Kay’s African Adventure
Kay takes sponsored eco cook bags to Lesotho with friends
Kay Phillips is one of a group from East Riding U3A who travelled to Southern Africa in early 2020, guided by charity founder Ken Dunn of Africa’s Gift sustainable travel company and eco cook bag shared-wealth charity, Eternal Flame Worldwide.
Here Kay shares her experiences.
Winning a photography competition took former Geography teacher and Duke of Edinburgh Ambassador Ken Dunn to Lesotho, an independent kingdom in South Africa.
The ‘kingdom in the sky’ became his passion. He gave up his position as deputy head teacher in South Yorkshire, and set up his first education charity, Connecting Communities Worldwide. The charity predominantly supports business, educational and individual volunteer trips out to Africa to work on making a difference in the rural communities in South Africa.
Ken firmly believes that some charity work promotes a culture of dependency which cannot, in the long term, be sustained. With this in the forefront of his mind and determined that corruption would have no place in his work, he set up The Malealea Development Trust (MDT) with local people in the Lesotho valley.
Ken is an inspirational character and through giving talks to various groups, it was not long before he took a group of volunteers out to Malealea to work with the local people.
Many of the men work as migrant labourers in the Republic of South Africa, especially in the mines. Most families here depend on subsistence farming for survival; this means they grow just enough crops to feed their own family. Some men and boys work for other people as shepherds. Payments differ, some are given money each month, while others earn a cow after one year of work.
The presence of the Malealea Lodge has brought a great difference into the people’s lives by creating jobs. Some people work as tourists’ guides, bringing people to different places of interest. Others have an opportunity to make and sell handicrafts. Some of the women have become cooks, while others are housekeepers and laundry assistants.
The growing of crops is dependent on the season of the year. In winter, crops that can withstand cold and dry conditions are grown. These include wheat and peas. In summer, there is a lot of rain, which suits growing maize sorghum and beans. All this has been achieved using cattle or oxen for ploughing.
In Malealea, horses are another means of transport, and now with expansion of the Malealea Lodge, the horses can be hired for pony trekking too.
Other animals are sheep, goats and donkeys. The sheep and goats are usually sheared in different seasons, and their wool and mohair respectively are exported. Through Ken’s new shared-wealth company Eternal Flame, this wool can now be sold locally to provide a fully sustainable, bio-degradable filling for the eco cook bags made in the Lodge, all of which brings income into the family. In performing rituals like feasts, these animals are killed for food.
Since there are no banks in the rural areas of Lesotho people often buy animals as a way to save and invest their money. In this way, animals are the ‘bank of Lesotho’. Thus, a family’s wealth can be measured by how many animals they have.
The charity has grown since the early days. It is now called Africa's Gift and works in not only Lesotho but South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda and Malawi, working closly with community members to effect change through the develoment of practical solutions to clearly identified needs.
Soil erosion and smoke inhalation are two of the major problems. The way they have lived, farmed and cooked over the years now have to change if they are to survive.
Trees have been felled for household cooking and keeping warm (it snows in Winter in this mountainous Kingdom), and as a consequence they have serious soil erosion.
To overcome this, the planting of trees is temendously important. Some trees stabilise the soil and fruit trees provide food. Crops still need to be grown but the old methods of ploughing must stop. Demonstrating the value of the underplanting of crops is the new way forward.
This is where Africa's Gift can help.
As well as campaigns including ‘Shoes for Africa’ and ‘Plant a Tree’, Africa’s Gift also runs ‘Sponsor an eco cookbag, an innovative cloth bag that slow cooks food after it reaches boiling point, and saves the lives of African families by reducing the time they spend over fires and the amount of smoke inhaled.
Locals people are starting to see that if they change their methods of farming and cooking, they will have better health and more food to feed their families. With this in mind a teaching farm has been set up, where volunteers and locals work side by side. Other projects such as reservoirs, orchards, fish farms and market gardens are developing and all projects continue when UK volunteers leave.
My friends and I were inspired to join Ken in Lesotho after he spoke to Howden and District U3A. Ken's passion has encouraged many people to give of their time and of themselves to carry on his good work. Like us, you could work alongside the people of Maleaea in the fields tree planting, in their communities and schools demonstrating new ways of cooking with an eco-cook bag, or just playing with the children, who have little to amuse them. If you are interested in helping, please visit the web site Africa's Gift.
You can join Ken and Faye on a life-saving Hope Walking African Adventure of a lifetime this October
And sponsor an eco cookbag for £35 to change and save lives…
Ken’s story
Ken Dunn calls himself an adopted Yorkshireman. He was drawn from Berwick to the crags and caves of the Peak with his first education post at Clifton School in Rotherham, teaching geography and outdoor education.
Life could have turned out very differently after a couple of years teaching in South Yorkshire when- prompted by two mind-blowing climbing expeditions to the Yukon- he almost emigrated to teach in Western Canada, after which he was locally known as ‘Klondike Ken’!
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. His focus shifted from expeditioning to countries to partnership impact work with communities, focusing on practical action and enterprise development.
After a successful 23-year career, Ken left the deputy headship at City School to establish his social enterprise Connecting Communities Worldwide, and now offers this work through registered charity Africa's Gift, named to dispel the notion that Africa is just a place that receives.
Ken is a powerful speaker to universities, schools, retirees, faith communities and businesses. Through his punchy but uplifting message, Ken invites every listener to use their talents and energies to engage in positive action. His life changing work has been recognised and supported nationally and by the United Nations.
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 everyone he meets that life is both precious and precarious, a gift and adventure to be embraced firmly and not left to drift by.
Contact Ken Dunn 07528 529766 ken@africasgift.org www.africasgift.org