THE GOAL
Throughout this trip we wish to bring awareness to a few issues: Our fundraising focus will be on the wellbeing of humans and other animals.
We have carefully chosen 2 causes to, in the hope that this trip will not only bring us joy and adventure but that it will also bring joy to, and reduce the suffering of those less fortunate than us.
The GoFundMe campaign we have started will financially support our trip as well as these 2 charities. We have calculated a budget for our trip, and so we wish to raise this amount, plus equal amounts for each of the charities. For the 2 of us for 15 months of bicycle and camping travel, we have calculated that we will need 9.000 Euros for our daily living expenses. In Europe we are budgetting 10-15 Euros/ person/ day, and in Africa 5-10 Euros/ person/ day. Our fixed upfront costs such as our bicycles, gear, and insurance will be covered by the money that we are personally saving. More on finances in a future blog post.
We are splitting all money raised equally between our living expenses, and the 2 amazing charities we are supporting; The Humane League and the Prince Albert Skills School (PASS).
Therefore, we have set the GoFundMe goal to 27.000 Euros (9000 Euros x 3). If (and hopefully when) we surpass this goal, all subsequent funding will go directly to the 2 charities, and no longer towards any of our living expenses.
Donations to Date:
85 donations over 12 months
20.875 Euros of 27.000 Euro goal (2/3 of the way there!)
THE CHARITIES:
1)
PASS is a project located in Prince Albert, in the Great Karoo, South Africa. We grew up in this small town and have a personal connection to the community. The focus of PASS is to provide its learners (who are often living on the streets, have dropped out of formal schooling and/or come from households that have a variety of socio-economic problems) with a safe learning environment, psychological and emotional support, and to equip them with life skills and technical skills.
These assist them in becoming confident, economically active citizens.
Currently, the learners at PASS are boys between the ages of 12 and 20. PASS is in the process of opening a new school for girls, and so funding is needed for this project. Your donation will also support ongoing costs such as teacher's salaries, food, materials and equipment for both schools.
See this video for a short introduction to the project, or their Instagram page.
2)
We believe that the exploitation of animals for their body parts & by-products and the unimaginable suffering this brings is one of the most senseless and unnecessary atrocities that exists on Earth right now.
The Humane League's work has been recognised for it's public accountability and effectiveness with multiple awards. They focus on decreasing suffering in the animal agriculture industry through highly effective corporate campaigning (particularly through cage-free campaigns). We want our trip to have a positive impact not only on humans but also on the non-human animals we share this planet with.
This charity is highly transparent as to the per-dollar impact donations make.
Other ways to help
Connections, connections, connections!
If you have any recommendations or people you know along our route, interesting projects, sight seeing tips, places to stay etc let us know :)
Tips on where to camp, wild camping, local connections, beautiful detours, helpful shortcuts.
Share our website, social media, or gofundme pages with your friends and family, or whoever you think could be interested.
Give us feedback, tell us what you think, what you'd like to see more of, less of etc. We are new to this, and so any help is greatly appreciated in this respect!