Thursday, 05 February 2009
Planet Wheeler
The Planet Wheeler website is up and running. Maureen and I sold a majority interest in Lonely Planet to BBC-Worldwide in late 2007, we’re still travelling a lot, we’re still working with Lonely Planet (I’ll be working on some new LP-TV documentaries in 2009), but we also have the Planet Wheeler Foundation to keep us busy. Our new website will tell you all about the foundation and its goals with links to nearly 50 organisations we are already working with.
In the six months since Planet Wheeler launched we’ve supported over 60 projects, large and small, including:
• Building a clinic in Cambodia that will help over 25,000 children each year
• Helping to rebuild three villages in Burma after last year’s cyclone
When I visited Tanzania in 2007 I stayed at the School of St Jude, a project which Planet Wheeler has assisted.
• Purchasing specially adapted motorcycles for five polio victims in Vietnam
• Funding whole-of-life support and training for 130 hill tribe kids
• Purchasing land for a street kid’s shelter in the Philippines
At the end of 2008 I posted a short report on Planet Wheeler along with a story on the Melbourne Solar System, one of my favourite projects for the year.
Once while Travelling: The Lonely Planet Story
