About Transaid

I am very pleased to be supporting Transaid through participating in the year's Cycle Zambia Challenge.  I have posted a lot about the challenge, my training and fundraising so far, but thought it would be worth sharing a bit more information about the charity itself and some of the amazing work in Africa which it supports.  See an overview of Transaid's programmes below, including a couple of great videos and infographics.

Transaid transforms lives through safe, available, and sustainable transport

Founded by Save the Children, The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), and its Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, the international development organisation shares 25 years’ worth of expertise in 23 countries with partners and governments – empowering people to build the skills they need to transform their own lives.

Transaid supports many programs and works with many partners in two main areas:

• Access to Healthcare
• Road Safety

Access to Healthcare Programmes

People living in rural areas of Africa often struggle to access vital services. Around 75% of maternal deaths can be avoided through timely access to vital childbirth-related care (Source: The World Bank).

What we do:

• We empower people to transform their own lives through access to vital services, such as healthcare
• We transform rural access to vital services – We enable women, children, and men in rural communities to reach health services when they are in need.
• We strengthen transport systems and this can provide access to appropriate forms of transport.
• Our work includes the use of Emergency Transport Schemes to transport pregnant mothers with complications. We also help community health workers reach the families who need them.

Click here to see a video highlighting the importance of the ETS to reducing childhood mortality from malaria in Zambia https://youtu.be/P7kpjv3UtuE

Click here to view an infographic on our impact in access to healthcare in sub-Saharan from 2014-2017.

Road Safety Programmes

In sub-Saharan Africa, road deaths are the third biggest killer following HIV/AIDS and Malaria (Source: The World Bank) and the problem will only rise with the growing population. Drivers are at risk every time they sit behind the wheel due to a lack of legal enforcement and training, and badly maintained and overloaded vehicles.

What we do:

• We support drivers, governments, and training institutions to improve road safety
• We transform driver training
• We work with partners and governments to train driver trainers. Our driver training programmes make drivers more competent, vehicles safer, and reduce death and injury on the road.
• We work with governments and other organisations to create and promote far-reaching improvements in driving standards, including curricula development. We also work on transport management systems, joining with partners to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve the management and maintenance of fleets of vehicles.

Click here to see a video of the Driver Training Program in Tanzania https://youtu.be/oCHzhOlpp1w

Click here to view an infographic which shows our impact on road safety in sub-Saharan Africa between 2016-2017.

You can read more about Transaid's current and past programmes here http://www.transaid.org/programmes/

Thank you to my Corporate Sponsors

Over the last few weeks I have been focusing my fundraising efforts on getting companies signed up to sponsor their logo on my cycling jersey for the challenge.  People normally do this by approaching their suppliers who are usually happy to get their logo and help out a good customer.

I have to say the response has been great.  The nature of the charity and of the challenge appeals to my sponsors as much as it does to me and the opportunity to be associated with this has got people on board.  I suspect some people perhaps also are hoping I might not come back...

The final shirt design can be seen below.  Many thanks to all those companies and individuals who are keen to contribute to this great charity.  The jerseys should arrive around the end of August so you should soon see me in person or on photographs on social media parading round the Cheshire and Derbyshire roads.

Specific thanks go to the following individuals and their businesses:

Martin Woodward, CEO at ToolsGroup Brookes in London:  I have worked with Martin and his team for nearly 8 years, supporting their healthcare customers and more lately a number of major accounts in the logistics space.  Martin very generously contributed to last year's C2C challenge and again this year to Cycle Zambia.  

Joe Shamir, CEO, and Caroline Proctor, Chief Marketing Officer at ToolsGroup in Boston, have also generously added to the ToolsGroup Brookes UK sponsorship.  I have worked with and implemented ToolsGroup's SO99+ product at many customers over the past few years.  Their "Powerfully Simple" tools and approach delivers great results to complex supply chains and they are true leaders in advanced analytics and supply chain optimisation.  You may have spotted I have adapted their tagline for this blog (with permission!).

Adrian Veale and Paul Darley at Mitten Clarke in Stoke:  Adrian has been my accountant for nearly 10 years since I left the corporate world and set up Innovate 360 nearly 10 years ago.  Paul has been looking after my pension and providing professional advice and guidance on planning for what I hope will be a long and healthy retirement!  Adrian has also helped out businesses in Africa and spent time a couple of years ago in Rwanda on his own charity challenge.

David Howarth at defibshop.co.uk / Imperative Training in Irlam:  I met David a few years ago when I did some mentoring of high growth business CEOs and entrepreneurs.  David had already grown a successful business doing First Aid and Food Safety Training for large and small businesses.  He had also started to sell defibrillators as an online business and was looking at major growth plans.  I was very impressed by his ambition, vision and capabilities and both businesses have gone from strength to strength.

Mike Rozenfeld and the team at Attainia in Scottsdale, AZ:  I have worked with Attainia for over 10 years, initially as a client when I worked at NHS Supply Chain and for the past 8 years supporting the growth of their business across Europe, Middle East and Africa.  Speaking at a number of conferences has given me the opportunity to meet ministers of health and their teams in many countries, including recently from the Ministries of Health in Zambia, South Africa, Nigeria and Uganda - all countries where Transaid has active programmes.

Guy Salmon Land Rover Knutsford: I have been a fan of the Landrover for many years and the owner of a Discovery Sport for the past two.  I am very grateful to Julie Ripley and the team at Guy Salmon Landrover Knutsford for their generous sponsorship and for their excellent sales and post sales service.

Sarah Lafferty at Round Earth Consulting:  I have worked with Sarah on a number of articles, customer case studies and campaigns with ToolsGroup over a number of years and her creative abilities combined with a solid grasp of technology are beyond compare.

Alasdair Kenney of ClickChemist for his long term friendship, great humour and camaraderie.  You are much more likely to see Alasdair playing golf or hockey than on a bicycle.

Matt Townsend at Ultimate Creative Communications in Knutsford, for his financial and design support as well as his encouragement to cycle further and harder in some wonderful places around the North of England.  Perhaps next year I will make the Holmes Chapel Velo Majorca trip if I survive Zambia!

Thank you also to the owners of a number of local businesses in Holmes Chapel