Apologies for not having written this a long time ago. The plan was and still is to give you a feature article every two weeks or so. Things will improve! A great deal has happened over the past couple of months and the project has made some huge advances. Our profile has grown, corporate and individual support has been gained and funds have been arriving in larger quantities than ever. We now have a registered charity account named 'Demelza re Kent to Cape Town' (no 1039651). This has enabled us to accept CAF Gift Aid donations.

We have finally selected our 6th team member. Her name is Colette Stewart; she's 34 and has a great deal of experience of journalism, PR, documentary making and filming. She was selected from a short list of five extremely capable and accomplished documentary makers and we are confident that we have made the right choice. Her photograph and a brief resume will be displayed alongside the other team members shortly. Video Europe have donated us two superb Sony PD 150 digital video camcorders. These are state of the art cameras and ideal for mobile filming. We have had lots of interesting ideas for the documentary and are attracting interest from various broadcasters. Who knows, maybe you'll see us on TV!

We have recently been interviewed for the second time on BBC Radio Kent, have featured in various local papers and have the prospect of exposure in the Daily Telegraph. Our ever-growing profile has begun to have the desired effect. The 'Freight Forwarding Company', based in Sheerness, Kent responded to an article with a donation of £5000.00 and various companies including the Saga Group Plc are currently discussing the extent to which they will support us. I just hope they're feeling rich this year! Mark is pressing on with his search for sponsorship of expedition equipment and has had significant success. He has, however, like so many, been feeling the ripples of the recent 'Foot and Mouth' crisis. Some of the larger expedition outfitters fear a loss of income due to the probability that imminent Land Rover shows will be cancelled. As a result they have temporarily cut their sponsorship budgets. We remain hopeful on this front and have been compensated by successes in other areas.

As you know, the project is being carried out in association with Land Rover. Our exact relationship has been ambiguous but we now have confirmation that they will provide us with most of our expedition accessories, driving and mechanical training. Although a possibility, donation of vehicles now seems unlikely and so provision has been made to buy these from the MoD at auction. One way or another we are confident to have the vehicles and begin preparing them for expedition by early April. To give you an idea, our vehicles will be similar to these which have recently returned from the Newcastle2Newcastle expedition.

In addition to seeking corporate sponsorship and appealing to grant making trusts, much of our fund raising efforts have been spent organizing events. The 'England-2-Africa' row has been completed by students at Hatfield, Durham and was a huge success. Once all monies have been raised they expect to hand over about £3000.00. This is an excellent achievement and we are grateful for all their commitment and hard work. A raffle is currently being set up and we have already received some great prizes. As soon as we have had the tickets printed we shall be going for the hard sell! A fund raising clay pigeon shoot is being organized in Essex by Patrick Judson and an African themed lunch is due to be hosted by Rory's mother in Devon. We are planning a James Bond theme Night, which will take place at the Canterbury Christ Church College Student Union on 4th May. Hopefully this will be a good money-spinner and tickets will be on sale soon. We would be extremely grateful to hear from anyone wishing to take on a fund raising event however large or small it may be. In addition to this various schools have taken on fund raising projects on our behalf and Rory is planning to get sponsored to shave his hair off!

'Demelza House now has a new Chairman, Richard Oldfield. Mark and I met him recently and were inspired by his enthusiasm for and confidence in the project. He kindly organized a promotional 'garden party' which should have taken place on Saturday 17th but once again the dreaded 'Foot and Mouth' prevented this from going ahead. We are sorry for any inconvenience that this cancellation may have caused and hope to reschedule the event at a later date. The staff at Demelza House are as enthusiastic and helpful as ever and were delighted when we presented them with the 'Bio Car' (pictured), which was kindly donated by 'The Worshipful Company of Carman'.

We have received kind letters of gratitude and thanks from the organizations we are due to work with in Africa. Knowing that our efforts are appreciated means a great deal to us and, whilst watching some of the footage featured on 'Comic Relief' recently, we felt an enormous sense of pride that we will be out there helping children who really are in need.

Things are busier than ever. We juggle earning money for our own overheads with raising our profile, raising funds, dealing with red tape and the thousand other tasks, which go unnoticed. We are keen for the complete team to move into a house together. Not only will this increase productivity but will get us used to being cramped up together.

Jonathan Besley - Project Leader

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