Update On Tanzania

So, it's been just over a week since I wrote about my odessey to Africa. When I wrote that post, I thought it would be amazing if 2 other people from the industry volunteered, so that we could make up a team of 3 to go and deliver footballs to some of the most disadvantaged kids in the world. The amazing news is that rather than getting two, I got seven. It's no understatement to say that I was quite overwhelmed by the response to that post, and that says a lot I think about people's desire to want to do something to make things better. It is, afer all, no insignificant personal commitment. Anyway, here's the team:

Me
Steve Farrell - creative director, and 'digital maker' from NYC
Sam Ismail - creative strategist and 'international smoothie' (London and NYC)
Darren Robson - Director at Penna (and my business coach)
Matt Kandela - Director at Saatchi's London, gooner
Hugh Garry - who does "interesting digital things with Radio 1"
Willem Van Der Horst - strategist and hippo-fan, London
Thomas Wagner - comms science student from Vienna

The ideal number for the project team is a multiple of 3 since each 4x4 can comfortably take 3 people, a driver, and a load of footballs. So with a team of eight, this means that we have one more space - and Tom has come up with an interesting idea on how we might fill it - so more on that later.

Now begins the hard bit. The organisation, the fundraising, the research, the planning, the jabs. There's a lot to do. And we only have until November. It's likely we'll be heading into South Eastern Tanzania. From what I've read of it so far, it seems to be one of the poorest and remotest regions of the country, and relatively untouched by tourism, so it makes sense to go there. We're intending to try and hook up with a couple of NGO projects based out there if we can, so if you happen to know of any in the region that might be good, let us know. And we're going to see if we can blog the trip (connectivity allowing - any advice on the best way to do this also appreciated) and we'll be taking a bunch of Flip cams to do some filming while we're out there.

The most important bit of-course, is raising the money to buy footballs. And that is going to kick off in earnest very soon.

Comments

[BenAS]

Hi Neil, I spent some time in Kenya and Uganda with Hope HIV who work with orphans of HIV/Aids I know they have links with community projects all over Africa. Check them out at www.hopeHIV.org If you like I can introduce you to the guys there, the work they do is amazing and their ethos is to work with locals to support "home grown" projects. While my old business was running we supported a couple of schools and a few other smaller projects, our trip out to Africa changed my life, it was one of the hardest, most challenging but ultimately the most rewarding trips of my life. Let me know

[Klaas van der Horst]

Hi Neil,

Have you guys thought about approaching Adidas, the UEFA, and FIFA to request their sponsorship/partnership and/or a donation in nature offering a considerable number of footballs ? If so, I'm willing to invest my time and attempt to produce that kind of result. My mailaddress: Klaas.vanderhorst@gmail.com

Receive my best

Klaas van der Horst

[neilperkin]

Ben - thanks, have dropped you a note

Klaas - thanks for the kind offer. We think we may have some direct contacts which we're looking into right now, so we're going to see how they pan out. If we don't have any luck with that, any help at that point would be great.

[BenAS]

Thanks Neil, I have dropped HopeHIV a line, I will be in touch as soon as I hear back.