Raleigh International
Encyclopedia
Youth
Youth is the time of life between childhood and adulthood . Definitions of the specific age range that constitutes youth vary. An individual's actual maturity may not correspond to their chronological age, as immature individuals could exist at all ages.-Usage:Around the world, the terms "youth",...
and sustainable development
Sustainable development
Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...
charity that aims to help people of all backgrounds and nationalities to discover their full potential through their work to improve communities and protect the environment.
This is primarily done through 4-10 week challenging expeditions to Borneo Malaysia, Costa Rica & Nicaragua and India. Past destinations have included Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
& Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
, Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
, Malaysia, Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
and Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
. The expeditions themselves generally comprise three parts (Adventure, Environment and Community), each lasting about three weeks.
Projects are planned with local partners allowing participants to work alongside local people in rural communities and habitats to improve the local living conditions and reduce the impact of poverty. Most work involves using low cost sustainable technologies such as biogas ovens, rain water harvesting, gravity feed water systems as well as building schools and community centres which the community needs. Work in partnership with governments and national parks over many years has supported their conservation efforts by improving the infrastructure of national parks or reducing human-animal conflict.
People can apply from around the world either as venturers (17-24 year olds) or as volunteer managers (25-75 years) who undertake a variety of roles including project manager, expedition photographer, medic, communication officer and logistics manager. Raleigh is a member of The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services
National Council for Voluntary Youth Services
The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services is a membership network of around 170 voluntary and community organisations, as well as local and regional networks, who work with young people and operate in England...
(NCVYS), Bond (for international development)
Bond (for international development)
Bond is the UK membership body for non-governmental organisations working in international development. Established in 1993, Bond now has over 350 members...
and Civicus.
Raleigh also works with companies such as Green & Black's
Green & Black's
Green & Black's is a UK-based chocolate company, owned by Kraft Foods. The company produces a range of chocolate bars, ice cream, biscuits and hot chocolate with its principal manufacturing sites in Poland and Italy...
, supporting their efforts to develop sustainable Fairtrade cocoa communities, and the Airbus
Airbus
Airbus SAS is an aircraft manufacturing subsidiary of EADS, a European aerospace company. Based in Blagnac, France, surburb of Toulouse, and with significant activity across Europe, the company produces around half of the world's jet airliners....
Corporate Foundation, taking their staff into India to build biogas plants for tribal families in order to reduce their need to take wood from the forests for cooking fuel.
History
Initially a five-year project under the name of "Operation Raleigh" (1984-1989), it was a follow-up to the successful Operation DrakeOperation Drake
Operation Drake was a round-the-world voyage with the participation of young people from many countries. The voyage was centred around the brigantine Eye of the Wind. She left Plymouth in October 1978 and returned to London two years later, in December 1980.Named after Sir Francis Drake, who had...
, and included 4,000 volunteers from around the world and 1,500+ staff by using ship-based expeditions.
As the initiative flourished, it was decided that it should become permanent, and the expeditions migrated to being land-based operation.
In 1992, following the increased number of international volunteers, the venture was renamed "Raleigh International" with a continued organizational focus on youth and sustainable development.
In 2009 a 32 year old volunteer died on one of their expeditions in Namibia 'after an instructor displayed a “complacent” attitude to safety'
Alumni
Notable celebrities that have been on Raleigh expeditions include Prince William who spent 10 weeks in Chile in 2000, his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Marina Ogilvy, daughter of Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady OgilvyPrincess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy
Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy is the youngest granddaughter of King George V of the United Kingdom and Mary of Teck. She is the widow of Sir Angus Ogilvy...
, BBC journalist Kate Silverton
Kate Silverton
Kate Silverton is an English journalist, currently employed by the BBC.- Early life and education :Silverton was born in Essex, England, the daughter of English parents; Terry Silverton, a black-cab driver turned registered hypnotherapist and Patricia Silverton, who now heads her daughter's...
, Ray Mears
Ray Mears
Raymond Paul "Ray" Mears is an English woodsman, instructor, author and TV presenter. His TV appearances cover bushcraft and survival techniques, and he is best known for the TV series Ray Mears' Bushcraft, Ray Mears' World of Survival, Extreme Survival, Survival with Ray Mears, Wild Britain with...
and Mark O'Shea
Mark O'Shea
Mark O'Shea is a herpetologist, photographer, author, lecturer, and television personality.Originally from Wolverhampton, Mark O'Shea moved to Shropshire in 2001...
who participated in three Raleigh expeditions from 1985-1989.
The following is taken from an interview with Ray Mears by Andrew Smith on Sunday February 17, 2002
'As an only child growing up in the southeast of England (Sussex, Kent, Surrey), he spent most of his free time alone in the woods ('In a way, I think I walked into the woods and nature saw me and said, "Walk this way." I think something similar happens to most of us in life. We don't choose our path, it chooses us'), but could see no way of applying what he learnt at school or university ('I think that was very sad, looking back on it: I didn't think I'd learnt anything, I was just doing what I enjoyed'). As a result, he left school in 1982 at the age of 18 and took a job in the City, where he had a terrible time.
'It was ghastly,' he laughs. 'That doesn't mean I think it's bad, I just hate that sort of life. For me to be there is not good for anybody, cos I'm unhappy and if I'm unhappy, I'm going to buck against that.'
The failure hurt, but faded when he landed a job on the Operation Raleigh project, where inner-city kids are brought together and whisked away on adventures. Here, he learnt to work in a team and realized that he had acquired something of value in the woods. Afterwards, he turned to setting up the survival-instruction business that he still runs with Rachel, his partner of 10 years, whom he met on one of his courses and whose nearly grown children he helped to raise when he wasn't traveling ('Rachel's older than me: I won't have children of my own,' he states with resigned finality). Then, in 1996, he was asked to co-present the travel programme Tracks . He's never looked back.
'After Operation Raleigh, it all becomes a blur, really. The years seem to go past like minutes and all of a sudden you start to feel a few aches in your bones and think, "Oh my God, I'm mortal!" I don't like it. I fight against it, I have to say.'
I can still hear him laughing as he disappears into the woods and his basha.'