About Us

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We are a group of 18 Ranger Guides & three Leaders from Heron Rangers in East London. We are aged 14 to 19 years old and part of Girlguiding which is the leading charity for girls & young women in the UK. This August we are going on an adventure to South Africa, Zambia and Malawi. We will be partnering with The Book Bus charity to work in two schools in eastern Zambia and Malawi. Our aim is to bring books to life and encourage reading. The Book Bus provides a mobile service and actively promotes literacy to underprivileged communities in Malawi and Zambia. What attracted us to this project is they will continue to provide this much needed service once we've come home. The Book Bus and Girlguiding London South East Region have been working in partnership since 2011 and several other Girlguiding groups have either been to, or are planning to visit, Zambia and Malawi. However..... anyone can volunteer - so if you like what you read - click on this link to see how you too can get involved and make a difference.

Follow our blog to see what we get up to on our adventure.

Team building exercise: crossing shark infested rivers

We are keen to see your comments as we travel and we will post as much as electricity , 2G/3G and WiFi allow.

We were first put together as a team following the "Look Wider... Go Further" Weekend event in March 2012 at Gilwell Park. We had a weekend of lots of activities from the whole Ranger programme and had a chance to do Phase One of every Octant on the Look Wider scheme.

Learning to cook on an open fire

Since then we've been on several Preparation Weekends learning more about our project, making plans, learning how to cook on an open fire and working out what we are going to do when we get there.

Our adventure is a journey through Africa, starting in South Africa and ending in Malawi. We will be camping in tents, cooking for ourselves and experiencing the true Overlanding travel that Africa is famous for. Not only will we be working in primary schools but we also hope to get to meet local people, shop in markets and go on safari. When in Zambia we are staying in South Luangwa National Park - one of Africa's best National Parks and most of the group are particularly looking forward to seeing giraffes and elephants. But we will see!

We are very much looking forward to staying at the Girl Guides of South Africa National Headquarters who are hosting us for a few days. We're keen to see another side of Africa and meet up with some people who've had links with our Guiding county for over 10 years.

Our final part of the journey is in Malawi, known as the Warm Heart of Africa, here we will work in local schools, camp on the beach and relax by the shores of the famous Lake Malawi. 

Kathy, Hayley & Sharon

Our leadership team is Kathy, Sharon and Hayley. All of whom have extensive travel experience (more than 90 countries and counting) and collectively have taken hundreds of Guides and Rangers overseas over the last 20 years to more than 15 countries with a combined Brownie/Guide/Ranger Leader experience of nearly 50 years! All three have held the position of County International Adviser at some point in the last 15 years (and Kathy is a former Region International Adviser) and they all love training other adult leaders to give them the confidence and knowledge of what's involved in order that they take their own Brownies, Guides and Rangers on international adventures.
They share a love for Africa and have travelled extensively throughout the continent. Kathy and Sharon have been to Malawi and Zambia before and Hayley has worked on community projects in Namibia and South Africa. We will be fully supported by The Book Bus volunteer team who work and operate in the area every April to October.