This year, we awarded three prizes:
Harry van Schaick (Peter Symonds College)
My application for the Bob Lester Award is for a project which is located in the tiny hamlet of Tabo on the banks of the Spiti River in Himachal Pradesh, India. The settlement is located on the India/China border and is situated on the western extremity of the Tibetan Plateau. The project, which would last the first two weeks of July 2009, would involve the construction of at least one greenhouse for the use of local population. As the area is a very high altitude cold desert, water can be very scarce and temperatures, especially in winter, are rarely high enough to grow sufficient amounts of crops. The majority of the population are subsistence farmers and this greenhouse will provide food security for a small community during the harsh winter months where although temperatures can drop to -30°C, skies are nearly always cloudless and the village can go a whole month without seeing any precipitation. As it has the local community at heart, the project is classed as ‘bottom up’ as it uses appropriate natural eco-friendly materials from the surrounding area such as mud and boulders which are totally sustainable which therefore gives this project longevity.
Any money awarded would contribute significantly to the cost of the trip and would be spent on the project itself rather than administration costs which can sometimes be associated with many other charitable organisations. I am therefore organising it through a contact that runs a small charitable tour company in India with whom I travelled during February 2008 where, as part of a team of fifteen, I helped to construct a rural primary school in Bandipur National Park in the State of Karnataka. Last year’s three week long trip was a real eye opener for me and the satisfaction gained from helping impoverished people, combined with the experience of a starkly different culture and the dynamism of such a colourful and diverse country meant that there was no option but to return to India. This time I have chosen a project not in the subtropical southern tip of the country, but the arid and hostile lands of the Himalayas where anything which can help them to increase their minimal crop yield is nothing less than invaluable.
If I were to receive the Bob Lester Award I would be delighted to spend the money where it is needed most- when given directly to the people to show a significant improvement in their lives and provide safety and security for the foreseeable future.
Rebecca Bramwell (Peter Symonds College)
In July 2009 I will be going to Wobulenzi with ServeUganda, non-profitable organization that works to benefit the community of Wobulenzi in South Uganda. We will be restoring a secondary school as part of a bottom-up scheme to directly benefit the teachers and pupils, many who are AIDS orphans and refugees.
In Uganda, primary education is provided for by the state, but secondary education is paid for by parents or guardians. However at Wobulenzi Town Academy the school charges half the average secondary school fee, and uses the fees from the paying students to cover the non-paying students as well. The school charges £15 and a 50kg bag of maize per term to cover food and board, and payment of part time teachers. These teachers are part paid, part volunteers, as the school pays them a wage whenever it can afford to.
Despite the low school fees at Wobulenzi Town Academy, many students still struggle to pay. Recently when the harvest failed, the number of school entrants dropped as they could not afford 50kg of maize.
We will work with the school to get their sustainable agricultural project started. Wobulenzi Town Academy recently acquired 6 acres of land with which to grow food crops for their students. This will drive down the cost of fees and attract more students who will in turn support non-fee-paying students, giving them the opportunities for an improved economic future.
As the school cannot afford building maintenance, the building is in a poor state of repair. ServeUganda has been restoring the buildings to provide a more conductive environment for learning. The project aims to give people a “hand up” rather than a “hand out”, and aims to be sustainable, by using local labour and materials whenever possible. Working with Romsey School in the UK we have donated books and sports equipment, which the children were enthralled with. Their new mini-library has earned the great term “The Internet” from the teachers.
The school has had more enquiries on attendance since the buildings have been restored and the facilities are unable to cope with the new influx of students, many of whom are boarders. With ServeUganda I will be helping to re-roof the third classroom, give the dormitories a concrete floor, and even provide some teaching in the aspects of geography and science.
I will be getting stuck in with the building work and the painting, and also organizing educational murals on the classroom walls, which will involve the students and promises to be very good fun! This next visit we aim to provide bunk beds for the dorms because currently students share 9 to a triple bunk bed, and there is no solid floor. We will also be re-roofing the third school building and removing the rubble from the classrooms. I am looking forward to the hard work for something which will be valued for years to come.
Kate Harding (Peter Symonds College)
“Geography exists to give us insights, feelings, and understandings of the world that we live in”
I am raising money towards a two week community project in Ghana from the 23rd July 2009. I will be travelling to Accra, the country’s capital city where I will stay with a host family and volunteer at the local Good Shepherd orphanage with the Projects-abroad organisation.
Understanding different cultures and communities is a vital part of Geography. By travelling out to Ghana to experience this first hand I believe it will be a life changing opportunity that will give me a better understanding and awareness of the complex issues which developing countries face.
Ghana is a developing country and faces many problems such as immigration, urbanization and spread of diseases. Over 170,000 children in Ghana have been orphaned by the AIDS epidemic alone and many are sent away to live in orphanages. These orphanages work hard to house and feed the children however they are desperately overcrowded and under funded.
My main aim will be to spend time within the community, but also to work with the children to give them the attention, hope and guidance they need. I will help to teach them personal hygiene and basic English skills to go some way in improving their quality of life. I will also be taking part in renovating the building at the Good Shepherd orphanage to provide a better environment for the children and leave a valuable and lasting legacy for the community.
Furthermore, while I am there I will also visit the Kakum Rainforest Reserve which is a National park near Cape Coast. This is an extremely important conservation project in Ghana and is all that is left of what used to be a continuous belt of rainforest stretching across to Sierra Leone. It was exploited by hunting, mining and deforestation and now has been reduced to less than 140 square miles.
Kakum National Park is part of one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the African continent. It is one of the last remaining habitats of six globally-endangered species, including Diana monkeys, bongos, yellow-backed duikers, and forest elephants. It truly is an area of Global and Local importance and value.
During the time I am there I will look at how the area is being managed and the conflicts of development and conservation. It relies heavily on tourism to sustain and fund the costs of protecting the area and I will use fieldwork studies to examine the environmental costs of funding it in this way.
In order to participate in this trip, I will need to raise a sum of £2000. This will cover the costs of my food, flights, vaccinations and insurance while I am out there as well as the costs of equipment and project development. I plan to contribute £900 by saving £150 a month from my part-time earnings and savings and I am hoping to earn the rest through sponsorship and fundraising. The £100 award would go some way to help me meet this target.
