Donation Online button

Flickr Photos

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

MEMBERVC/7383

Member no: 1276969

amazonart logo

afrigator



Make a donation!


Volunteer Login

Google +1

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.

 

 

Getting active inworld

Written by Alison | 10 January 2011

Working with LLK is always a pleasure but playing "inworld" with them is even more fun.
Brique, Director of the German-based organisation operating in Kenya, is very active in the Second Life virtual world and recently completed "The Lavender Field", a public area where anyone can literally fly in and listen to live music, chat and network and also donate towards the work the organisation is doing in the real world.
For non-SL'ers you simply need to download the Viewer software here then click on this SLurl to visit. The Non Profit Commons (NPC) area also has a great visitor Centre to help you get to grips with navigating You, or rather your avatar, around the World.
SecondLife themselves are wonderfully showcasing The Lavender Field, promoted by Philip Rosedale aka Philip Linden himself, Founder of the virtual world.  Nearly 3000 meals have been donated so far to the children in Nakuru, western Kenya.
Come on in and take a look round.
AVIF's office is also located in the NPC area here.
Take some time to look around as Second Life is a myriad of destinations, inlcuding:
  • The Labyrinth of Time, set in the heart of the fantasy sim Wymberel, a romantic and magical space where you can lose yourself for hours in the magic of the maze or explore the treehouse and check out the view!
  • Dragonfly (and the adjacent Mad Ninjaz region) a wild landscape of overgrown flora, craggy terrain, and mysteriousness
  • Winter Solstice offers, instead of sand and surf, a beach featuring snow and seals and aurora borealis sparkling above as the glacial waves crumble in
For even more places to visit in Second Life check out the Destination Guide.
[Brique and I chilling in the The Brain Candy Retreat, a space created to support the needs of parents and guardians living with critically ill children].
Add new comment

Happy New International Year of the Forests

Written by Alison | 01 January 2011

forest banner
The Amazon Rain Forest Basin is the home to our largest rainforest on Earth.
It represents over half of the planets remaining rainforests. The basin is roughly the size of the forty-eight contiguous United States. It covers some 40% of the South American continent, which encompasses seven million square kilometers (1.7 billion acres), though the forest itself occupies some 5.5 million square kilometers (1.4 billion acres), located within nine nations: Brazil (with 60 percent of the rainforest), Peru (with 13 percent of the rainforest, second after Brazil), Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rain forest and comprises the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical rainforest in the world.
Help spread awareness of the importance of saving the Amazon by coming to visit, spending your time with the Combo Education Centre and helping a deprived riberinho (river people) community in the Brazilian Amazon, reachable only by boat. Local but now world-renowned composer and cellist, Diego Carneiro, founded AmazonArt to help this incredible, small but inspiring centre in Combu, a short boat journey from the city of Belém, northern Amazonian Brazil.

ribeneros
Contact us for further details or visit the Facebook page.

Add new comment

An Epic Resolution for 2011

Written by Alison | 27 December 2010

I blame Toby Marks for this, having rediscovered his 1995 album Last Train to Lhasa written to highlight the atrocities [still] going on in the planet's heart and soul, Tibet. The video is explicit in its content having been banned in the days before we invented social media and YouTube as it contains scenes of the violence and oppression ongoing. If you don't want to open your eyes, just be inspired by an epic tune.
Due to ongoing conflict caused by China we're having to start off our journey in Nepal and what better place than the Sarswati Peace School set up by inspirational polish mountaineer Ania Lichota and Subhash Ghimire after Ania's summit of Everest in Spring 2010.
ania
[On the summit of Everest]
The School's intention is to "Nurture Young Dreams" using integrity, hard work and creativity. It will be an english speaking school that does not follow a "prescribed curriculum" but one that "documents personal narratives in writing, filmmaking and photography with strategies for success in local environments, embracing investigation of hidden resources, basic small business principles and stories to inspire and guide".
The schools vision is to "not only produce doctors, pilots and lawyers but leaders, philanthropists, entrepreneurs and visionary people that will, one day, make all of us proud". Their mission is to "..mobilize the smartest and the brightest Nepalese young graduates into teaching Nepal’s most unprivileged children in our quest to end educational divide..."
dsc09123
This young girl cannot go to school as she has to take care of her brother behind her. The young brother will be sent to school once he is four but the girl has to stay home. We need to change this too!
The school is located in Arupokhari, in Gorkha district, western Nepal.
The village is around 33Km (bus route) from the district headquarters (or about 9 hours walk). The village was deeply affected by civil war and its physical inaccessibility, coupled with deep-seated casteism hindered the overall development of the community. About 37% are Sudras, known disgracefully as "untouchables", the very bottom of Nepalese caste hierarchy, which consists of: Brahmins, Chhetris, Vaisyas, and Sudras. Though caste discrimination has been illegal since 1990, Sudras are still banned from temples, water taps, and have to use separate utensils at tea-shops!
AVIF can help you visit the School and advise on travel into Tibet to experience both the beauty and mysticism of the countries, to "discover the deeper meaning to life than .. consumer culture" as well as helping to change the abhorrent realities of oppressive regimes!
For more information please Contact Us.
Facilities at the school include:
24-hour internet access
Accommodation
A small salary if you're a recent graduate/ teacher ready to make a commitment of 3 months +
The school will welcome the first batch of 250 students in April 2011.
Add new comment

Merry Christmas to All

Written by Alison | 22 December 2010

My dear friends Charles and Prisca have managed to send photos of the wonderful donations made by volunteers Leanne, her husband James & their daughter, Chinika. The family were meant to volunteer with us back in May but delays and circumstances meant they couldn't. Leanne had been very busy fundraising to bring items with them to the village of Uhundha on the shores of Lake Victoria and insisted on sending everything over in their absence.
As is the way in Kenya, months went by before the large package finally arrived. After heavy negotiation and expense from the village's ambassador, Charles, who luckily works in City Square, Nairobi, the packages finally made it through the selfish grasps of KRA. Charles and Prisca then transported the "invaluable support to Uhundha community", refusing to accept financial compensation. The goods arrived at the end of October and the parcels were presented to the school with pupils, teachers, parents & guardians all present.
Charles and Prisca and the community wish to thank Leanne and her family.
I would also like to thank Charles and Prisca too for their endless support to their community.
I was lucky enough to sit chatting with them at their wonderful home in April watching a storm pass, luckily a way off from their porch, in the light of kerosene lamps. My son and colleague Karl had gone to watch the football in the local town with Charles and Prisca's 2 sons. Prisca was smiling as she remembered how much fish they had bought from the community during the difficult times after the election violence in 2008.
usenge uhandha omena
They would buy the fish (omena above) and tilapia , the primary source of income for the entire fishing community, because there was no market as a result of the upheaval in the country. Luckily this was the only effect on the village, lucky distanced from any violence due to it being 2/3 hours drive west of Kisumu.
donations xmas2
donations xmas
Charles and Priscah also made a separate donation that day of plastic chairs to the orphanage. The children had been sitting on a dusty floor prior to this. My own experience of standing in the little classroom in the field, pictured here, with my own children, listening to the faces above singing songs reminds me how lucky I am to know these great people. They carry on regardless. They use the resources they have and do their best to gain an education, fish and farm the land for a living and to provide for themselves. They don't need cars, they walk. They don't need money for boats, they build them from trees, they appreciate the little things and they do not underestimate each other.
We're still hoping for progress with the eco project in the community but in the meantime life continues in a truly beautiful place. Let us know if you'd like to visit!
Hundreds of miles away down on the Tanzanian border is another beautiful place; Enkito where we're hoping to sink a well to help the community. The organisation we'd originally partnered with are now, unfortunately, unable to help so we're looking for another drill team. Please watch this video and help if you can, either by referral or financially.
Help shape the futures of others, because you can and because its Christmas x
Add new comment

Thank You TED.com for letting Julian Assange be heard

Written by Alison | 07 December 2010

In light of todays shameful arrest of Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, I wanted to share this - and hope that no shameful authorities decide to remove the content from TED's site (which wouldn't surprise me!)

..if only for what he's single-handedly accomplished for Kenya please watch and share this but, in my honest opinion, for the persecution he's currently victim to.

Add new comment

More Articles...