A note from Sean Keener, BootsnAll Co-founder: Alastair Humphreys is an old friend of BootsnAll. He sent us these dispatches as he cycled around the world. In 2004 he came through Portland, stayed with us for a few days, and we hosted an event at our office to help him raise money along the way. He kept going, and he has done so much more since.
My expedition itself is entirely self-financing; every penny I raise in donations will go directly to Hope and Homes for Children to support their outstanding work.
Hope and Homes for Children is a charity dedicated to providing a family and a future for young victims of war and disaster. It has provided family homes for over 1,200 children in 10 countries around the world, including Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Eritrea, Romania, Belarus, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Ukraine, and Mozambique.
Over the coming year Hope and Homes for Children will, among other areas, be active:
In Rwanda, working with AVEGA, an association of widows who came together to support each other following the genocide in 1994. Many orphaned children in Rwanda saw parents killed in the genocide or subsequently through AIDS-related illnesses.
In South Africa, assisting four grass roots projects in some of the poorest parts of the country, particularly providing support for foster families or extended families caring for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.
In Kosovo, providing three small family homes for babies who have been abandoned in the maternity wards of the major hospitals.
I hope that my journey will help to raise the profile of HHC and to inspire people to make a donation to this extremely worthwhile cause.
How your donation can help the children:
£25 can pay for the books in a home.
£50 can help to find a child's parents, and reunite them.
£350 can help the poor relatives of an orphan child to care and educate that child for a year.
£1000: a plaque can be placed in each home to commemorate the people who have generously raised £1000 or more (perhaps your school, club, company etc)
£10,000 can provide a family home for 8-12 children
Please e-mail HHC@hopeandhomes.org for more information.
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Where to find Alastair now
Start at alastairhumphreys.com. His books, newsletter and podcast are all there.
Alastair turned this ride into two books: Moods of Future Joys, from England to Cape Town, and Thunder and Sunshine, the long way home from Patagonia. There is a version for younger readers too, The Boy Who Biked the World.
He has written many more since, including Microadventures, Grand Adventures, My Midsummer Morning, The Doorstep Mile and Local.