I'm The Huffington Post's "Greatest Person Of The Day"!

So there I was, sitting in theatre, minding my own business and watching the International Ballet Gala with Hanret. On exiting the theatre I check my phone (as we all do nowadays, heaven forbid we miss a call or that all important sms). It just so happened that I did receive an all important message.

A rather frantic Miguel Martim, Founder and CEO of Iduka, the charity organization I support, is trying to get hold of me with great urgency!

"The Huffington Post wants to do an interview with you...NOW" - he says over the phone from his home in the USA. We have a quick chat, and then I wait for the call.

Today, as I do a Google search, I find the article.

I am The Huffington Post's "Greatest Person of the Day"!
Yay!! What an honor.
I am delighted!! Thank you Miguel!!

And thank you to The Huffington Post! :)

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Life in Windhoek

I arrived in Windhoek almost a week ago, as you all know. The weekend was spent meeting some of Ray's (my host in Namibia) friends, getting in some rest and catching up on some more mundane duties like doing washing. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I really launched into setting up everything I want to do whilst in town. My first port of call of course being the Angolan embassy!!

I hovered into the embassy on positive thoughts and a Yoda-like attitude as to what needs to be done. "Apply for my visa I will. Give it to me you must". Squash me like a bug, they did! LoL!! I was told that I need to have insurance (which my non-existent budget just doesn't allow), and a letter of invitation.

Okidoki. So my focus then turned on obtaining at letter of invitation. I then had to leave my visa hunt to get to my first live radio interview in Namibia. Had a wonderful time in studio with a lively team at RadioWave!

Thereafter I had a meeting with a potential sponsor and then off to Cycletec to see if we could organise some TLC for Luna! Busy day!!

Tuesday I was off with map in hand, negotiating my way through the city center on Luna on route to an interview with The Namibian.

I had another interview lined up for the afternoon and met up with George, the Namibian country coordinator for Iduka. My interview got postponed and I dropped Luna off at Cycletec for a service.

In between all of this Ray, was on his phone, ringing up all his friends and friends of friends who might have friends in Angola who might be able to help!! :-))

Wednesday was a VERY productive day!! Up and going early with my first meeting with Dixon Norval at First National Bank. (If you've read Riaan's book, you'll know who he is!) Some quick brain storming with the marketing team resulted in some sponsorship from FNB! Woohoo! I can now breathe a bit! In return I will be giving motivational talks at 10 primary schools on route! Awesome! :-)

From there I spent some time in town and even donated blood at a local shopping centre! Quickly ran into an internet café and then off to Cycletec to pick Luna up and get to my interview with Republikein newspaper.

Interview and photos with FNB representatives done, it was off to Namibia Breweries for a meeting with their marketing team! (I will have to wait until next week to divulge news resulting of this meeting)!!

And last night I had dinner at the beautiful River Crossing resort with the social responsibility manager of Desert Star. A great evening, good meal and new friends made!!

I will be back at the embassy this morning pursuing my elusive visa. Last night though, I made us spaghetti bolognaise and played a board game with new friends. :-)

The Namibian getting ready to distribute around Windhoek...

...the story about a woman on a bicycle!!

Windhoek skyscrapers...

...and a Windhoek street market!

Tokkie en Ziggie from Cycletec giving Luna some loving attention!

Finding time in a busy day to donate blood!

Dinner with Rochelle at the beautiful River Crossing resort

Meeting up with Caleb Thole, an Iduka volunteer from Malawi.

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Jolandie Partners with Iduka

A few weeks ago, I was approached by an organization named "Iduka".

About Iduka

Iduka, founded in 2009, is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote post-secondary education. Since starting its pilot project in Africa in 2010, Iduka has mobilized thousands of local students and volunteers in all of the African countries participating in the program. Iduka is launching a few campaigns to assist African students achieve their goals of post-secondary or tertiary education, including its campaign specifically targeting girls’ education.

They are an organization based in the U.S.A.
"Iduka is committed to bringing change to our community, country, and the world by helping students realize their dreams of a college education."

I have partnered with Iduka in promoting post-secondary education in all the countries I will be cycling through, with a special focus on girls' education.

The Name

The name is inspired by the Latin word educare, which is a root of the English word education. Educare means “to educate, to rear, to teach, to bring up, to raise” or “to support.”

The Mission

Iduka’s mission is to promote college affordability by connecting students with gifters, schools, and community service organizations through an Internet based micro-loan program.

Our goal is to provide students and their families one more financial tool to help them in their pursuit of higher education. We make this possible by offering an innovative plan based in a Web-based micro-lending system that connects gifters with students, and incorporates, whenever possible, student volunteerism as a mean for students to pay back their loans.

The Vision

Our vision is to become the world’s first person-to-person web-based program exclusively devoted to providing student micro-loans to all local, national, and international students in need of additional financial aid.


My Part

I will be acting as Iduka's principal fundraiser. I am working closely with Iduka's Executive Director, Miguel Martim. I will meet with local communities and Iduka volunteers all over Africa, give grants to students and promote education as I go along.
I will also be meeting with government officials in most of the countries I travel through to deliver an open letter, calling on them to deliver on education.

Together, Iduka and I will raise funds for my journey and for Iduka's mission.

We also have a communications officer, Jessica Field, based in the United Kingdom that will help with keeping blogs updated and spreading the word via the internet.

We hope to do some live-streaming of the trip. This is still being discussed.

More information on our partnership and details will follow. So keep and eye on this page.

For more information on Iduka, please visit:

Iduka's Website
Iduka's Blog

So as you can see, this is truly a global event with people involved from all corners of the Earth! :)



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