Broken down in Tanzania, Morris and Radloff worry about the fate of One Sky Project, whose mission is to enrich African communities by connecting with local nonprofits and teaching its clients to fly.Mufindi Orphans
Mufindi Orphans is a nonprofit organization located in Tanzania that provides shelter, nutrition, education and medical care to children and families affected by the HIV/AIDS crisis. According to UNAIDS.org, as of 2014, between 550,000 and 1,800,000 Tanzanian children ages 0-17 have been orphaned due to the disease. Founded in 2005, Mufindi Orphans also does community outreach to help curtail the spread of HIV.For more information visit mufindiorphans.org.Ikhaya la Themba, which translates to “Home of Hope,” is an after-school program in Cape Town, South Africa. Many local schools in the area are overcrowded and understaffed. The mission of Ikhaya is to bolster children’s education. Subjects are re-taught, a hot meal is provided, and children are given a safe place to play with a jungle gym and soccer fields.For more information visit iklethemba.co.za.Amani ya Juu, which means “peace from above” in Swahili, was founded by Chattanooga native Becky Chinchen. With locations in Uganda, Kenya and Liberia, the organization was founded to teach marginalized women practical business skills such as design, stitching, management and bookkeeping. The women produce handbags, jewelry, stationary and more, handwriting their names onto each tag. Then, the goods are sold online or shipped to Amani’s Chattanooga storefront at 420 S. Willow St. As Morris explains, “We were able to take $10 and feed over 20 women. When someone buys a dress for $100, that will feed 20 of these women for a week and a half.”For more information visit amaniafrica.org.
Brian Morris and Marc Radloff spent most of March stranded in Tanzania, their broken-down Land Rover saddled with film equipment, parachutes and hang gliders. Fortunately, they were able to find a place to sleep for $7 a night.
Still, they were running out of money and were 1,300 kilometers from Uganda, which was supposed to be their next destination.
In Uganda, the plan was to connect with Amani ya Juu, a nonprofit fair trade organization that teaches African women to design and produce handcrafted goods. Proceeds for the products help support the women, many of whom have lost their families to war or disease.
Morris, a hang-gliding instructor, and Radloff, a paraglider pilot, had a less conventional approach to enriching the women's lives: They planned to take them flying. This was but one component of One Sky Project, a yearlong African venture founded by Morris and Radloff.
It began as simply a means to complete the No. 1 entries on their bucket lists. For Morris, that was hang gliding Table Rock in South Africa. For Radloff, it was paragliding Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Both had been born in South Africa. Morris moved to Lookout Mountain, Georgia, at age 6. Radloff relocated to the States in his early 20s.
"This was our homecoming," Morris says of the project.
The men met while flying in Tennessee. Radloff noticed Morris had a South African flag embroidered on his harness and struck up a conversation. They became fast friends over their shared experiences and dreams of returning to Africa. Soon, plans for One Sky began to develop.
Along the way, they hooked up with videographers Suzy Beck and Jonathan Fambrough. As the team grew, the project evolved.
"Why not try to give back to the communities we fly in?" thought Morris.
And so its mission expanded to comprise three components: First, to fly Table Rock and Mount Kilimanjaro. Second, to enrich the communities they traveled through by connecting with nonprofit organizations - for example, Amani ya Juu in Uganda, Mufindi Orphans in Tanzania, and Ikhaya la Themba, an after-school program, in South Africa. Morris and Radloff would take the nonprofits' clients flying; Beck and Fambrough would produce pro bono short films to help market the causes.
The third component of the project was to film a full-length documentary about the trip.
They budgeted $30,000 for the project, which included post-production costs. Through Kickstarter, they raised $22,478. They supplemented with sponsorships from gear companies such as Flytec, Sup'Air, Airtime Solutions and Goal Zero.
Last January, the crew arrived in Africa. Since then they have traveled to six countries, taken 18 locals on tandem paraglider flights and 70 children hang gliding. When their car broke down in March, they were down to $1,000.
"I have no idea what we're going to do," Morris says in regards to the project's dwindling funds. "We underestimated the amount of the time it would take to shoot enough video to cover a good story, as well as the time it would take to traverse the African continent."
One thing is certain, Morris better consider updating his bucket list. By April, the Land Rover was running again, but not well enough to make the trip to Uganda. So the crew headed south. At the time of print, Morris was in Cape Town, awaiting the right weather conditions to fly Table Rock.
With his eyes to the sky, he is hopeful.
* To follow One Sky Project's developments visit oneskyproject.com.