Archive for December, 2008

The boys meet Boorman!

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

What would you do if you met your idol? Well the boys from the Wrong Way Round team, had to ask themselves the same question when the recently bumped into the legendary Charlie Boorman at an exclusive black tie event at the Ramada Hotel.

Charlie, the chap who inspired Stephen & Alan’s Wrong Way Round Charity Campaign with his an Ewan McGregor’s antics during their Long Way Round series on BBC TV, seemed a bit taken aback when accosted by Sky Developments’ directors Stephen McCready & Alan Johnston at the SPARKS Charity Event.

Suffice to say the the boys from Sky are not backward in being forward and made sure not to miss out on the photo opp.

The boys from Sky meet the master

The boys from Sky meet the master

Why support Fields of Life?

Saturday, December 13th, 2008

A lot of people wonder why Stephen & Alan specifically chose to support Fields of Life with the proceeds of their Charity Trip. The simple answer given by Alan is this, ‘They get the job done!’ …and to show this some of their achievements as a charity are detailed in this post.

Fields of Life has come a long way since its humble beginnings in 1997, when Fields of Life Academy was built in Uganda.  Since then we have expanded the work into the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and, more recently, Sudan.

Education

  • 88 Schools will have been built and fully functional by the end of 2008
  • 31,200 children are currently being educated.
  • 35,500 children have been educated so far since the first school was built in 1997.
  • 3,300 children are currently being sponsored.
  • In total, 4000 children have been sponsored since the Sponsorship Programme began in 1997.  It started with 80 children sponsored in 1997.
  • An Education Programme for monitoring educational standards has been implemented.
  • 29 staff houses for teachers have been built.

Health

  • 4 heath facilities have been built.
  • A Child Screening Programme is currently being piloted.

Water

  • 46 wells have been drilled and are providing communities with clean, safe drinking water.

Income Generating Projects

  • 450 families are currently being assisted by Gifts of Life.

All of these projects, many as they seem, only scratch the surface of the problems being faced by third world communities, but every penny raised helps to improve the life of someone less fortunate.

We’re going to do what?…

Friday, December 5th, 2008

So our last blog entry told you a bit about the two of us, our love of bikes and we touched slightly on why we are taking this trip.

You can probably see by now that some would describe us as a bit eccentric or ‘quirky’. We don’t really believe in hanging around and waiting for things to happen and it is probably the fact that we are both quite impulsive, in business and as people, that we have ended up going on this trip and supporting this cause.

It is hard to believe that every day children die from a lack of clean drinking water or proper nourishment. Who could imagine a situation where our own children drank from filthy holes in the ground or walked for miles without shoes on their feet. These horrors are reality for many in the third world and we believe, as do many, that if everyone does just a little bit to help an enormous difference can be made to the lives of those living in these deprived regions.

When we heard about the Killead & Loanends Uganda ‘09 School Building Project for Fields of Life we instantly know that we should do something to help. Having worked closely with local universities while investigating renewable technologies we have come to realise how important education is in providing solutions to increasingly prominent energy problems in the west. Education is the key to positive, long lasting solutions.

The idea of assisting children in Uganda through education seems to us to be one of the best ways to ensuring a better future. For this reason we decided to support Fields of Life and we were inspired by Charley Boorman & Ewan McGregor’s trip for Unicef so said hey!.. LETS DO THAT! (There’s the impulsive streak again).

lets-do-it

We're going to get the bikes and go where?...