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.
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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.
Akanyo Primary School Update
March 27, 2012In January we were delighted to receive support from a foundation to build a girls washroom and deliver training for the girls at Akanyo primary school.
This project will have a direct impact on the girls at this rural school as they will be able to manage their menstruation with dignity, and will be able to increase their attendance at school.
We are pleased to report that this project is running to schedule. The construction of the girls’ washroom is due to be completed this week. The only jobs now remaining are to plaster the walls and cement the floor.
The workshop is due to be delivered to the girls of Akanyo Primary School on the 30th March 2012, in time for the opening of their new washroom.
We have already placed our order with Afripads for the re-usable sanitary products; these will be distributed to the girls as part of their workshop.
Kasizi School
March 9, 2012Zambia Bike Ride Funds 5 New Classrooms at Kasizi Basic School
African Revival is no stranger to Kasizi Basic School. Back in 2010, we built 2 staff houses in the school grounds and these have since helped to attract new and better teachers to the school as well as increasing the retention of existing staff who now have adequate and comfortable on-site accommodation.
The old classroom block
The new Block
Following the enormous success of the 2011 Zambia Bike Ride Challenge, African Revival has been able to fund more work at Kasizi – namely the completion of a triple classroom block and the renovation of another double block. The double block in particular was in a shocking state of disrepair and had to be almost completely demolished and rebuilt. The completion of these 5 classrooms and 2 offices means that there are now 8 classrooms at the school, which is almost enough for the schools 9 year groups.
London to Cape Town Rally
March 9, 2012African Revival is delighted that Steve Blunt chose to support African Revival as part of his incredible journey in the London to Cape Town Car Rally. Not only has Steve shown us amazing personal support, but his generosity sparked interest in our work from the Rally as a whole.
Steve and the rally have already raised over £12,000 for our work with primary school children in sub Saharan Africa. We would like to congratulate Steve on his win, and thank all of those who have donated. Thanks to this support we can transform the lives of thousands of children in remote parts of Zambia, Northern Uganda and South Sudan.
Steve and his co-driver Bob Duck stormed to victory in the rally. The pair left London’s Parliament Square on January 1 and enjoyed a champagne finish in Cape Town on January 29, after completing 10,000 miles through 14 countries.
Steve said: “The event was a fantastic experience, visiting some amazing places yet being one of the most arduous marathon motorsport events ever devised since the 1960s.”
“It was a privilege just to take part in such an historic event. The fact that we won it is still sinking in.”
Steve and Bob drove a Subaru Impreza 2.0 standard saloon – bought from ebay for just over £3,000 – one of the cheapest in the race.
From the UK, the teams were taken across Europe before taking a ferry from Greece to North Africa. They then drove through Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. Drivers then crossed Namibia into South Africa and finished in Cape Town on January 29.
Posted in News | Leave a commentLubombo School
March 5, 2012African Revival is delighted to announce that one of the schools with which we are currently working and which was visited by the Zambia Bike Ride Challenge 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 that the facilities at the school are of a good enough standard to come under the auspices of the Ministry of Education. This change in status will have a number of positive outcomes 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)
– It may 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 (below left). When complete, this will provide much-needed accommodation for 2 teachers and their families.
Uganda Bike Ride 2013 part 5
February 13, 2012Monday 11 February 2013
Luwero to Ziwa
We are getting used to these early starts. 5.30 alarm as usual.
Today, we are to cycle over 100 kilometres to the Ziwa Rhino sanctuary, most of it along a good tarred road, boasting an adequate cycle track along its sides. The road takes us roughly in a north north westerly direction, with an arrow straight directness, no respect paid by its engineers to the undulating countryside. The bicycle bungee is soon back in service.
Although still early, just after 7, we pass many children also using the cycle track on their way to school, as we process out of Luwero. They have their school day on their minds, but still have time to greet this strange band of foreigners. The towing arrangement is a particular source of hilarity amongst them.
After being jogged and rattled about all day yesterday on the dirt track, it is good to have the feel of a metalled road under our wheels. But the downside is that we have to compete for road space with sundry vehicles exhibiting a variety of driving styles. The message emblazoned on one coach “BELIEVE IN DIVINE INTERVENTION” was more an instruction to other road users than a call to faith.
As we leave Luwero behind us, the homesteads along the roadside begin to fade out, and the small farming plots attached to them give way to swamp and marshland, conifer forests, and open savannah. Apart from the conifer forests, a rather surprising feature, there is no sign of cultivation on any commercial scale despite the availability of good, fertile land to support it.
By lunchtime, we cover over 60 kilometres of the day’s journey in three stages.The shade of a conifer forest gives us a welcome respite from the heat of the day. In everyone’s mind is the vision of our road, stretching in a seemingly interminable line to the horizon, as it reveals itself to us over every summit we climb. But we take comfort from the knowledge that two third’s of the journey is behind us, and we are making very good time.
After the lunch stop we continue through countryside that has now become more arid, but still supports plenty of vegetation. The odd little homestead, hidden away in the bush along side the road, is the only sign of human habitation here. There is a prohibition on building within 10 metres of the road, signed by white posts marked “UNRA”, the national road authority, and the houses are mostly hidden behind brush.
The last 40 kilometres we spend on this road passes relatively quickly, the team linking up in a series of pelatons that makes the ride less daunting, psychologically and physically, for everyone. In a rather bedraggled village, we take a left turn down a dirt track and, after a brief stop, finish the day’s journey in the rhino sanctuary. We see no signs of the principal guests as we struggle along the sandy path that eventually brings us to the Lodge, and plentiful supplies of well earned liquid refreshment.
We arrive before 4.00 pm, giving us time to look around the Lodge area, where several golden crested cranes, Uganda’s national symbol, are in residence. There is even a semi tame waterbuck, and a duiker, which both seem relatively unmoved by our presence. We celebrate the day’s achievements with a braai on the terrace of the Lodge. After a warning from the Warden to look out for rhino wandering about and some instruction on what we can see in the night sky from Henk, and momentary confusion of profuse fire fly traffic with a possible meteor storm. we make our way back to our rooms for the night.
Day 3: Distance covered 106 kilometres. Total ascent 625m. Maximum temperature (in full sun) 49C.
Thanks to Glen and William for the update
Hampton Hill Christmas Parade
January 9, 2012This years Christmas Parade was a great success. Accompanied by the Hampton Hill Traders Association, 1st Express, Shooting Star, the Hampton Hill Cricket Club and many more, including the Scouts and dogs in fancy dress, African Revival enjoyed a fantastic night on the 43rd parade of this kind.
With support from the iconic Sean Blowers of BBC’s London’s Burning and the amazing African drummer Steven Kasamba of ACDArts.com, African Revival drew attention from thousands of onlookers as they mastered the Santa Conga.
The Parade was led by the wonderfully talented drummer, Steven Kasamba of ACD Arts, and the fantastically passionate local celebrity, Mr Sean Blowers
African Revival dressed for Christmas
The Elfs