Thank you for visiting our UkCAN20 fundraising page.
Dan and Mike successfully completed their round the world trip from UK to CANada – with no support team or vehicle, we circumnavigated the globe covering 32,000km through 23 countries, and arrived on schedule after 112 days- all on rather old BMW motorbikes bought on eBay. More details about our many adventures can be found on our blog: http://ukcan20.googlepages.com/
We have both spent significant periods volunteering with communities in Zambia and are passionate about the work of an inspirational rural development charity – NWZDT(http://www.nwzdt.org/ ). Having built a low impact hydro-electric scheme on theZambeziRiver that generates power, the challenge now is to connect schools, clinics, families and businesses to the electricity, thereby transforming their lives.
For example the local Kalene hospital now has 24-7 power for surgery, X-rays, sterilisation and other equipment – people travel hundreds of kilometres from 3 countries for treatment. Soon a school will be connected which has over 500 primary and secondary pupils, who have no option but to walk up to 15km in each direction every day to receive their education. As well as lights in classrooms, they can now have computers and other facilities. It will also address a critical challenge to the hospital and school - attracting and retaining qualified staff who have been reluctant to live in the bush in darkness and with no basic facilities.
The next stage is connecting more schools, clinics, families and businesses. Encouraging entrepreneurship is critical to stimulating the economy in an area where there is almost no formal employment and there is little option but subsistence farming. Currently, the villagers use paraffin lamps, candles or poor quality batteries to provide light after darkness at 6pm. As well as non-polluting lighting, electricity will allow fridges, radios, pumps etc, greatly improving qualities of lives – 1 house can include up to 15 people.
If you would like to help bring light, education, health and employment to genuinely needy people then please consider a donation – every penny donated goes to equipment or local labour, there are no admin costs – and every £20 makes a difference.
In particular if you would like to make a specific donation to sponsor lights for a family or know of a school or a business that would like to partner with one there, please contact Daniel (dan.t.rea(at)gmail.com).
So please sponsor us! Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It’s also the most efficient way to sponsor us: Echoes Of Service and then North West Zambia Development Trust gets your money faster and, if you’re a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation.
