MAD Mission - Making A Difference
Madventurer strives to be the number one provider of sustainable and ethical projects and challenging adventures worldwide.
Madventurer’s ethos is ‘developing together’; our aim is to assist local communities in developing countries, whilst enabling travellers to gain life-changing experiences through cultural integration, challenge, education and adventure.
WELCOME FROM THE CHIEF
Wezo! ¡Hola! Karibu! Bula! Sawat dii! Vanakkam!Namaste!
Welcome… to our Mad World! Madventurer offer a unique combination of award winning Projects, Placements and exhilarating Adventures in some of the most fascinating destinations in the world.
Whether you join a Community Project group and get involved in some teaching and building in a village, or stay in an town and coach and play sport on our Sports Projects, get involved in our Medic, Care Work and Teaching Projects or Conservation experiences, you will be part of a motivated team helping to make a difference!
If you want to try something physically more adventurous we also run a series of Mad Mountain Challenges where you can trek some of the most amazing mountains of the world and help raise some cash for charity.
What’s stopping you? – Go Mad!
John Lawler
Madventurer Chief (aka Torgbui Mottey I)
Work hard, give back, have fun and Go Mad!
By Going Mad you are making a positive impact in 2 ways:
1. By helping on development projects that are making a long-term difference.
2. By practising responsible tourism alongside Madventurer where as much as possible is spent locally.
Making A Difference
HOW DOES GOING MAD BENEFIT THE WORLD?
DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
‘Positive change comes from projects which focus on long-term change, promoting culturally appropriate and environmentally sustainable interventions that are acceptable to beneficiaries’
Prof. Paul Sillitoe, Anthropologist, 2003
"Madventurer supports overseas development through its project partners. These include local communities, non-governmental organisations, governmental departments and academic research groups."
"Each project is researched and has to meet certain criteria such as long and short-term benefits to the host community. The project itself is led by the community, Madventurer’s role is to act as a catalyst, both financially and motivationally (with the volunteers presence) to get the project up and running. This way when Madventurer leaves the project will continue to be managed and owned by the community."
"By funding the projects ourselves it gives us the control we need to ensure that they are well organised and completed, but ownership always lies with the local community. Perhaps most important of all, however, is the increased understanding that our volunteers gain of the real issues of sustainable development."
Tim Guinan, Operations Director, Madventurer
Here Mr Peter Moya, head of Murindati Primary School, Kenya, tells how the partnership with Madventurer has benefited the students education at his school....
What has already been done for the school by charities and volunteers? How do you think this has benefited the school?
"When Gemma Davies from Madventurer first visited the school, I spoke to her and she was kind enough to recommend to Madventurer that they supported Murindati Primary. Now the volunteers from Madventurer have begun building another block of two classrooms. The sponsorship of children through their schooling is also great contribution – four children from the school are currently being supported; three girls and one boy.”
"The completion of the classroom which Madventurer have begun building is the first in a series of three phases of enlargement which I have planned for the school. You see, the places in this new classroom have already been allocated, the school is so overcrowded. The new block will allow us to split up some of the largest classes."
"When we increase the amount of space available for teaching in the school, this has three effects: firstly, the level of education is improved because class sizes become smaller and teachers have more time for pupils; secondly, the desks (which cost us to replace) break less often, because fewer children are crowded onto them (and the floor in the new block will hopefully be more even and stable!); lastly, the space is better for the health of the pupils, illnesses are not spread so rapidly, and there are fewer accidents.”
Do you think it benefits the pupils at the school to come into contact with volunteers from Mad and elsewhere?
“Yes, definitely. It improves their social skills – you can see they aren’t afraid of white people anymore. Talking to volunteers can also improve the children’s grasp of English. They pick up the accent better, and also enlarge their vocabulary. Even after just one month, the children tell me than can understand you all much better when you talk to them. Finally, volunteers such as you bring different skills to the school. You have interests in sport, art and music which add to the lessons the children receive from the teachers here, and provide them with a broader education.”
Do you have any suggestions for how Mad could improve the contribution it makes to communities such as Murindati?
“I’m very happy with the building you’ve done here; we’ve met our goal for the five weeks, so that’s fine. What we’re very short of in the school is good quality learning materials. They make a big difference to lessons, but are very expensive here, so if you could bring more of those such as science equipment, textbooks and posters that would really help us.”
RESPONSIBLE TOURISM
Madventurer is an ambassador of responsible tourism and endeavours to reduce the negative, and increase the positive impact of its clients and operational practices on the social, cultural and physical environment within its operating countries.
How?
Water is a limited (or scare) resource in many counties Madventurer operates in. We encourage volunteers to use minimal amounts of water on projects. We often rely on the collection of rainwater in order to wash clothes and bucket shower! Drinking water is bought from local stores.
Madventurer uses as many resources as possible locally such as food, building materials, accommodation, skilled labour, guides and transport to ensure that as much revenue as possible stays within the countries that madventurer operates in.
By keeping group sizes small, sensitising volunteers to cultural differences and enforcing a particular code of conduct whilst living within a rural community is very important.
Madventurer aids is volunteers' cultural infusion through involvement in activities organised by the local community such as drumming and craft workshops, language lessons, and guided tours.
Madventurer ensures that its venturers receive accurate pre-departure information concerning the destination countries and the regions we will be travelling to.
Madventurer ensures its volunteers receive accurate pre-trip information concerning the destination countries in the form of pre-departure packs. These packs include information on cultural sensitivity, volunteer responsibilities, obligations and codes of conduct for the countries we operate in.
THE MAD FOUNDATION
What does it do?
The main objective of the Mad Foundation is to benefit less privileged communities at destinations in developing countries that host Madventurer projects.
The Mad Foundation’s aim is not simply to donate money but to invest in projects that will empower and support local communities.
Madventurer supports the Mad Foundation with resources and donations.
In addition, our staff fundraise in their paid office time to assist the Mad Foundation and its charitable partners to create extra funds to top up community development projects and to other causes such as educational scholarships for children overseas.
We also encourage all of our staff to ‘do their bit’ by giving them time to help organise events that promote the Mad Foundation and other causes.
We always include a donation to our local partners, be it an NGO we work alongside to achieve more on Projects with combined efforts, or local building materials if we are doing a stand alone project direct with a village development committee.
We recognise that the more funds that can be raised towards these donations the better so the cost per volunteer is set at a level to make it affordable to take part in our project and be supported on the ground and any additional funds that can be raised are most welcome and will be donated direct to our UK Registered Charity – the Mad Foundation (1111805).
Feedback
“I found it really rewarding knowing that I’ve made a positive impact on a deprived community.”
Chris Deeks, Mad Volunteer
"Madventurer have been good friends with the people of Wote for three years now. Through their hard work and generosity we have been able to build a new clinic and drainage system. These projects have helped to improve the lives of those that live in Wote as well as making them proud of what they have collectively achieved."
Chief Kordadzawa III, tribal leader of Liati Wote Ghana
“The villagers appreciated our work so much and that had an obvious impact, the children were so much safer"
Martin Walton, Mad Volunteer in Peru
"I plan to work in development economics after uni, so seeing projects and how they work for ground level has made me more determined to progress with development economics as now I know that small scale projects really can contribute to the bigger picture."
Laura Andrew Uganda July 2004
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