\nTwitter:\u00a0@lindikhayafrica<\/a><\/strong>
\nFacebook:\u00a0www.facebook.com\/lindikhaya<\/a><\/strong>
\nVirgin Money Giving:\u00a0uk.virginmoneygiving.com\/lindikhaya<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
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Our UK readers may have seen in the papers recently that a SOAS (School of Oriental and\u00a0African Studies) study has recently become a large thorn in the flank of the Fair Trade brand. Also\u00a0in that of us well intentioned gentrified folk wandering through Waitrose trying to buying\u00a0\u2018ethically\u2019. How convenient it was to pay a few pennies more for coffee and educate Ethiopians!<\/p>\n
As convenient as it is to trust these so called \u2018ethical\u2019 brands, it is always good to go and check\u00a0for yourself every now and then. We\u2019re young enough to go and do just that! Fortunately Tusk is\u00a0doing a great job, and we will only be reminding you of how important their work is.<\/p>\n
An incredibly human-sized team has reached out to so many people over their 24 years of\u00a0existence that they have raised 20 MILLION POUNDS.\u00a0That\u2019s not even the best of it, Tusk has a foot in 17 African countries, through 52 different\u00a0projects, that\u2019s a lot of feet… It was one of the few charities whose work we could follow\u00a0throughout most of our drive, offering the best kind of stopover you could hope for on our\u00a015,000km journey.<\/p>\n
Yet, that wasn\u2019t the crucial factor for me. Western aid has had a controversial impact in Africa\u00a0for far too long, for the simple reason that no one thought Africans could help themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly Africans [are] capable of making a difference in Africa. All the others, donors and\u00a0volunteers and bankers, however idealistic, [are] simply agents of subversion.\u201d
\n\u2015 Paul Theroux, Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town<\/p>\n
Well Tusk did. With its holistic approach to conservation, it has been promoting environmental\u00a0education, sustainable development and a balance between communities and wildlife in Africa\u00a0for longer than I\u2019ve been alive.\u00a0In the short run, it is irresistibly tempting to focus on saving rhinos and elies. Tusk pushed their\u00a0horizon further and further though, forever diagnosing the ills of African ecology to find the root\u00a0of the problem, not just to put a plaster on a broken leg. Through workshops and courses for\u00a0young and old, Tusk endorsed projects seek to open African eyes to the riches on their doorstep,\u00a0and how they can benefit from them.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t tell the hungry man he can\u2019t poach to feed his family, but show him how to make a chilli\u00a0bomb (literally) to keep the elephants off his crops and he might not have to!<\/p>\n
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Website:\u00a0www.lindikhaya.com<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n
\nTwitter:\u00a0@lindikhayafrica<\/a><\/strong>
\nFacebook:\u00a0www.facebook.com\/lindikhaya<\/a><\/strong>
\nVirgin Money Giving:\u00a0uk.virginmoneygiving.com\/lindikhaya<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
![\"tusk\"](\"http:\/\/www.ididgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/tusk.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"AMI\"](\"http:\/\/www.ididgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/AMI.png\")
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