News24 | WATCH | ‘Finding Hope’: Defenders on a mission in Africa

Filmmaker Calvin Fisher finds himself deep in Mozambique at the Gorongosa National Park to join the Holgates on their latest expedition.

• The Kingsley Holgate Foundation headed to Mozambique in a couple of Defender 130s.
  
• This time, the aim was to make an impact to the people surrounding Mount Gorongosa.
• News24 contributor and filmmaker Calvin Fisher went along and documented this mission.

I woke up not in my bed, not in my home, but rather on top of an inflatable mattress in a condensation-soaked tent, perched on the top of Mount Gorongosa.

It’s cold, and I’m only two days into our mission, but already I’ve seen so much, done so much, and been part of the Kingsley Holgate Foundation team as we deliver malaria nets to the moms and kids in the region.

The malaria statistics are frightening - especially here in Africa. But the Defender 130s are chockablock with nets and the accompanying educational vouchers that the team will distribute.

Kingsley himself is a sight to behold, like an African Santa, he stops onlookers dead in their tracks. That he’s piloting a huge Land Rover and leading a convoy of similar machinery certainly contributes to his presence. And the warmth he radiates quickly puts them at ease, as does the smile you can sense more than see, since his mouth hides behind an impenetrable white beard.

Ross, his son, is of similar stature and pilots the 130 behind, while his own son, Tristan, brings up the rear in a classic 130, dubbed ‘The Stomach’, as it’s loaded with provisions.

Me? I’m around in the vehicles as I strap cameras, talk to the locals, and try to capture it all for my documentary, ‘Finding Hope in Wild Spaces’.

I could tell you more.

Like how the team, through a programme called Mashozi’s ‘Right to Site’, distribute reading glasses to the elderly so they may see again, be able to thread needles, cobble shoes and generally reclaim some of the utility and usefulness they might have lost along the way.

Then there’s the fact that they undertake conservation education with the local communities, or how this is merely the latest expedition on an odyssey that’s spanned every country in Africa.

But I’d much prefer that you watch my film above instead.

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