Diary Entry: 8th Oct 2005 - CARE responds to the earthquake disaster
Diary Entry: 14th Oct 2005 - Visiting the EMPOWERS & ALIVE CARE projects
Diary Entry: 11th-17th Dec 2005 - Thoughts from Northern Pakistan
Diary Entry: 6th Feb 2006 - Visit to Care International Schooling Projects in Rural Uttar Pradesh
Diary Entry: 17-21st June 2006 - Rebuilding lives after tsunami devastation
Diary Entry: 4th August 2006 - Visit to Care International Indonesia's Project to Improve Child Health in the Jakarta Suburbs

In order to help raise our fantastic amount shown by the thermometer to the left, we have run a number of 'raffles' which have only been possible due to the kind prize donations by a number of companies that we met and worked with on the road. These fund raising raffles which have contributed to our total, were:

A liveaboard diving holiday for two with Siam Adventure Divers in Thailand, where we raised GBP632.44, the lucky winner being Mary Ross. Two places as a Touring Adventurer (Spectator) in the 2006 Rainforest Challenge held in Malaysia, where we raised GBP65.64, the lucky winner being Andrew Hutton. A 5 day package of diving in the Komodo National Park with Reefseekers in Indonesia, where we raised GBP265.64, the lucky winner being Miguel Sanchez. The Brunei 'Lucky Draw' where we raised GBP300. A BIG thanks to the companies that offered us prizes (The Empire Hotel, The Sheraton Hotel - Utama, Sugar & Spice, The Mall Cineplex) and for all those who took part.

What does CARE International do?

CARE International is a worldwide humanitarian charity working to end world poverty. With programmes in over 70 countries, CARE touches the lives of over 45 million of the world's poorest people. Whether supporting primary health care, promoting sustainable agriculture or developing savings and loan schemes, CARE�s programmes promote positive and lasting change and reduce long-term dependency.

CARE also provides emergency food and shelter to survivors of natural disasters, wars and conflicts. They remain with communities long after initial relief efforts are completed and support initiatives to enable people to rebuild their lives and to face the future with renewed confidence.

Some examples of the development projects supported by CARE International that we are planning to visit en-route:

Water and Sanitation in Egypt

EMPOWERS aims to improve long-term access to water by vulnerable populations through more effective local integrated water resource management. Egypt has a very high per capita availability of water, but demand exceeds the amount available because of inefficient irrigation in most areas. Egypt is also almost entirely dependent on water originating from outside the country. It is calculated that over 25% of water is used twice and 50% of farmers depend on drainage water to some degree. Poorly treated industrial and sewage effluent means that water quality is also a serious problem.

At the grass-roots level, CARE will work with communities to help set up credit unions to improve irrigation efficiency. Alongside this CARE will work to increase public awareness and change attitudes to issues surrounding water resources, including water conservation, efficient water-use and the need for measures to protect water quality.

Building Businesses in India

CASHE is a multi-layered, complex project that aims to support the development and competence of micro-finance projects in rural India through technical support to partner organisations, such as local mutual membership associations. It builds on CARE's six-year experience of working with poor rural women in savings and loans associations.

Rangvra has been a member of CASHE since its inception and it has changed her life. Before Rangvra struggled through from day to day, trying to make ends meet, with no support and no one to talk to. Once she became involved with CASHE, after one year of saving Rangvra was able to borrow R5000 from the loan fund. With her money she bought one buffalo for heavy labour in the fields. A short while later, and with a second loan, she bought a second buffalo, this time for milking. With the small profits from the milk buffalo she was able to buy seeds to plant on her newly acquired small plot of land. She no longer has to rely on wage labour as she is now able to sustain herself and her family and is looking to become involved in other small business ventures.

CARE International Tsunami Response

CARE International staff in India, Indonesia, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Thailand immediately began dispensing food, water purification tablets, shelter materials and basic medical supplies to victims in the hardest-hit areas. CARE has decades of experience running relief and development programmes in each of these countries and will be focussing its efforts on the long-term rehabilitation of affected communities.

In Indonesia, the government recently estimated that more than 160,000 people died and 800,000 are in need of emergency assistance. The tsunami destroyed all of Aceh�s community health clinics; 70 percent of health care providers and more than 1500 teachers have been killed, are missing or have left the area. Using helicopters, CARE was one of the first agencies to provide assistance to remote areas along Aceh�s West coast. They are working closely with UN agencies and the Government of Indonesia to provide emergency assistance to displaced people in 14 of the largest shelters in Aceh Province. Since December 26 2004, CARE has distributed water purification kits to more than 100,000 people, and expect to provide safe water to 500,000 people per month during the next six months.

So why did we choose to support Care International?

Although this all started as an idea many years ago whilst camping in Africa, we fully recognise how fortunate we are to be able to undertake a journey of this nature and we all strongly felt that we wanted to give something back to the people and countries we will be visiting, by using the overland-underwater expedition as a way of raising as much money as we can for charity.

There are many charity agencies that operate in the countries on our route, however we feel that CARE take a practical approach to teaching people how to utilise their own resources and empower themselves to becoming self-sufficient. They also have a long-term approach to many of their projects, which aim to strengthen local people's capacity for self-help.

Registered Charity No. 292506

We have set ourselves a challenging target of �25,000 so please dig deep and sponsor us now, to help us reach our target and help lift our spirits for those times when the vehicles get bogged down yet again and we'll be doing the digging to get free!

Donations can be made securely online at http://www.justgiving.com/overland-underwater or alternatively cheques payable to "CARE International" can be sent to Chloe Bayram at the CARE address below, but please clearly state that your donation is in connection with the overland-underwater expedition by completing the sponsor form and enclosing it with your cheque. Click on this text to open the sponsor form in a new window.

Chloe Bayram (c/o overland-underwater) CARE International UK 10-13 Rushworth Street London, SE1 0RB, UK.

If you are a UK taxpayer, please either fill out the online information when giving via the Justgiving website or if by post, complete the Gift Aid section of the sponsor form stating that you are a UK taxpayer, in order for CARE International to be able to reclaim 28p in Gift Aid per �1 donated.

All donation money raised will be going to CARE International to help fund its work in the developing world. The entire expedition costs are being funded by ourselves, with the kind support of a few product sponsors.

Many thanks for your time and your generosity

Alex, Maz, Max and Martin