At the age of 76, I want to combine my lifelong love of sailing with a wish to raise awareness of, and funds for, three excellent projects that reflect contemporary global challenges and needs. We will use the opportunity to fund raise while Sailing with friends and family to and in Brazil, and back to Stockholm Sweden between May 2018 and September 2019.

The first cause we will raise funds for during the voyage is for the the non-governmental development organisation Anidan, and specifically for their project in the poor rural district of Lamu in NE Kenya. Founded in 2002 by Rafael Selas, together with his family and friends, Anidan aims to provide for the basic needs of orphans, abandoned children, and those from dysfunctional families in the district. Anidan has a special focus on providing children – currently over 260 of them – with good education and health care, and thereby a chance of a better future.

The children can study from Nursery School onwards and some go on to vocational courses and University. Half of these young people are accommodated at the centre. The Anidan project also includes a pediatric Hospital which has attended more than 70,000 children offering a vital resource in the area ; aditionally it provides support for families in desperate need, and microcredit schemes for entrepreneurial women with no resources.

Lamu is a deprived community, where life expectancy is 7 years lower for men, and 9 years lower for women than the average for Kenya. Kenya itself has a Human development Index of only .519, which puts it 145th in the group of 193 UN Member Countries.

Anidan´s work in Lamu is supported by Rotary Club Stockholm International, and we will be adding to that support directly. See also the RCSI Facebook Page at @SIRotaryClub and their webpage at

For more information about Anidan´s work in Lamu, go to www.anidan.org

We are also working to fund suitable projects to support fishing communities in Asia suffering from the excess of plastic waste and particles ending up in the sea, as well as one to support orphans and disadvantaged young girls from the slums of Brazil to learn to sail and take part in competitions, and will shortly announce what these projects are. You can follow our voyage, and fund-raising activities, on our blog at https://sailingwithsvalen.wordpress.com

and on Facebook at @sailingsvalen

Why am I sailing from Sweden to Brazil and back with family and friends?

Sailing is a way of travelling with low impacts on climate change, I believe that more people from all backgrounds should learn to travel enjoyably and actively in this sustainable way and am keen to promote it.