Frequently Asked Questions
1. What exactly are you doing?
2. Why on earth are you doing this?
3. What does Link Community Development do?
4. Do you actually hitchhike all the way?
5. Where do you start?
6. How long will it take you?
7. What happens when you get there?
8. Is it safe?
9. Who pays for your hitchhiking?
10. What exactly does the money do?
11. What's in it for me?
1. What exactly are you doing?
We are raising money for Link Community Development (LCD), a children's educational charity in southern Africa. LCD organises the Hitch as a fund-raiser. Since the first one in 1990, some £175,000 in sponsorship has been raised and over 2,500 people have attempted the challenge. Sometime in early April 2006, we will step out of our homes in Oxford, and attempt the Hitch. We hope you will consider sponsoring our challenge.
2. Why on earth are you doing this?
For the children, mainly. It's a grand adventure for a good cause. Who could resist?
3. What does Link Community Development do?
Link Community Development (LCD) is a children's educational charity based in Southern Africa who work to give children the chance to escape poverty via the empowerment of education. They work in partnership with both the formal education sector and local men and women to improve educational opportunities at over 600 schools in disadvantaged rural and township areas. This includes a wide variety of programmes from training teachers to building infrastructure to AIDS/HIV education. For more information, you can visit www.lcd.org.uk.
4. Do you actually hitchhike all the way? What about the Channel and the Mediterranean?
On land, we will definitely be hitchhiking. Crossing bodies of water will be a matter of hitching a ride on boats. Anything to get us across!
On the doorstep of our homes in Oxford. We literally walk out of doors and go!
Around a week is likely, although some people have been known to get there as quickly as 72 hours!
7. What happens when you get there?
The Hitch ends when we check in with the LCD representative in Morocco. After that, it's up to us: we could stay there for a while, laze about, sightsee, or even hitchhike back to England!
Yes. There have been very few incidents over the 15 years the trip has been organised, and every day at an appointed time we have to check in with an LCD representative by mobile phone. Also, the British consulates in all the countries we are passing through have been informed of our trip. The Hitch has been running long enough that the authorities all the way to Morocco are well aware of it and know what we are doing.
9. Who pays for your hitchhiking?
All expenses for the hitch will come out of our own pocket. However, if we manage to raise over £1,000, then we get back £75 each as spending money. Otherwise, we're on our own.
10. What exactly does the money do?
£10 could pay for a desk for a child who now studies on the floor.
£25 could pay for education support workers to visit 5 schools. This ensures schools have the personal support they need to tackle problems both inside the classroom and out.
£100 could train 10 teachers at an HIV / AIDS workshop. Education remains the most effective 'shield' that society has in the battle against HIV and AIDS.
£250 sponsors an entire school for one year. Sponsorship helps fund much needed development grants. It also funds vital training and support for the sponsored school, and more besides! (click here for more information on our School Sponsorship Scheme)
£500 could pay for 50 teachers to attend a literacy workshop. Literacy provides children with a sense of pride, competence, and ability to function more effectively in society.
Apart from the warm fuzzy feeling you'll get from donating to charity, we're also offering some nice incentives for you to donate!
A donation of £5 or more gets you listed on this page as one of our many incredibly good-looking, intelligent, witty and funny Friends and Supporters;
£10 or more also gets you access to our secret daily blog;
£20 or more and we'll also send you a postcard from the two of us from Morocco, plus the benefits listed above;
£35 or more and we will also put together all the blog entries into a printable pdf book format, plus the benefits listed above;
£50 or more and we will actually print out the above book for you, bind it and send it to you, autographed with a message of your choice from both of us, plus the benefits listed above;
And finally, a donation of £60 or more gets you all the above, plus additional negotiable benefits. For example, we could put an advertisement for your company in our book; run an add for your company in our daily blog and/or emails; wear your T-shirt on our Hitchhike; and so on. Please contact us for more information!
To donate, please visit our donation portal at JustGiving.com/Morocco06.