African adventure is New Year goal for East Yorkshire retirees
What new year’s resolutions do you make when you are retired? Well for members of Howden University of the Third Age (U3A) group, for 2010, their resolution is to forgo the retired life and grey skies of East Yorkshire, and to work hard instead on the carbon-positive trip of a lifetime, saving and changing lives in South Africa’s heat in January.
Margie Henderson is a retired primary school teacher, who for many years also taught children with severe learning difficulties and now works as a volunteer with the refugee council, teaching English to mainly Syrian refugees.
Back in 2015, she met retired orthoptist Kay, at a Howden U3A presentation by former deputy head and award-wining Geography teacher-turned social entrepreneur Ken Dunn, founder of charity Africa's Gift. The two women were so inspired by his talk, they travelled with Ken to Lesotho in South Africa and loved it so much, they are going back this year with other Howden U3A members. Jane, a former civil servant, Barbara, a retired Methodist minister, Hugh a former coal mining engineer, Henry who was a camera man and photographer, Mavis a retired legal accounts manager and Deena, a former teacher and church warden at Beverley Minster. The group will be joined by one South Yorkshire resident, Faye Smith from Sheffield who is fundraising to save lives on the trip in memory of her daughter Gabi, who died in a tragic accident in 2013.
Margie, for whom this will be the third trip, says: “I love working in African schools. The children were wonderful, but had nothing but blackboards, chalk, pencils and paper in their schools. I took loads of supplies out with me: brushes, paint, scissors, material so I could help the children to do loads of different things in school. They loved it, even doing some painting of murals on their walls. We also sang a lot and played games.”
Kay Philips feels the same. “I am a retired orthoptist, divorced with two grown up children and three grandchildren. Once retired I joined Howden and district U3A and soon became a member of the committee as speaker finder- Ken being one. I worried that my expertise as an orthoptist would not be of any help to the people out there. Ken quickly reassured me that first and foremost, I simply needed to give human kindness. I had already holidayed in Africa, but this was going to be work! Ken was adamant that a lot of well-intentioned work carried out in Africa created a dependency culture and he ensured everything we did was fully sustainable after we left. The problems out there are soil erosion and smoke inhalation.
The people are mainly subsistance farmers, so we were to help them plant trees and grow their own food in a better way. That was easy for me I loved gardening and showing them how to produce a good crop.
The children were a delight to entertain. Almost 100 children turned up to a fun day we organised for them, using paints, crayons and felt tips and trying knitting, sewing, football and volleyball for the first time. Each evening we met together to go over our feelings of the day and had two days in a game park to reflect on our time in Malealea. That was just the beginning, it took me about a month once home to come back to my life here. It was the best time of my life, in so many ways.”
Dr Ken Dunn explains: “We shall be planting trees to stabilise the soil and ensure our trip is carbon positive, working on a teaching farm adjacent to a church and schools, helping in nearby schools and creches and seeing how we can support a sewing enterprise.
We are working in partnership with local people- not doing things to them. The work we do will always come from needs expressed in the community by health practitioners and community leaders.”
Faye Smith, an entrepreneur running her own Yorkshire-based communications consultancy adds: “Enterprises are springing up because thanks to a cooking innovation called Wonderbag we will be demonstrating in each community we visit, women are no longer time poor. Examples are start-ups producing washable sanitary pads for girls starting school and craft production. We will work alongside these dynamic women entrepreneurs and be welcomed into their communities.
I think the area I am most excited about is showing women how to save their lives by using an award-winning environmentally- friendly revolutionary cloth slow cooker called a Wonderbag.
Endorsed by celebrity chefs including our own Jamie Oliver, I will be spending my Christmas holiday learning to cook with one so I can demonstrate its simple life-saving brilliance to every community I come into contact with. Every bag is a carbon mitigator. In the UK we use 10 tons of carbon each, more if we drive a car and fly on holidays. Last year, Sheffield Hallam University Masters students conducted research into Wonderbag’s impact, showing extraordinary results- comments from locals such as: ‘this bag saved my eyesight’ and ‘thank you for giving me my life back’. Independent research carried out in Rwanda shows each bag activated saves an astonishing 1.6 tons of carbon being released.”
This fantastic development, recognized as one of the top 50 world-changing innovations, is changing and saving lives in Africa, by reducing the amount of time spent stirring the pot and collecting fuel wood, as well as cutting the amount of water required by 80%. The Wonderbag works as a slow cooker; once food has been brought to the boil, the pot is removed from the heat source and placed into the insulated bag to finish cooking. The King of Lesotho holds the role of master of nutrition across Africa, so he is a huge fan of the way Wonderbag keeps all the nutrients in the food, rather than escaping with the steam as water levels are topped up.
Over 3 billion of the earth’s population, 50% of humanity, still cook on an open fire. 4 million people across the planet die annually from indoor air pollution causes because of inhaling burning fossil fuels. Half those deaths are children under the age of 5 years. Six people every minute, one every ten seconds. Such open fire cooking can also cause terrible burns and even blindness. In just one refugee camp in Darfur, over 200 women a month were being raped while walking up to 10 kilometres a day to find firewood. These women are experiencing over 200 times smoke inhalation recommended safety levels. And Wonderbags allow girls to go back into schools instead of pot-stirring.
That is, only if they have black school shoes. Lesotho was formerly a British Protectorate and school uniform policy means no education without uniform and black shoes.
To solve this problem, Ken has come up with ‘Happy Feet Days’ in schools, a fun, easy non-uniform day for feet, where pupils bring in old shoes of any sort to be sold in the markets of Accra which generates money for school shoes. Shoes are sold at an affordable price to local African traders once they have been cleaned, sorted, mended and distributed by locals- all helping the economy. Only high boots, slippers and wellingtons cannot be sold. All school shoes are allocated through the Malayalayan Development Trust.
The team are asking for donations any rugged or trekking shoes/ boots and black school shoes- particularly for girls, to squeeze into their cases.
To find out more or join Ken on a life-saving trip, visit www.africasgift.org
To sponsor a Wonderbag for £35 https://www.africasgift.org/make-difference-your-armchair/sponsor-wonderbag/
Or a tree for £5 http://www.africasgift.org/make-difference-your-armchair/plant-tree/
Notes to the Editor
About Ken Dunn
Born in a beautiful part of northern England, Ken Dunn’s love of the natural environment led him to study earth sciences. After the Duke of Edinburgh Gold, his selection for a dramatic British expedition was formative. As a young geography outdoor education teacher he went on to lead many young people to far flung corners of the world, working in some dramatic, hostile and fragile environments.
His vision for positive environmentalism and his passion as a change maker won him numerous awards, but it was a visit to Africa in 2000 which was ultimately to change his life and the lives of many others. The focus from expeditioning to countries changed to that of partnership impact visits working with communities, which saw high octane activity and fieldwork being replaced with community development projects, where practical action and enterprise are the focus.
After a successful 23-year career, Ken left school leadership to establish his social enterprise Connecting Communities Worldwide, and now offers this work through a registered charity Africa's Gift, named to dispel the notion that Africa is just a place that receives.
His work is extremely powerful and has been recognised and supported regionally, nationally and by the United Nations. He now facilitates over 20 meaningful global and ethical partnerships which are transformational for all involved.
Having saved his brother’s life from a snake bite and pulling his wife from a swimming pool with heart failure, Ken is at pains to point out to all that life is precious and precarious, a gift to be embraced firmly and not left to drift by.
Ken is a powerful speaker to universities, schools, retirees, faith communities and businesses. His message is punchy but uplifting. Ken invites every listener to use their talents and energies to engage in positive action, while considering the role of money in their lives, as Ken challenges us that the best things in life are not material things