When times are tough - and indeed 2020 has been a shocker – the tourism industry really does pull together in the spirit of “Ubuntu” (community) to help those in dire need.
All across Africa, tourism friends and colleagues - many with little or no income themselves – have been doing their best to ensure staff are looked after, local rural communities have had access to food parcels and that Africa’s precious wildlife has been protected.
One of the biggest conservation challenges of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has been that, without tourists going on safari, there has been no income in terms of park fees and community levies to help maintain the national parks and wildlife conservancies and protect the game from poachers.
The knock-on effect on the ground has been devastating! Mother Africa needs to be protected so that there are still wildlife reserves left after this is all over.
With this in mind, Ethos signed up to support the Tusk Trust’s #Ride4Rangers campaign in August - raising vital funds to support over 5,000 rangers in over 60 locations across Africa.
The idea for Ride4Rangers was conceived by Ben Morison from Far & Wild Travel - pooling our time, resources and networks positively whilst so many people were on furlough or unable to do their normal jobs. Amanda and Alison joined the steering committee to rally the various African Ambassadors alongside team partners including the likes of ATTA, Far & Wild, Imagine Travel, Steppes and Yellow Zebra.
A number of our tourism friends physically cycled across the length of Great Britain from Land’s End in Cornwall to John O’Groats in Scotland during August - and we were very proud that Kevin cycled the full 874 miles/ 1,407 km on his static bike - averaging around 30 miles per day.
Kevin managed to raise a fantastic £275 - which was doubled as all donations were automatically matched by The Scheinberg Relief Fund. In total, Ride4 Rangers raised an incredible £329,000 after match funding, and the cyclists clocked up over 62,000 miles which is the equivalent of circumnavigating Africa twice!
A great result – and we are all extremely proud of Kev!