UPDATE: Well, I finally made it to the top of Mulanje Massif (3,002m)!!! Thanks to everyone who helped out along the way - we raised over 1,500 British Pounds (or $2,500 CDN) for RIPPLE Africa.  If you'd like to see how the journey through South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, and Rwanda is going, please visit my travel blog at: http://www.africaphil.tumblr.com.  See you back in Canada in mid-October!

_Phil

 

 

Hello and welcome to my charity page!

As some of you know, I am heading to Africa (South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, and possibly Uganda) for 4 months starting in mid-June.  My great friend Jodi Hammond has inspired me to join her second volunteering journey to Africa in order to fund and implement two great environmental / awareness projects for RIPPLE Africa (www.rippleafrica.org), a UK founded organization initiating environmental, educational, health care, and economic projects in the Nkhata Bay region of central Malawi.

In an effort to Raise Funds for RIPPLE Africa, we've also decided to trek for 5 days onto Malawi's Mount Mulanje (Africa's highest mountain South of Kilimanjaro: http://www.tribes.co.uk/regions/mountains/mount_mulanje).

 

The issue: The main environmental challenges facing Malawi are deforestation and soil erosion, which result from a rapidly growing population and increasing pressures on the land - the vast majority of Malawians live without electricity and therefore the use of wood as a source of fuel is very high.  In the mid-1970s Malawi's forest cover was 4.4 million hectares; it is now fewer than two million, with over 50,000 hectares being cleared each year.  Although some replanting is taking place, at this current unsustainable rate, the woodlands and forests will eventually disappear.  With the disappearance of these forests, the existence of the many magnificent animals of Africa will continue to decline. The people of Malawi also suffer from an inability to keep up with the fuel demands to cook their food, and the relative inefficiency of current interior heating and cooking methods continues to create respiratory problems for a large percentage of the population.

 

Initiatives:

These are the two projects that we are hoping to fund with your help:

Tree Nurseries: http://www.rippleafrica.org/ripple_funding_trees_update2006.htm

Fuel-Efficient Stove: http://www.rippleafrica.org/ripple_charity_environ3.htm

Tackling deforestation, improving agricultural practices, and jump-starting a fuel-efficient wood stove project is a triple-threat approach to reducing poverty and lessening our impact on our dear old Mother Earth.

 

Our Goal:  To completely fund new community tree nursery projects in Nkhata Bay, Malawi.  These nurseries will grow approx. 10,000 trees per year!  The total funding required for one tree nursery is $1,500US.

It would mean a lot to me if you can help out by donating any amount to this cause.  If you know of anyone else who would be interested, please pass this information along to them as well.  Thank you so much for your generosity!

Phil

p.s. If you would also like to donate on Jodi's page, click here: http://www.justgiving.com/Jodi-Trekking-Mulanje-2010.