Hey all! For our journey we wanted to be able to support a few charities close to our hearts – Riders for Health, Wales Air Ambulance and the World Land Trust.

Please read below what these fantastic charities are doing for our world and communities and why we have chosen them! If you would like to donate then hit the donate button below your choice of charity!

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Knowing we are off traipsing around the world, we really wanted to have a charity which was rooted back to our homeland. Being the Welshy that Sam is and with my history in the services, we are stupendously happy to be supporting the Wales Air Ambulance and consider it as a charity close to our hearts.

The Wales Air Ambulance is an all Wales charity providing a vital service through emergency air cover for those who face life-threatening illness or injuries. Owing to its widely scattered population and diverse landscape, many in Wales live in isolated locations far from an accident and emergency service. With the ever growing problem of traffic congestion and collisions in more urban areas, land ambulances often have delayed response times. For these reasons, there is a recognised need for three helicopters to be on active duty 365 days a year.

It is widely believed that a patient’s chances of survival and early recovery are increased if they receive the right care within the first hour, otherwise known as the Golden Hour. With the Wales Air Ambulances capable of being launched within 3minutes upon receiving a call and at any location in Wales within 20minutes, the charitys’ quick response times and expert medical care ensures the Golden Hour is achieved every time and lives are saved.

With each mission on average costing £1500, the charity needs to raise over £5 million per year to operate the service. We absolutely admire the service this charity provides and look forward to supporting them on our travels. Cymru am byth!

www.walesairambulance.com

We first heard about Riders for Health early last year and were instantly overwhelmed by their tremendous work. With numerous projects all over Africa, Riders for Health have devoted teams whodedicate their time and expertise ensuring health workers have access to reliable transportation so they can reach the most isolated communities with regular and predictable health care.

In the past 20 years the charity has managed over 1,300 vehicles providing health care for over 10 million people. In areas where one African health worker can be responsible for up to 20,000 people all scattered across miles of treacherous terrain, Riders support has proven invaluable.By training the local community core skills including safety, preventative maintenance and sustainability, Riders aims are directed at providing long term solutions.

Despite their amazing efforts, the statistics which remain are still utterly horrifying. Even though there are immunization programmes set up, over 30,000 children under the age of five die every day across the developing world from preventable of treatable diseases. A quarter of a million women die each year from childbirth complications due to having to give birth alone or with untrained assistance. Having to fight distance, terrain, poverty and lack of transport, millions of people across Africa are deprived and isolated from health care that is already there.

www.riders.org

To say we are both passionate and truly astonished about the immense impact the World Land Trust (WLT) has on our world would be an understatement. WLT works worldwide, taking direct action to save the world’s most biologically important habitats and rainforests by purchasing and conserving these areas acre by acre. Land ownership passes to local partner organisations.

With so many species being endangered by habitat loss, poaching, deforestation and excessive logging, projects set up by WLT and its international partner organisations are proving vital in saving them and their habitats.

On our journey we plan on visiting various projects throughout South America to meet people from WLT’s partner organisations who devote their time to this vital international conservation effort, and see the excellent work they are doing.

At a recent event, World Land Trust patron Sir David Attenborough summarised perfectly the significance of their work, as recorded on video on the WLT website here.

* Photo Left: Jaguar near Three Giants Biological station in Paraguay. Photographer: Hugo del Castillo

www.worldlandtrust.org