Hi! I'm Erin. You'll find my photography portfolio here - Erin Ainsley Photography

I’ve been given the opportunity to join the Raleigh International team as Photographer/Volunteer Manager in Tanzania, Africa for 3 months. In June, I’ll be jetting off to Dar Es Salaam and joining the Raleigh field base in Morogoro. There, I’ll be visually documenting various local community/environmental developments and wildlife conservation efforts. 

As apart of my commitment to the team, I’ve been asked to fundraise on behalf of Raleigh International. My target goal is $3000 (CAD) = £ 1936.79. These fund will go towards funding the projects that take place in Tanzania. To help understand the positive impact Raleigh brings to Tanzania and why you should support it, below is some information.

 What does Raleigh International do?

Raleigh Tanzania is working with local project partners to expand access to education, improve health and sanitation facilities and introduce alternative energies to remote communities. Our environment projects will work in national parks and remote rural areas to assist with research on animal migration to protect wildlife and educate local communities on practices to reduce the impact of human and animal conflict. 

What sets Raleigh apart from other charities is their long term relationship with local governments, NGO’s and local communities. Having this partnerships allow team members to  explore land that has yet to be opened to the travelers, and has only been seen a handful of times.

About the Projects

Community Projects - Focused on heath + sanitation (such as eco sanitization units, gravity water feed systems, tribal housing). For the facilities we can take for granted at times, we’ll be developing much needed systems throughout remote rural areas of Dodoma, Babati, Singida, Tabora and Mbulu of Tanzania.

Water

More than 50% of the Tanzanian population do not have access to improved water. Water is often dirty or contaminated and families have to travel miles to access water sources. We’ll be involved in the building of water distribution systems for local communities. This could include laying pipework, installing gravity water feed systems or building rainwater harvesting systems.

Education

The Tanzanian Government is committed to education, although adults in Tanzania have on average only completed 2.7 years of education and schooling is only compulsory for 7 years. Primary education is taught in Kiswahili but when pupils reach secondary school lessons are only taught in English. This results in a high dropout rate for students struggling with the English language. The Tanzanian Ministry of Education has been trialling a program to offer language support to pupils starting at secondary schools. We will be helping to construct and improve facilities used for these extracurricular activities and after school clubs where pupils will be encouraged to use and learn English outside of a lesson environment.

Environmental Projects - Raleigh is involved with various wildlife conservation efforts with local communities. One project example -

Elephant and the Bees

Communities that live in close proximity to elephant migration corridors face frequent damage to their crops and water supplies. To prevent this human and animal conflict we will be building fences using natural deterrents - chilies and beehives! Elephants dislike chillies, and as these plants are a natural product, they are a preferred and affordable method of deterring elephants. Chillies are planted beside the fence and chili oil is used to coat the fencing.

Another elephant deterrent is bees. In this new project, beehives are used to keep the elephants away and the honey produced from the hives offers the community an additional source of income. Raleigh will be working at the edge of the Udzungwa National Park together with our partners at the Udzungwa Elephant Project and TANZAPA. We’ll be maintaining and building fences and hives as well as monitoring elephant activity in the Udzungwa National Park so that the elephant behavior and habits can be better understood.

Adventure Phase - We’ll be visiting some of the most beautiful and untouched areas of Tanzania on the adventure phase. We will be trekking south east of Iringa and North West of the spectacular Kilombera Valley. The trek will consolidate environmental and community issues with the personal development involved in this challenging adventure. Environmentally, we will ensure that no negative footstep behind us and our team. We’ll be self-sufficient, carrying everything we need. We’ll be living in the most basic conditions - hammocks, mosquito nets, camping.

Project Ideas + Outcomes

In addition to documenting the daily progress of each development, I’ll be snapping at least one portrait of a local citizen each day, using my 120mm film camera - Contax 645. Over the duration of my stay (3 months), I’ll create a portfolio of 90+ photographs of local citizens Raleigh has positively affected. Not only is our team there to deliver sustainable hope, progress and change - but these citizens too have something to offer and teach us. This Expedition Photo Book will be an exploration of the citizens and their lifestyles within these remote rural areas that few travelers have seen.

Positive Impact

In 2011, Raleigh team members built -

- 56 sanitation units, 75 eco sanitation units, 20 bio-gas units, 15 gravity-fed water systems, 9 schools, 9 houses, 5 community centers + more

Positively benefiting 10,652 people within the communities we work in

What we need + Where your money is going

As a charity we rely on funding from trusts, individual donors, companies and government to be able to provide bursaries to young people. Your donations will be going towards:

- Bursaries for host country + disadvantaged children

- Specialist kits (medical, leaders, builders) and equipment

- Materials needed for each individual project

- Project Planning

What you get in return

If you support this campaign - no matter how much, I will not only be so grateful, but I have some fun goodies to give out!

$1 - Even donating one dollar, you are making a difference. I’ll send you some digital goodies (iPhone, iPad, Desktop wallpaper) of your choice* and a whole-hearted thank you

$5 - Digital goodies of your choice* and an appreciative thank you

$25 - a postcard + digital goodies of your choice* and a genuine thank you

$50 - a postcard + digital goodies of your choice and resounding thank you

$100 - a set of 3 postcards and a glowing thank you

$250 - 1 print of your choice*, a postcard of your choice* and a gracious thank you

$500 - 2 prints of your choice*, a postcard and a sincere thank you

$1000 - Holy smokes! I can’t thank you enough. You’ll get an Expedition Photo Book (with contribution acknowledgement), 2 prints (up to 16x20) of your choice*, a postcard and of course - a heartfelt personal thank you

*Choices - Any photo you see on my website portfolio - Erin Ainsley Photography

OR any photo from my upcoming Tanzania project - Photo stream will begin in June 2013

Other ways you can help

Don’t have the moo-la to donate? No problem! Just by sharing this campaign page with your friends + family and spreading the great work Raleigh does for developing countries, you’ll making a HUGE difference.

Thank you!

I appreciate you taking the time to visit my campaign page and learning about these inspiring projects.

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