Part 2 – The Return
A big thank you to all our supporters who contributed to the CGHP Challenge! You walked, ran, and cycled more than 11,000 miles – congratulations! This incredible team effort means that we were able to go far beyond our original target of Kampala, past Gaborone, and all the way around the southern tip of Africa.
Now that we’ve accumulated 11,000 miles and crossed the length of the African continent, we’re announcing the next stage. We want to raise £1 for every mile and travel back to Cambridge.
If this is the first time you’re hearing about the CGHP Challenge, then here’s the gist of it. On 26 April, we joined the UK-wide 2.6 Challenge to raise awareness of global health and the international threat of COVID-19. We called on our members, partners, and supporters to walk, run, or cycle during a period of 26 days, and let us know how much distance they covered, to see if we could tally it all up to (virtually) reach Kampala – our closest partnership 5,800 miles away from Cambridge. Thanks to more than 100 energetic participants, we achieved our goal and we decided to keep going!
Matching miles with pounds to make this return journey possible exemplifies how global health partnerships work: matching the efforts of dedicated healthcare professionals with the vital funding to cover their costs. Our members and partners volunteer expertise, time, and hard work. Our supporters provide funding to enable country visits, online learning, and programme management.
So in the spirit of CGHP’s partnership way of working, let’s match the hard work of 11,000 miles with charitable donations of £11,000!
CLICK TO DONATEThe money raised will support our partners in their immediate pandemic response, as well as enable CGHP to continue its long-term education and improvement projects beyond the COVID-19 emergency. Your donations will support:- COVID-19 training materials and best practice sharing
- Procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) and hand sanitiser
- Clinical skills training sessions and mentoring
- Long-term volunteer placements
- Logistics, planning, and programme support
“This is a really an awe-inspiring fundraising challenge and I sincerely hope that we can match all the miles contributed with solid cash. This will allow CGHP and the NHS to continue growing their wonderful work more effectively – well done everybody.” – Derek Jones, CGHP supporter
If you’d like to add a bit of flair to your fundraising, why not pledge to raise an amount equal to one of these CGHP Challenge milestones? Contact us at cghp@act4addenbrookes.org.uk with your chosen milestone. This will give you a fun fundraising target, and we will make a social media announcement to help you get started!
Or, simply make a donation of any amount using the button above.
CGHP Challenge Milestones
- 1) Southern tip of Africa
- 2) Gaborone to Francistown
- 3) Zimbabwe to Zambia
- 4) Kampala and Beyond
- 5) Through the Sahel
- 6) The Sahara Challenge
- 7) Crossing the Mediterranean
- 8) The Return Home
Cape Agulhas to Victoria West (South Africa)
375 miles
South Africa has been hit the hardest by COVID-19 among African countries. The number of new infections is rising rapidly, a reminder that this global pandemic is far from over.
Image: Olga Ernst, Mandela Statue
Gaborone to Francistown (Botswana)
269 miles
CGHP’s first partnership was established with Botswana, to improve eye health services. We also work on neonatal nurse education and have enabled maxillofacial surgery activities.
Image: members of the NNEP partnership
Bulawayo (Zimbabwe) to Lower Zambezi National Park (Zambia)
535 miles
Demographics and social determinants play a major part in health, which is often why healthcare priorities in African countries are different from the UK. The median age in Zambia is around 17 years, 20 in Zimbabwe, and 40 in the UK.
Image: Diego Delso, Victoria Falls, Zambia
Katavi National Park (Tanzania) to Kampala (Uganda) to Rasul (South Sudan)
1,323 miles
The Cambridge-Kampala health partnership began through collaboration on maternal and neonatal care. Today our work includes infection prevention and control, and antimicrobial stewardship, key areas for Uganda’s COVID-19 response.
Image: members of the Kampala – Cambridge Partnership
Batangafo (Central African Republic), through Chad
984 miles
The Central African Republic and Chad have just over 2 nursing and midwifery personnel per 10,000 people, in Niger it’s nearly 3, compared to almost 82 in the UK. The global shortage of health workers is a growing problem, with poor countries feeling the need most urgently.
Image: Oliver Wright – African Bush Elephant, Mikumi
Agadez (Niger) to Laghouat (Algeria)
1,438 miles
Our planet and its populations face a diverse range of health challenges. Differences in access, affordability, and quality of healthcare between countries are stark. Global health is a way to make healthy lives and well being possible for all.
Image: Dan Lundberg – Grand Mosque of Agadez in Niger
Oran (Algeria) to Alicante (Spain)
188 miles
The Mediterranean basin is the cradle of Western medicine, dating back to Hippocrates and beyond. But there are many medical traditions in the world – it is critical that we learn from each other and share knowledge, which is what health partnerships are about.
Image: Bfoto.ru – Alicante, Spain
Bordeaux (France) to Cambridge (UK)
575 miles
Globally, life expectancy is increasing, which indicates that people’s health is improving on average. But wealthy regions, like Europe, are still far ahead of poorer ones, like Sub-Saharan Africa. The difference in life expectancy between the two is 16 years.
Image: Cambridge Biomedical Campus