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Last broadcast on Sat, 1 Aug 2009, 10:00 on BBC Radio 4.
Synopsis
After a crisis in her life, and feeling that she had nothing left to lose, Terri Julians travelled to South Africa to work with the families of AIDS victims in Kwazulu-Natal. Sandi Toksvig talks to her about her life in rural Zululand, the people she lived among and how her own life was affected by the experience.
Fiona Waller's efforts in a transatlantic rowing race encouraged her to want to become one of the first women to row across the Indian Ocean. As a member of a team of four females she has achieved just that, and along with fellow rower Jo Jackson joins Sandi to talk about what made them want to attempt such a record, the hardship of rowing non-stop for 78 days - especially in a cyclone - and what they sang on the way.
The Pamir Highway is one of the highest and hardest roads to travel in central Asia. Elise Laker and Kate Holberton have recently returned from journeying along it, particularly in Tajikistan, a country so unused to tourists they don't even have hotels on the highway. They tell Sandi about a land that is far from being a holiday hotspot.
Terri Julians
Terri Julians returned to the UK last year after spending a couple of years as a volunteer aid-worker in a very remote area of KwaZulu -Natal in the North East of South Africa. Terri had been in contact with a small NGO called Ingwavuma Orphan Care, having come across their work whilst researching the Zulu wars on the internet. She decided to volunteer her services and gave up job, security, sold her pots and pans to raise the money to go.
Ingwavuma Orphan Care
“a community organisation that provides physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual and economic services to the people of Umkhanyakude, KwaZulu Natal, through direct support and community mobilisation to improve their quality of life.”
Fiona Waller and Jo Jackson
Fiona Waller and Jo Jackson are two members of the four women team Ocean Angels who came second in the recent Indian Ocean Rowing race. Ocean Angels are the first all women team to row the Indian Ocean. They took 78 days and covered 3,450 miles. Fiona Waller is a photographer and in 2007 having had a two year all clear from cancer, she applied to join a team of women rowing across the Atlantic in the Woodvale Ocean Rowing Race from the Canaries to Antigua. Jo Jackson is a chartered surveyor and Fiona’s friend. Although Jo had never rowed before she was looking for a challenge and was delighted to be selected for the trip.
Elise Laker and Kate Holberton
Elise Laker and Kate Holberton are friends who have just graduated from Nottingham University. Towards the end of their final year they decided on a trip to Central Asia. They went there using the Lonely Planet as their guide to homestays - a network of places to stay in people’s houses. They flew to Tashkent in Uzbekistan spent six weeks traveling around Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan by bus and the local taxis – a sort of jeep vehicle including travelling along the Pamir Highway which winds through central Asia.
Broadcast
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Sat 1 Aug 200910:00
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