A 1200km cycling challenge from Nakuru to Dar Es Salaam to raise vital funds for education in Kenya.

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THE START OF AN ADVENTUREIn 2007, I travelled to Kenya for the first time to volunteer with a football team in a town called Nakuru. The team comprised primarily young men who lived in a slum community on the perimeter of the city’s huge dumpsite. The smell was foul and overpowering but most residents lived there because they simply had nowhere else to go.

Most players from the football team were unemployed and had not been to high school, so their chances of securing any form of regular employment were low. Alcoholism, substance abuse, HIV, food security and poor health were just some of the problems faced by an inspiringly resilient community that couldn’t help but make a fresh-faced 18-year-old like me understand what real life challenges actually meant.

Before football training each day, I volunteered at a community project, set up by Alex and Patricia Maina, called The Walk Centre. The project provided a free education and lunchtime meal

for approximately 60 children aged 3-6 who, like the football team, were born at, and lived on, the nearby dumpsite.

Primary education in Kenya is free at the point of entry but supplementary costs mean that hundreds of thousands of children still do not receive the most basic level of schooling. It was estimated that only 40% of young people in the community went to school. Alex and Patricia set up The Walk Centre to help change that. Children who would otherwise spend their days on the dumpsite could go to school in a safe environment, free from some of the inevitable dangers at the slum.

I was only in Nakuru for six weeks but my experience left me with a desire to want to do more. As it turns out, those six weeks were just the beginning of what has been a pretty exciting, albeit challenging, journey so far…

Dan Mew

"Training is underway and we know already how tough The Big Bike Ride is going to be but it’s for a fantastic cause and we can’t wait to get going."

Dan Mew, Chairperson, African Adventures Foundation

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THE WALK CENTREIn 2009, Dan set up African Adventures, a volunteer travel organisation that today supports 27 community projects across Africa and provides life-changing opportunities to thousands of people in the UK and vital support to 20,000 children in Africa. The company’s official charity, African Adventures Foundation, is funded by the company, meaning that our partner projects receive 100% of all donations.

By 2015, with support from African Adventures Foundation, former volunteers and donors, The Walk Centre was educating 140 children every day. In addition to providing the children with a free breakfast and lunch, The Walk Centre was delivering a quality education which saw it outperform some local government schools.

However, children continued to leave The Walk Centre at the age of eight in search of a full primary education; with the same prohibitive costs still proving to be a barrier to entry. The Walk covers these costs for some students but cannot cater for everyone, meaning dozens of children are still dropping out of school at just eight years old.

During the summer of 2015, African Adventures Foundation and Chichester College, one of our longest-standing partners, embarked on a challenging project. The objective: to fundraise the £75,000 required to build a primary school on The Walk Centre's site that would allow every child in the community a free primary school education.

Since then, we have already raised £50,000 and the first half of the school has been built.

This year, on the 10th anniversary of Dan’s first trip to Kenya, he and five teammates are going to cycle over 1200km in a bid to raise enough money to complete The Walk Centre primary school’s construction. They set off from Nakuru and finish in Dar es Salaam in neighbouring Tanzania, where African Adventures also supports similar initiatives. If the fundraising drive is successful, The Walk Centre primary school will fully open for the next academic year and 250 children will be able to receive the education they deserve.

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WHY WE NEED YOUR SUPPORTThe Big Build is an exciting and ambitious project to build a new primary school for The Walk Centre, to allow children who have completed their pre-primary education at the age of eight to continue with their schooling. It is the biggest fundraising challenge that African Adventures has ever taken on, with over £50,000 already raised, meaning the build is well underway and just needs the remaining £25,000 to ensure completion this summer.

At this point, funds are in place to finish the ground floor level and to lay the slab needed for the building to progress to the first floor, work on which will commence in April. With fundraising projections in place to provide the necessary funds, the hope is that the whole school will be completed and ready to open shortly after the Big Bike Ride takes place, providing opportunity for many children that simply did not exist before.

“Chichester College students have been volunteering at The Walk Centre since 2011 and we know the amazing impact it has had on the Hilton area.”

Lisa Humphries, Student Experience Manager, Chichester College

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THE CHALLENGEThe Big Bike Ride kicks off on Sunday 6th August 2017, beginning in Nakuru, in the heart of Kenya’s beautiful Rift Valley.

The team will have to cope with challenging terrain, poor road conditions and unpredictable weather at the tail-end of Kenya’s rainy season, in order to finish the ride by Wednesday 16th August.

The route will take the team through the southern tip of the famous Rift Valley and towards the bustling capital, Nairobi, before heading south towards the cosmopolitan town of Namanga, on the border with neighbouring Tanzania.

Calmer terrain awaits in Arusha before the gravelly foothills of the world-famous Mount Kilimanjaro in Moshi. There will be little time to admire the views though, as the cycle quickly moves on to the Mombo area of Korogwe.

The final leg will see the team head to the shores of the Indian Ocean in Tanga, before pedalling down the home stretch through the rural Pwani Region and, ultimately, reaching Tanzania’s most populous city, and the finishing line, Dar es Salaam.

“Patricia and I could not live in a place where there is no future for children, so we wanted to do everything we can to change lives. We are so proud of what we have been able to do so far, even if it may seem modest. We are dreaming big

because we know what we are able to achieve together.”

Alex Maina, East Africa Director

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Stage 2 - 65 miles

Stage 1 - 44 miles

Stage 3 - 51 miles

Stage 4 - 54 miles

Stage 5 - 68 miles

Stage 6 - 50 miles

Stage 7 - 67 miles

Stage 8 - 79 miles

Stage 9 - 67 miles

Stage 10 - 92 miles

Stage 11 - 63 miles

Total - 700 miles

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HOW YOU CAN SUPPORTWe are writing to you to ask for your help in making this vision a reality by contributing towards the cost of the school’s build and changing the future for generations of Kenyans living in the Rift Valley.

OFFICIAL KIT TIER Donation: £500 (6 available)

In return: Your organisation’s logo will feature on one of The Big Bike Ride team’s official kit.

MEDIA TIER Donation: £1,000 (5 available)

In return: Your logo will appear on banners used for photocalls and in media coverage both in the UK and Africa before, during and after the event.

CLASSROOM TIER Donation: £3,500 (5 available)

In return: Everything included in the MEDIA TIER, plus the classroom will be named after your chosen individual/organisation.

SCHOOL HALL TIER Donation: £5,000 (1 available)

In return: Everything included in the MEDIA TIER, plus the school hall will be named after your chosen individual/organisation.

YOUR LOGO HERE

YOUR LOGO HERE

Eric Mwangi was one of the first students to attend The Walk Centre when it started in 2004. He was a shining light in his class, achieving strong academic results. This led to him being one of the fortunate students to go on to primary school and then high school, fees for which were met by The Walk Centre.

In 2014, Eric enrolled on a course at Nairobi University to study engineering. This would have seemed like an impossible dream for him and his family before he started at The Walk Centre.

To acknowledge the contribution that The Walk Centre has had on his own life, Eric spends his summers at the school, volunteering as a teacher to give back to the project that has ensured his life will never be confined to the Hilton dumpsite.

ONE REASON TO HELP: ERIC MWANGI

“I first attended The Walk Centre in 2005 and, thanks to Alex and Patricia, I received a full education. I now study

engineering at Nairobi University. They have given me a life.”

Eric Mwangi, former Walk Centre student

A better equipped Walk Centre will mean more stories like Eric’s. More students will go on to high school and more students will study at college and university, which will increase the number of people going on to become Kenya’s next generation of engineers, teachers, doctors, nurses and entrepreneurs.

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