The real cost of foreign aid

The irony is not lost on Liam Garcia. Soon he will set out on a six-month, 4,400-mile expedition across Africa to try determine the success or failure of aid projects to provide clean water. For much of the time it’s likely to be pouring with rain.

“In terms of the weather, we are going at the best and worst of times,” says the 28 year old from Sheffield. “Temperature wise it shouldn’t be too hot or too cold, but yes, we are prepared for an awful lot of rain. We are going to be filming the journey for a documentary and I suspect there will be times when we are stood there up to our ankles in rainwater, talking about how so many people still don’t have access to clean, safe water supplies.”

Liam’s journey will begin in Cape Town, but the seeds of the expedition were sown four years ago when he returned home from a spell living in Europe where he had funded his travels by working variously as a chef and a labourer on building sites.

“I’d had a great time, but it had been all about me,” he says. “When I came back to Sheffield I knew I wanted to do something more fulfilling, something which was centred around helping others, I just didn’t know what.”

Those initial idle thoughts eventually saw Liam set up a charity which funds small scale water projects in Africa. There are hundreds of other organisations doing similar things, but there are a few crucial differences between most of the existing charities and The Long Well Walk. For a start, 100 per cent of all donations are ploughed into the community projects and few others have gone to quite such lengths to raise awareness about their work.

“Last year I set off from Sheffield on the first leg of the walk,” says Liam. “The idea was to walk from England across Europe and use that time to raise money and awareness, not just about the charity, but also about next year’s big expedition.”

It is 30 years ago since Michael Buerke’s report from famine-stricken Ethiopia which mobilised not just Bob Geldof to launch Live Aid, but a thousand other fundraising projects. Since then individuals, businesses and the British government have given millions to international aid projects.

That commitment is seen as the right thing to do, but there are also concerns that the projects fail to deliver, that the money often ends up in the wrong hands and in countries where corruption is rife, there are fears foreign cash simply bankrolls a system already rotten the core.

“It is right that we ask questions and one of those has to be, ‘Why isn’t the situation better in Africa when we have given so much money?’ Britain is a generous country, it always has been and who wouldn’t be moved by a Christmas appeal which shows tiny children unable to access even a small cup of water. We give money, but it can be very difficult to know whether those grants and donations are being put to the best use.”

Liam will be joined on his mammoth trek by fellow Sheffielder Dave Cook. Beginning in the shadow of Table Mountain in Cape Town the route will take them through Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique and onward to Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Sudan.

Along the way they will be stopping off at five of their own water projects as well as a series of bigger developments with the aim of seeing whether the millions of pounds which have poured into Africa from well-meaning charities and government bodies has had any impact at all.

“When I embarked on this journey, I knew nothing at all about water projects. Now I know a little bit and by the time I have walked across Africa I will know a whole lot more. There are dozens of different issues you have to take into account when you are working in somewhere like Ethiopia and while it’s very easy to set up a system to give a school or a community access to clean water, it’s less easy to sustain it.

“There is one area where we have been working in the Masai Mara where almost 50 bore holes have been driven, but just three are working and I suspect that situation is not unique. There is a horrific lack of understanding about what is really needed in Africa. Part of our project will be looking at how the landscape and climate change affect the work which is being done, but we also want to assess the extent of corruption and how cultural issues impact.

“Many areas are now ruled by a particular race, religion or tribe to the exclusion of all others and that can and does influence who gets access to vital facilities like water. For example in the Masai Mara, the men are allowed to have numerous wives, but when they die their widows and their children tend to be shunned by the wider community.

“We have been involved in a water project at a school set up to cater for these children and while we are only talking about relatively small numbers of people, to each and every one of them that school is a lifeline.”

Liam and Dave will be travelling with a cameraman and for the first part of the journey at least they will have a support car. They have planned the route in as much detail as they can, but while they have recruited the services of local guides for certain sections, they know they can’t eliminate every potential danger.

“In South Africa the crime rates are high, elsewhere the terrain will be rough going and that’s all before we get to the Masai Mara,” says Liam. “It will be migration season when we get there, and we will be one of thousands of animals moving across the plains. A pride of lions always preys on the weakest, so we will just have to make sure we are not the weakest.

“We will have to carry our tents and at least a couple of days’ food and water rations just in case the support car isn’t able to get to us. There will be little room for luxuries, although I will be taking a Kindle so that I have enough books to read.”

Liam is already in talks with a number of film festivals about screening the final documentary of his journey as well as broadcasters with the hope of getting it shown on television.

“Along the way we will be speaking not only to policy makers and community leaders, but to ordinary people,” he says. “We want to get as many views as possible because it’s only by having that kind of detail that we can hope to build up a picture of what’s working and what isn’t.

“But it’s also I guess about my journey and about how much has changed for me in the last four years. There are so many things which could go wrong in the next six months, but if all you focus on is the risks you would never do anything.

“The Long Well Walk is important not just for me or those African countries who struggle every day to meet their basic needs, but I hope it will also be important to everyone who has ever put their hand in their pocket to give to charity.”

To follow the progress of Liam Garcia as he treks across Africa go to thelongwellwalk.org