This coming Saturday my daughter, Claire, is jumping from 15,000 ft in a tandem parachute for charity.
The whole mad idea stemmed from her experience last summer spent in Tanzania, doing voluntary work for an organization called "Light In Africa". Its a registered not for profit organization (NGO) which cares for sick, abandoned and handicapped children and other unsupported people in Africa, and depends entirely on unsollicited gifts, with care & rescue programs depending on volunteers.
She began last summer by climbing the hellish 20,000ft of Mt. Kilimanjaro, and now she aims to fall 15,000ft from a plane on 21st March, i.e. very soon! She hadn't expected to be doing this so quickly - so now she has to raise £400, and fast!
What's it all for? - The money raised will go towards funding a £10,000 Land Rover for the Light in Africa team that she was part of, mainly to carry on outreach work in Mererani. The outlying townships have virtually no support or medical help, and the only help available to impoverished & often diseased families are the rapid (often night time) excursions in a fairly ancient & overloaded Land Rover. These 4x4 excursions access the remote Maasai and tribal villages, and provide vital medical and social support for those with problems such as HIV, Malaria, malnutrition and icky tropical ulcers.
Claire suggested appealing to TIPEC - since this appeal is all about cars! ie getting reliable, fast 4x4 vehicles into the villages. Previously, Land Rovers have been rented, and trips made to provide food kitchens, and medical outreach centres. Trips last summer involved vehicle swapping several times, loaded with medical supplies, babies, food, volunteers and an entire medical team, nevermind Maasai guards and Secretary the of Health! Mererani is a dangerous place, and with rented vehicles it involves the risk of being stranded, or being dropped off and waiting for the only LIA 4x4 to arrive!
This is Claire returning to the orphanage in the Land Rover with an abandoned child from one of the townships.
Typical village ...
Food kitchen ...
Another successful rescue trip ...
This is what its all about ....
And here's a link to the Charity "Light in Africa": http://www.lightinafrica.org/home.html
"We can keep collecting until 4 weeks after the skydive but that still isn’t long, and we need £200 each by the day! Depending
on how much I raise, some money will go directly go to our KAOS account to be taken over to Tanzaia this summer with our new set of up to 90 volunteers throughout summer"
"Even if its just because you fancy paying to see me plummet towards earth at high speed, donations would be much appreciated.
I'm petrified!!"
Thanks, Claire Simpson
Please PM me with any offers of sponsorship - everything goes towards getting this Land Rover. Just a fiver will do ....
Many thanks,
Rich Simpson
Ps - I'm afraid I've been quiet on the Porsche front - still have my 944 T Cab, but for health & work reasons am now based in Brittany for 6-9 months of the year. When settled in, hope to plan a few drives over here - fantastic roads...