their basic needs such as healthcare, education and can also impact on their ability to work, all of which are a human right. The consequences of unsafe, inefficient transport lead to lives lost. Traditionally international aid spent on transport goes towards improving infrastructure but little money is allocated for management and skills training to enable transport to work effectively. Many development projects fail due to lack of attention to transport and the failure to prioritise budgets accordingly.

Transaid recognises that transport knowledge is absolutely essential to the smooth running of any project involving movement of goods or people and we seek to advocate and tackle this need from the grassroots to the policy level.

Our Expertise

Transaid currently has three main areas of expertise:

1.Efficient vehicle management We work with departments of health, governments and other organisations to improve the management and maintenance of their vehicle fleets. We do this by applying the Transaid Transport Management System to reduce costs, improve service delivery and increase operational efficiency.

2. Appropriate technologies to access essential services We provide access to appropriate, alternative forms of transport for communities where conventional forms of transport are not available e.g. bicycle and motorcycle ambulances. These life-saving technologies enable men, women and children in rural communities to reach health services when they are most in need.

3. Driver competence and safety standards We promote professional driver training standards and develop driver training programmes to improve road safety and the efficient use of vehicles.

Our Current Projects

We work in West, East and Southern Africa and have also conducted projects in parts of Asia.

Our most recent project (which benefits greatly from donations) is our Professional Driver Training project in Zambia. In Zambia there is a huge shortage of quality trained HGV drivers. As a result road accidents occur daily, often with devastating consequences for poor families when the income of a breadwinner is lost due to death or injury, road related deaths are the 3rd highest cause of premature death in Africa after HIV/Aids and Malaria. The essence of this project is to ultimately reduce the number of crashes and deaths on the road through training these drivers to be responsible and efficient, and capable of maintaining their vehicles effectively and safely.

Our project in Northern Nigeria is working to reduce child and maternal mortality by improving access to healthcare for women and children. This project includes the development of an emergency transport system to get pregnant women from remote, rural areas to hospital in time so that they receive professional care when giving birth. Women in Sub-Saharan Africa continue to face a 1 in 13 chance of dying from pregnancy and childbirth, when the risk for women in the industrialized world is only 1 in 4,085. The project also aims to increase access to vaccinations against preventable diseases for children who would otherwise go without.



Thank you for taking the time to read this and we hope you will be able to sponsor us for what promises to be a very tough event.

Well done guys - fantastic effort for a great cause ! Donation by Steve Wooler 15/02/10  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Well done Alex! Donation by The Whittinghams 11/02/10  

£10.00

Respect! You wouldn't catch me doing it. Donation by Tim Loveridge 03/02/10  

£25.00 + £7.05 Gift Aid

Congratulations to you both - utter madness! Donation by Declan Waters 03/02/10  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Very well done to you both! Donation by Susan Morris 31/01/10  

Well done lads! You must be nuts! Donation by Brian Higgins 31/01/10  

Well done matey! NO broken limbs though! :( Donation by Timothy Fisher 31/01/10  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Good luck!! Zoe xx Donation by Zoe Rose 30/01/10  

£30.00 + £8.46 Gift Aid

Wishing you all the luck in world x Donation by Denise Johnson 28/01/10  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

good luck and try not to break anything - although look on the bright side scholesy if you do at least we might get priority seats on the plane :) Donation by Chris Lander 26/01/10  

£15.00 + £4.23 Gift Aid

If you need me to throw anymore water then let me know! Donation by Dan Endersby 26/01/10  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Amazing! Enjoy and all the best. Donation by Corinne 25/01/10  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

I'll double my donation if Scholesy fights the contestants too. Donation by Richard Hutton 25/01/10  

£51.00 + £14.38 Gift Aid

All the best lads, you know it makes sense??? Donation by Oosema Haddad 25/01/10  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Donation by Neil Gibbons 23/01/10  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Good luck! Donation by Darren Harvey 20/01/10  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Well done to both of you! Donation by Jackie Abbey 19/01/10  

£5.00 + £1.41 Gift Aid

Donation by Helen Richardson 19/01/10  

£5.00 + £1.41 Gift Aid

Rather you than me matey! Good luck with it. Donation by Chris Legg 19/01/10  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Go get em' Tigers. Donation by Lee Witts 17/01/10  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

I have a mankini, if you'd like to loan it just ask. Good luck to both of you! Donation by wendy gibson 17/01/10  

£5.00 + £1.41 Gift Aid

You're mad I tell you! But best of luck anyway. Donation by Stuart Dunhill 15/01/10  

£20.00 + £5.64 Gift Aid

You're nuts guys! Good luck Donation by Andrew Baxter 11/01/10  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Good luck guys! It might be a little bit nippy in the water Alex so you might need more than just the thong! Donation by Tim Cooke 06/01/10  

£15.00 + £4.23 Gift Aid

Good luck and enjoy the water challenge!! Donation by David Cummins 24/12/09  

£20.00 + £5.64 Gift Aid

You mad fools, surely there must be an easier way than this! Donation by Dave Mack 20/12/09  

£20.00 + £5.64 Gift Aid

Good Luck bud, Ive seen the event on the TV... [its a monster ] Ho Ho Ho enjoy your Turkey !! Donation by John Dale 15/12/09  

£10.00 + £2.82 Gift Aid

Good luck! Donation by Laura Wallis 14/12/09  

£5.00 + £1.41 Gift Aid

Don't forget the thong Alex!!!!! Mark - you could maybe wear the bow tie! Donation by David Birkinshaw 14/12/09  

£20.00 + £5.64 Gift Aid

Best of luck mate! Donation by Chris Oliver 09/12/09  

£10.00
Donate now
 
* Total raised online: £466.00
  Offline donations: £204.00
  Gift Aid plus supplement: £125.79

* Charities pay a small fee for our service.
Find out how much it is and what we do for it.