Just the other day, Keith saw a van on the road that we used to have 18 years ago. They were blue back then. Now they’re very yellow indeed. Hard to miss!
By the by, I get distracted,…the news is that we’ve got two of our old yellow vans which we are no longer using, and we’d like to send them to a deserving charity in Africa.
We will clean them up, service and check over the engines and mechanical bits, and service the fridge bit of them first. Then we need to find a charity in Africa that would benefit from a couple of refrigerated vehicles. There are so many though, some are big and some are small…..which one do we choose?
This is where you come in. We wondered if you have an idea of where we could send them.
It would be great to find a small charity that could put 2 old refrigerated vans to good use. We’re restricted to the ports we can get the vehicles shipped in to, and we would need the charity to collect the vehicles from the port once we have got them through all of the red tape.
So, if anybody knows of a charity or would like the opportunity to research a suitable charity then we would love to hear about it.
These are the ports we can get the vehicles to…
Abidjan – Ivory Coast
Boma – Dem. Rep. of Congo.
Cotonou – Benin
Douala – Cameroon
Lagos – Nigeria
Lome – Togo
Luanda – Angla
Port Noire – Rep. of Congo
If you are very keen to donate the vehicles to a charity but the listed ports are not possible, tell us about it anyway with details of the nearest port as we may find a way of getting it there.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
05 Aug 2010 at 00:00
I believe that your vehicles run on LPG – have you looked into whether this is readily available in Africa?
05 Aug 2010 at 11:37
Try Medicins Sana Frontieres if the vans have a working fridge they can be used to transport essential medicines to help those in need…….which is essentially what MSF does throughout the world including Africa.
05 Aug 2010 at 11:50
Hi Nick, you’re right we did have quite a few LPG vehicles but we sold them on some time ago. All of our current vehicles and the 2 vehicles we are donating, run on Diesel and Bio diesel so there will be no problem getting fuel in any of the African countries.
Thank you for asking.
05 Aug 2010 at 17:24
What prompted the change to bio-diesel? I was under the impression that whilst the vehicle’s CO2 emissions are lower, the TOTAL emissions are higher than with regular diesel due to the grain production process. Please do correct me if I’m wrong on this…
06 Aug 2010 at 15:05
Well, as you know, biofuel is a minefield and there is evidence for and against. We moved away from LPG for a handful of reasons including that filling stations were limited then and LPG conversions do not work well with modern engines. However, now our total emissions are actually lower as we use a 10% blend of biofuel made with recycled waste veg oil, so we’re not using virgin oil.
In April 2008 the government committed to the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) setting targets for Sustainable biofuels to substitute fossil fuel and reduce CO2 Emissions. All fuel now purchased at the pump has at least a 5% biofuel blend.
We’re now using compressed natural gas (CNG) produced from biodegradable waste to power our intersite vehicle, and are now looking at how we can use it in our delivery vans. As an alternative to fossil fuels.
I hope this is helpful and clarifies things!
07 Aug 2010 at 10:14
It sounds like you’re well on the right track with your veg oil fuel (and multiple deliveries from one vehicle, compared to lots of people going to supermarkets,of course), although from what you say the RTFO is encouraging any biofuel, including the more polluting kind produced from purpose-grown grain, and not just low total emission types such as your waste oil or bio-ethanol.
That said, any biofuel makes a difference in reducing emissions in built-up areas, so has health benefits even if no environmental ones.
09 Aug 2010 at 10:23
Hi. Have you thought of sending to India. We have a Charity in the mountains of India – we are getting a bus for transportation, but getting food at a decent price that is not rotten is hard as by the time it reaches the villages it’s nearly off. The nearest place to buy food is 4 hours drive away. Check out http://honeychristianministry-mct.org/default.aspx
We are off there in October to sort out paddy fields and the like. The idea is that we get self sustaining and delivery over production locally. We don’t normally go out seeking aid, but as you have it going begging then it could be of some use.
Kindest regards
Joanna
25 Aug 2010 at 11:15
Hi, have you considered contacting a charitable organisation such as the Rotary Club which is very active in Africa. My Mum is very active in a South African branch and they could help you find a suitable recipient. Another organisation is the Lions Club. Both have good websites with details for you to have a look at: http://www.rghf.org/ or http://www.lionsclubs.org/EN/index.php. Hope this helps.
31 Aug 2010 at 09:29
I work for World Emergency Relief (WER), a small (ish) international development charity. We are supporting a dairy project in Burundi that would benefit greatly from a refrigerator van. Milk is currently transported by bicycle – which as you can imagine does lead to some waste.
You can read about the project at http://www.wer-uk.org/content/those-who-dairy-win
Although Burundi is not one of the locations you list WER does regularly ship goods to the region so it is possible that we could include a van in a container.
Please do get in touch with me to discuss this further. ben@wer-uk.org
Thanks,
Ben
06 Sep 2010 at 16:06
We asked you to suggest suitable charities and are now proud to say that we have just confirmed their journey to Africa for late October. Here’s more about the two charities we’ve arranged to give the vans to:
World in Need
This NGO has a farm in Kenya and operates a school on the farm land; future projects include setting up a clinic alongside the school. Training programmes are also in place and already up and running to teach local people about development work, mechanics and welding. The training of local people to do development work is set up and training is already underway this month. Our donated van would be used to run the training and farm personnel and their goods from the farm to the villages.
Barnabas Outreach Trust
This charity is establishing a community centre in Bokoli (amongst other things) which is one of the most impoverished areas of Mombasa. This Community Centre will house a growing community church called ‘New Life’ as well as a school which will provide high quality education for both sponsored and fee paying students. In addition to that the centre will accommodate a clinic and the ‘Life Training Centre’ which will offer vital vocational training as well as community based training in the areas of health and hygiene.
Our vehicle will specifically aid with the following:
1. Training and outreach or church open-air events. In this instance the vehicle will be equipped with public address equipment as open-air promotions are an effective way to reach the community in Kenya.
2. Fund-raising business enterprises. To relieve the charity of some of its financial burden it would help to engage with a local business. The sale and transportation of frozen Tilapia is a highly profitable enterprise here and of course a refrigerated van would be invaluable in this regard.
The two vehicles we have ear-marked for these projects are each five years old. In order for us to give them the best start to their new lives in Africa we have asked Hendy, our Iveco repair centre, and Hubbard, our van refrigeration engineers, to look the vans over and bring them into tip-top condition. Both have kindly agreed! On top of that, Iveco, the van manufacture, have offered to put a ‘first aid kit for vans’ into each van with essential spare parts. And lastly, Commercial Vehicles Exports are footing the bill for the boat journey to Mombasa. Thank you very much to all helping partners, it is much appreciated.
The charities will meet the vans at the Mombasa port in late October.
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