Current and Past Trips

2011

St Dunstan’s College , Sinai School Classroom Build, Tanzania  - October 2011

Summary: 
In October  2011, thirteen students and two teaching staff from St Dunstan’s College travelled to Tanzania in two teams to work with the Sinai community. 

The students and teachers worked with the community to build a school classroom for Sinai Primary Schools. They also spent time with the local community, Girl Guides group and building team living alongside the community and learning more about their lives and the issues and challenges they face.

Achievements: 
The team raised in excess of £9,000 to fund the building of the classroom. They choose to time their trip to ensure they were able to work alongside the skilled local fundi team to help them with the bulk of the construction work – bricklaying, flooring and plastering – but have also funded the completion of the classroom including roofing and painting of the final classroom. 

How this will make a difference: 
Providing better educational facilities for the children of Sinai will give them a better chance to make their own way out of poverty. By expanding the number of classrooms class sizes are reduced and the quality of teaching will immediately improve.

Tonbridge Grammar School, Shewula Library and Education Project, Swaziland  - July & August 2011

Summary: 

In July and August 2011, thirty-five girls and 4 teaching staff from Tonbridge Grammar School travelled to Swaziland in two teams to work with the Shewula community. 

Each team of students and teachers worked with the community to build a school library for one of the formal Primary Schools. They also worked with local Swazi Game Rangers to set-up and run environmental education sessions where the children of Shewula visited the game reserves and took part in an educational ‘Children’s Bush Camp Day’.

Achievements: 

The girls raised in excess of £8,000 to fund the building of the library and running of the environmental education days. The team used their surplus funds to put towards the Shewula Orphan Care Programme sponsorship programme which enables vulnerable young people in Shewula to attend the Formal Primary School. They also allocated funds to provide equipment and educational resources for the local Informal School. 

The students from Tonbridge used the hours they spent fundraising and working on the Swazi community project towards their CAS hours for the International Baccalaureate. 

How this will make a difference: 

Providing better educational facilities for the children of Shewula will give each of the children a better chance to receive the education and support they deserve –which, in turn, can offer them the chance to make their own way out of poverty. Running the environmental education days will help the local children to learn more about the importance of the native wildlife, so they can grow up wanting to protect it, rather than poach it.

Hurstpierpoint College, Chilingani Village, July 2011

 Summary:

July 2010 saw the start of a long-term partnership between Hurstpierpoint College and Chilingani Village in Malawi. Hurst has committed to partner with the Chilingani community over the next few years to help them improve the educational and community infrastructure in their village.  

Achievements:

Last year Hurst raised in excess of £10,000 to fund the first classroom and foundations of the second classroom. This year, after raising over £5,000, 11 students and two teachers led by two Leaders from trip provider, Inspire Worldwide, spent two weeks in Malawi completing the building work for the second classroom.

How this will make a difference:

The classrooms will benefit the community by meaning year 5 pupils will not have to walk the 10km to another school but can continue their education in Chilingani.

2010

This Autumn we worked with 4 groups all of whom raised very generous donations for their partner charities in addition to their trip costs.

Scott Wilson Millennium Project (SWMP)

The charity arm of Scott Wilson Ltd focuses on providing better facilities for children in the developing world.

Having worked previously with Inspire's Director, Beth Chapman, on a project in Mozambique, SWMP were keen to expand their impact and help another of Inspire's charity partners.

This time they chose to work with Excellent Development in Kenya - on a project which fit in very well with their engineering expertise, as well as the aims of the SWMP charity. The team of 17 employees spent 2 weeks in southern Kenya constructing a sand dam that will now provide a year round supply of clean water to over 1,000 people from the Kibwezi district.

The team did not just stop at one dam though - they also provided funding to support the entire community group for 12 months through terracing, trees and seeds to help them become self-sufficient.

The team took a well-deserved safari break to Amboseli National Park after their project. 

Friends of the Charities Commission

A team of 13 friends and family from the Charities Commission spent 2 weeks on our project site in Malawi.

Their aim was to construct a kitchen and toilet for the Mkanamwano Community Group - who were desperately in need of better facilities to help provide the one meal a day to the orphaned and vulnerable children of the area.

The group raised a fantastic sum of over £4,000 for their project - which not only covered all the costs of the kitchen but is now helping to support the community and children over the long-term through funding for education and food.

Leighton Park School

Leighton Park wanted to encourage their International Baccaleureate students to really do something different to achieve the Creativity, Action and Service section of the IB. Inspire worked closely with them to design and manage two trips  - one to Uganda and one to Malawi, to ensure the students ticked off all the boxes for their CAS.

In Uganda the students worked with one of Leighton Park's school charities, the Bujagali trust - to help provide sport and arts sessions to local students. In Malawi the students worked with Inspire's partner, Joshua Orphan and Community Care to construct a small kitchen and income-generation project for the local youth group. Both teams finished off their trips with a 2 day safari.

Summer Teams 2010

RBS funded clinic finally opens it's doors!

In June we were joined by a group of friends and family from the Royal Bank of Scotland who spent 2 weeks in Malawi continuing their support and work for the Pensulo Clinic. It was the final push to finish this 2 year project - which has seen an amazing amount of dedication, time and donations from the Bank and it's employees. However, it has all been worth it and in July 2010 the Pensulo Maternity Clinic opened it's doors to it's first patients. 

The clinic has been desperately needed, and we predict that over 40,000+ members of the Pensulo community and surrounding areas will now be using the clinic. Previously, pregnant mothers had to walk between 5-15km to get basic hospital treatment - resulting in many fatalities.

The clinic is now seeing between 80-120 patients and delivering 1-2 babies every single day. Thank you to all the support from our teams and especially the Royal Bank of Scotland staff who have donated over £80,000 in total to make this project happen.

First Hurstpierpoint College trip is a resounding success

This July also saw the start of what we hope will be a long-term partnership between Sussex-based Hurstpierpoint College and Chilingani Village in Malawi.

Hurst has committed to partner with the Chilingani community over the next 3-5 years to help them improve the educational and community infrastructure in their village. After raising over £10,000, this summer 16 students and 2 teachers from Hurst spent 3 weeks in Malawi, building an entire classroom for the Chilingani School.

The students had an amazing time living and working alongside the local community and it truly has been a life-changing experience for them. The people they met will become friends and this partnership looks set to go from strength to strength. You can read more about their trip by clicking here.

Georgiana Bruce Kirby school return to Tanzania

This summer we also worked again with the California-based GBK team - led by Marianne and Don Stoll. This project continues to support the Bacho community in northern Tanzania and we are incredibly proud to be working with Marianne and Don again, to help them take out friends and supporters to work with the local community. 

 

Marianne and Don have now set up their own charity, Karimu International, to help fundraise and support the Bacho community and have been incredibly successful in raising thousands of dollars to help provide classrooms, staff housing and latrines.

This summer the group also ran several highly successful educational sessions on malaria awareness, clean water and health and hygiene. We look forward to working with them again next summer with what will be their 4th team to Tanzania.

2009

Our fantastic partners in 2009 included:

Georgiana Bruce Kirby School 

Tanzania Ufani School project - June 2009
Marianne and Don Kent-Stoll are an amazing couple. Both are teachers from the Georgiana Bruce Kirby School in California who after visiting Tanzania in 2007 decided that they wanted to take action and give their students the opportunity to take part in a 'hands-on' volunteer project in Africa. Marianne and Don passionately agree with Inspire that volunteering can give young people a life changing experience that can hopefully shape their lives and future careers.

They also wanted to create an on-going partnership, not just run a one-off trip. In 2008 the students successfully fundraised over £20,000 to pay for the construction and renovations of an entire classroom block at Ufani School in Dareda, Tanzania.  The trip was so successful that a second trip was planned for 2009 and further funds have now been raised to build staff houses and more classrooms.

In 2009 31 students, teachers and parents from Georgiana Bruce Kirby School visited the Ufani community in June. Their team spent 10 days working alongside local skilled builders and members of the community to complete more classrooms blocks and run English conversation classes and HIV/AIDS awareness sessions (following training). After the hard work the group headed off on safari for 2 days to Ngorogoro Crater, Tarangire and Lake Manyara. Feedback from the trip was 100% positive with students saying it was "Enlightening", "Fantastic", "Incredibly fulfilling" & "Excellent, wonderful - a once in a lifetime experience!".

Inspire would like to thank Marianne, Don and the whole Georgiana Bruce Kirby School team for their incredible enthusiasm and fundraising efforts. We hope that this long-term partnership between California and Tanzania will continue for many years to come.

Inspire would also like to thank the Livingstone Tanzania Trust (www.livingstonetanzaniatrust.com) for their help in facilitating this relationship and for acting as development consultants.

Cambridgeshire County Council, Pink Pandas Youth Group

Swaziland Conservation and Community Project + D of E Expedition – July 2009

The Pink Pandas Youth Group are a unique team of nine girls who decided that they wanted not only to fundraise for a needy cause in Africa, but to actually go out there and see how there money was being spent.

The group completed their GCSEs this year as well as working doubley-hard to fundraise over £5,000 for their project, plus all their expenses to take on their Swaziland adventure.

The team spent 2 weeks working alongside Inspire’s partners, the Shewula Community and did an amazing job! They renovated a library for the HIV/AIDS orphans as well as holding informal english conversation classes and running a day-long envrionmental education session for children from the community in one of the neighboouring game reserves .

After their hard work in the community the group pushed themselves to the limit - white water rafting, horse-riding and going on a Big Five safari, before the ultimate finale – a 3 day trek through the stunning gorges and mountains of Swaziland which saw them gain accreditation for their Silver Duke of Edinburgh award.

Inspire have been delighted to work with the Pink Pandas and have been very impressed by the dedication and dynamism they have showed to fundraise for their trip.

The Pink Pandas should be a true inspiration for anyone who is nervous about fundraising -  this group have shown just what can be achieved through hard-work, dedication and a little imagination!

Keynsham Explorer Scout Unit

Malawi Orphan & Community Project + Safari – July/August 2009

Scout Leader Ian Carter approached Inspire after hearing about the amazing work carried out by the RBS on our project in Malawi. He was keen to find out how his group of scouts could be involved in a similar project.

The Scout Group raised substantial funds for their project work and copious amounts of other donations from pencils and rulers to books and clothes for our project partners in Malawi. In late July 2009 45 of their Unit travelled to Malawi for 2 weeks to develop their team-building skills and see exactly how their hard-work and donations would make a difference.

The team worked incredibly hard with the community and local builders to complete a shelter for family members who are caring for visitors in the community clinic, as well as renovating two classrooms at Milo Primary school and building a kitchen at Mbinda Primary School.

A key part of this trip was also to give the Scout Unit an opportunity to meet some of our Malawian partners who are a similar age to the team and Mary Bolowezi who runs the Youth Group for our partner charity in Malawi, certainly provided this! Every day a group of the scouts would spend time with the local Youth Group - carrying out repairs to the homes of elderly people in the community, followed by a fun session of football, volleyball, african drumming and music.

After their amazing work the Scouts enjoyed a well-deserved 2 day safari to Liwonde National Park where they saw elephants, hippos, fish eagles and an abundance of African game.

Inspire hope this will be the start of an on-going partnership between Keynsham Scouts and our partners in Malawi. Mary is already meeting with the Scouts Association in Malawi to try and set up a Scout Group in Pensulo and we hope this opportunity for the community will flourish.