August 2009
Hello,
I am contacting you regarding CarolineÂ’s Rainbow Foundation new website, we are re launching the site after six years in operation. We are registered UK charity working to raise awareness of the importance of safe travel to young people, whether they are going aboard for independent travel, gap years, organised tours or simply visiting a different country.
We established Caroline’s Rainbow Foundation after the tragic death of Caroline Stuttle in 2002 in Bundaberg Australia whilst travelling on her gap year. Aimed at young travellers, CRF works with the education sector, The Foreign Office and other organisations, trusts and charities to provide easy accessible and helpful information about safe travel. In particular the charity provides information about personal safety abroad and encourages young people to recognise and prioritise lifeÂ’s values where ever they maybe in the world.
We are looking to give specific travel/personal safety information to a country or city in our Global Guide; other new features include podcasts and travel stories with safety tips, our “Time of Your Life” DVD and recorded presentations we give in schools and colleges to promote travel safety awareness and the importance of following your dreams.
The new layout for our site means that it is a great foundation for the expansion of travel safety information, the Global Guide will only grow, all our information has been gathered by researchers that have travelled to the places and experienced the culture and local customs. If you would like to contribute to the site in the way of personal and travel safety information please contact us.
Kind regards
Richard Stuttle
Founder
PO BOX 216
YORK
YO42 4WZ
Email: richard@carolinesrainbowfoundation.org
Website: www.carolinesrainbowfoundation.org
Registered Charity No 1095766
Uk Company Registration No: 4525003
Regular contributor Mac ruminates on the world of travel & some of his adventures along the way
Luke Freeman – A Drovers view of Madagascar Luke’s talk was based on the time he spent with the cattle drovers, who take the long horned cattle from the highlands to markets on the coast. Cattle are currency in Madagascar, they can even be seen on the bank notes. These young men hope to earn enough from this hard existence to set themselves up in life. The Drovers carry only the basic’s, a blanket, polythene sheet which they use when it rains and as a shelter at night, cooking pot and some clothes. They buy food from markets along the way, though often end up having to pay for what their cattle steal from the same markets as well. As well as the obvious hardships, the Drovers also have to deal with local bandits, who raid villages. The Police also have check points where they check the cattle’s “Passports” and paperwork, each cow has its own document and woe betide the drovers if it doesn’t all match up. Luke is an Anthropologist and has come to the conclusion that in many ways the drovers of Madagascar are responsible for helping maintain the country’s cohesion and common language, despite the diverse ethnic make up of the country. One surprising fact about Madagascar is that its population eats more rice per person than any other country on the planet. 
Our second speaker was Ed Gillespie whose talk was called “Around the World without the aluminium sausage!”. Ed set out to travel around the round with his girlfriend emitting as little carbon as possible. His original idea was to parody Phileas Fogg and go “RTW in 80 ways”, but he soon realised this would involve lots of animals! But in 381 days Ed managed to travel 45,000 miles via 31 countries emitting just 1.8 Tonnes of carbon. He left the UK by ship for Spain, then travelled across Europe by train to Moscow, across Russia to Irkutsk where his Scottish girlfriend was delighted to find Irn Bru being in a supermarket! Through China and then by cargo ship to Japan and Hong Kong, before resorting to buses on the backpacker routes through south east Asia. After a stop in New Zealand to visit his cousins, he travelled by rust bucket across the Pacific to Mexico and buses through Central America, before finding a container ship heading for Dover and home. 