Steve Pearson runs the Marathon for African Revival
May 21, 2012Steve Pearson ran the marathon in an incredible time, raising much support for African Revival. Steve, from Leeds ran the London Marathon in just 4 hours and 48 seconds!!
Thank you for your incredible support Steve!
Sanitation Project update, Zambia
May 15, 2012Preparations are going well at the four schools involved in the 2012 Latrines Project.
African Revival staff already made several visits to Bowwood Community, Inkumbi Basic, Kinnertone Community and Lubombo Basic schools to check on the progress being made by the communities in bringing raw building materials such as hand-made bricks, pit and river sand, crushed stones and water to the sites. We have also been monitoring the digging of the latrine pits, a task that has been made easier by the timing of this project, which coincides with the end of the rainy season when the ground is softer and easier to excavate. This can bring with it, however, other problems, such as water-logged soils.
It is likely that work will begin first at Lubombo Basic School, where the pits are already complete and the community has been diligent and responsive in brining the necessary building materials.
Bowwood and Kinnertone Community Schools are the smallest schools in this project and therefore the communities here can sometimes struggle to respond quickly to requests for local labour and inputs. Nevertheless, African Revival is working together with these schools and their communities to ensure that everything is done to facilitate a timely start and completion of the works scheduled there. Construction was scheduled to begin however delays in the funds reaching the African Revival account in Zambia have meant this has been put back to mid-May. This is also allowing some schools a little extra time to prepare the materials and pits that must be in place before building contractors arrive at the site.
Posted in News | Leave a comment
Steve Blunt’s Car Rally Showcase
May 15, 2012We are delighted to be hosting Steve Blunt’s Car Rally Showcase on the 24th May 2012
One of our great supporters, Steve Blunt, a Senior Partner of Clyde & Co, won the London to Cap Town Car Rally 2012 against tremendous odds. To celebrate and help raise the funds for African Revival, he is holding a car rally showcase @
Brooklands Museum near Weybridge on Thursday 24 May 2012 from 7pm
At the event you will be able to see Steve’s rally car on display and he will be giving a short presentation on his exciting journey.
The event will be held in conjunction with Clyde & Co who have raised £5,000 so far. Each rally car also carried a box of books that were distributed to local schools en route to help start school libraries.
The event will include drinks, canapés, a tour of the Brooklands Museum and an Auction.
The museum also features a world land speed record 24-litre Napier-Railton, various F1 cars, a number of vintage cars and motorcycles and a unique collection of aircraft including Concorde.
About the Rally
After 29 days, driving across 14 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Steve and Bob arrived in Cape Town ahead of the other 45 other cars in the rally to win by 38 seconds! And it wasn’t just the driving that kept them busy; Steve and Bob were offered cheap firearms in Kenya (dismantled to fit in their toolbox of course), they negotiated their way through several armed unofficial road blocks one night in Tanzania, narrowly avoided being caught up in a riot in Egypt and were warned of kidnap threats near the border with Somalia.
By the time they arrived in Cape Town the front brakes of their Subaru were worn through to the metal, both front dampers were leaking, they had a bent steering arm, and the chassis had bent and creased the bodyshell. There was a cracked windscreen (due to body flexing), cracked rear subframe, 2 heavy duty rally wheels were bent and 3 rally tyres badly damaged.
The car was incapable of another competitive mile and had to be pushed into the container for its 4 week trip back to the UK.
In recognition of their achievement Brooklands has asked to display the car in their Museum, in the exact same condition as when it finished the rally, dusty, muddy and carrying the many scars of 10,000 miles including some of the toughest roads in the world.
For more information please contact our fundraiser manager:
RSVP to Mandy@africanrevival.org
Tel: 020 8939 3190
Posted in News | Leave a commentZambia Bike Ride Update
May 15, 2012African Revival is delighted to announce that one of our schools which was visited by the Zambia Bike Ride participants in May 2011 – Lubombo Community School – has recently been accorded the status of “Basic” school by the Kalomo District Education Board!
This is excellent news as it means the facilities at the school are deemed to be of the necessary standard for it to come under the auspices of the Ministry of Education.
This change in status will have a number of positive implications for Lubombo School; it can register as an exam centre, meaning its pupils will no longer have to travel to another school to sit national examinations; the Government is obligated to post trained teachers to the school (provided sufficient accommodation is available); and it can now apply for modest funding from the Ministry of Education to carry out further development of school facilities and structures.
Right now, African Revival is using money raised by the Zambia Bike Ride Challenge 2011 to construct a twin staff house behind the school. When complete, this will provide much-needed accommodation for 2 teachers and their families. Other projects completed at Lubombo in the last 2 years include the drilling of a school borehole and construction of 4 double Ventilated Improved Pit latrines.