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With Joseph, the secretary of the Lakeland Youth Group the wonderful hosts at Uhundha, Priscah and Charles with the volunteer teachers at the Orphan Center, Phoebe and Pamella John and David

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AVIF is an innovative online charity, assisting with sustainable development via online & onsite volunteering in rural Kenya, East Africa. We work with partner communities in the Brazilian Amazon and Tibet too. Being virtual means negligible administration costs for worldwide impact. We believe in efficiency, honesty and transparency. WE DON'T CHARGE FEES.

simong storm kenya

 

 

 

 

 

[Panorama shot above by Simon Gardner, a volunteer, taken minutes before the storm hit him while cycling through Kenya on the Tour d'Afrique. His full journal and pictures are here].

This is the spirit of volunteering; Ben & Jason with friends raising money in the week-long Mannequin Challenge which raised over £15,000 for St Michaels Hospice in Harrogate. Incredible vocals by Annie Drury.

 

 

A New Year & already New Results

Written by Alison | 01 January 2012

Diego just sent pictures of the finished ponte <bridge> at Viviane's house (on left). After visiting Combu Island with Amazonart in October Viviane and her mother 'Nena' incredibly accommodated us in their home on the river. There are many different memories from the trip but what stands out to me are always the real and actual changes made. Meeting people and networking is important but only a certain percentage of people around the world “make change”. In our joint project with AmazonArt we really did. There is so much commitment from this young team and their obvious passion for Music is the medium they use to make change, especially here at the Combú Island School which is only a few hundred metres downriver from Vivianes house.

I was invited to stay in the house of Izete dos Santos Costa, lovingly known as Nena, thanks to the thoughts of the fabulous Diego Carneiro who "thought I might like to" !!. Nena works at the islands only medical centre and was only too happy to offer her home to Alex, from Travel2Change (sponsors of the trip) myself and Felipe, from Amazonart. Nena and her daughter, Viviane, talked openly (via our awesome translator, Felipe) about how they were now living alone. Nena had lost her husband to a snake bite in the forest while he was out collecting acai berries for his work. The hospital was simply too far away for him to get help in time. This also meant that Viviane had had to drop out of college.

When we arrived at the house we had to get off the boat and climb the steps up to their deck or “ponte”. Originally built by Nena’s husband but with no one to maintain it now it was in very bad repair. Pontes are essential and it only made sense to fix this lifeline for my new friends, thanks to all our donors. Nena and Viviane later offered to accommodate any volunteers wishing to help the school and medical centre in the future. I urge you to go visit, spend a night by the river. It is a magical and incredible experience you will NEVER forget.

Make it a resolution - travel over or just get on your laptop and assist Amazonart with their fantastic work - Open your eyes - Breathe deeply - its the AMAZON !!  հձթթყ ռεա ყεձг ²º¹²

 

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Merry Christmas to All

Written by Alison | 21 December 2011

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Appreciating rain

Written by Alison | 25 November 2011

I just spoke to the volunteers, all huddled in a mud hut in the village waiting for the rains to stop. Twice a year the rains fall on the Amboseli plains of Kilimanjaro, literally bringing life. Within hours the "Savanna" - the semi-arid landscape made up of grassland, plains, kopjes, and marshes - changes. There are very few trees here but those that survive have adapted well. Just like the maasai, trees have a difficult life. But they're by no means helpless!
Covered in spines, needles, and hooks, trees have evolved to defend themselves. The "Wait-a-bit Acacia" has opposing hooked thorns, making untangling yourself from them extremely unpleasant. Even thorns have adapted to be able to continue photosynthesis during the dry season.
The Whistling Acacia grows what look like flowers but actually hold nectar and its galls are home to a type of stinging ant which live off the nectar and protect the tree from herbivores. These trees have silver bark, galls and make whistling sounds as the wind blows across the openings to the galls.
"The toothbrush tree is a low bush with characteristic long, arching shoots. When green, the shoots are cut by locals and used as toothbrushes. First, they chew on the end until it resembles a normal toothbrush, and then they brush their teeth with it, spitting out the fragments of wood all the while. It may sound unpleasant, but their smiles tell of a job well done." - Trees of Kenya. 1989. T.C. Noad and A. Birnie

The maasai too are extremely adapted to this environment but water is increasingly becoming a problem.
For volunteers visiting the only problem that needs solving is how to charge a mobile phone! Solar chargers are advisable, but, if like the hardy crew from AVIF, you can totally immerse yourself in life here, you will gain so much. Leaving behind TV's, microwave's, laptops - and electricity - in the Kenyan bush, on the plains of Kilimanjaro, you soon realise not even borders matter. The only power here is fire - but we can share some technology without ruining the culture of the maasai. Solar power. Along with mobile phones - they all make life easier - but none of that matters without sufficient water.
Photo by Emma, volunteering Summer 2010
We've researched Thruraya DSL satellite modems and antennas with pre-paid SIMS, but at around £2,000 thankfully we realised that thats exactly what we SHOULDN'T be doing here. Western society has so much to learn from the maasai - travelling here is such a gift - for education - for understanding. Whats so much more important is for money to be spent in sinking a borehole well to sustain the maasai way of life, one of the only tribes in Africa that refuses to move to the city, live in slums and sit in squalor hoping for a better future - because their futures are already better - and brighter (so long as there's enough water).
I just sent Jackson a text saying its hailing here in North Yorkshire. He has no idea what that means ;)
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Christmas CALENDARS 2011-12 from Enkito

Written by Alison | 08 November 2011

On the plains that roll out from the foothills of Kilimanjaro lies a remote maasai village called Enkito. Last year our volunteers Petr, Shiv and Emma spent the Summer there. Waking up to this.
In just over a week Petr returns with Lorraine (UK) and a couple of weeks later Caleb & Kort from the US, to experience life as a maasai and learn how to truly live in symbiosis with nature. The main activities will be helping in the very basic school and learning the maasai customs. There will also be a hydrogeological survey performed by BWS, recommended and overseen by TAK Development  and Hélène M. Van der Roest of www.takafrica.org. Hélène will oversee the training of a water committee in the village to control charging a fee for the water from a borehole well in order to maintain it after drilling. Hélène advises "its very important to set up this kind of Self help system ... When you provide water to a community you also need to make sure they own the borehole and can maintain it .... the goats and cows, for example, cannot drink from the borehole and should not come close to the borehole". TAK are aware of the realities of drilling in this area and have even planned "a cattle drinking area and a fence around the borehole so that they do not destroy and pollute the water".
The volunteers will gain knowledge of this entire process and can hopefully spread the word to fundraise for the well.
Lorraine has already ran a marathon and her Mother is baking cakes. They've helped to cover costs of the survey.
Petr has also been selling calendars of his shots taken in 2010, and has raised a great deal to aid the school and various needs in the community. The calendar in really special - please consider buying one for your family or friends this Christmastime and share the experience with them. Contact Petr for details here.
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Volunteering Matters

Written by Alison | 31 October 2011

United Nations Volunteers have been working together with the internationally acclaimed singer/songwriter & UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Angélique Kidjo in a campaign to show the world why volunteering matters:

This years International Volunteer Day is 5 December - a critical moment not only for the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme but also for volunteering worldwide. The tenth Anniversary of the International Year of Volunteers (IYV+10) will culminate with the UN General Assembly discussing volunteerism. UNV have chosen the theme Volunteering Matters because volunteers have the power to change lives.

In order to showcase examples of volunteer action, from every country in the world, UNV are inviting people, from today until 6 December to submit photos in response to weekly questions posted on their campaign webpage. The photo voted the most compelling by UNV Facebook fans will become the UNV Facebook profile picture for 2012 and on 7 December UNV will reveal a mosaic of your photos, to be a snapshot of our volunteering world.

UNV have also put together various promotional materials, which you can download here to help spread the message.

SUBMIT YOUR PHOTOS here !

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