The Elephant Charge - Driving for Change

Since returning from my rather mad and tiring 3 day trip to Zambia for the Elephant Charge I have been getting so many questions about it.

Mainly: What is it? Why ? and "Are you crazy?"

Answering the last one is easy:

"Yes, it runs in the family". ...

But the other two need a bit of explaining:

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The Elephant Charge on paper is just an offroad rally (of sorts), where the the event itself and each competing team raises funds for wildlife conservation. However, now in its 12th year it has become so much more for the competitors, charities and communities that it affects, with most teams returning every year to compete sometimes (like myself and 90% of my team) teams or members flying in especially and spending thousands in preparing their car. The atmosphere, the tough conditions and the good cause has really created a little community, which returns each year to spend a weekend in the hot and dusty Zambian Bush and in those short twelve years the organisers and competitors have raised over an incredible 1 million USD for wildlife conservation.

My first experience 'charging' was all the way back in 2010 and man was that an eye opener. The event is not about time or speed. The winning team is the team with the shortest distance around the course. This means you try to take your car as straight as possible between each checkpoint - no matter what is in between. We've been stuck in dongas (local phrase for ditches), crossed waist deep rivers, winched up countless hills and gone down slopes so steep you struggled to walk down, all just to push ourselves, the car and of course for the illusive title. Each team has 'Runners', who run ahead and scout the area in search of the best route. Not only is this super tough in the heat and the terrain, but you also run at least 13-15km each time. And I've been doing it with my camera gear....

Inspired by each competitors commitment, the fast action and of course looking to help raise funds through my videos, I have loved every moment in creating this content for the organising committee to use. It has not only been physically tough on the day or long hours editing, but it has also been really rewarding to hear how various teams or the committee has been able to use my videos to raise funds for the event.

It might be over a weeks worth of work . . .

It might be risky to take all the expensive equipment to this environment . . .

and I definitely am spending my own money to do so ...

but it's all worth it.

I make videos for brands such as Puma, Breitling or Humanic for a living.

Some are more simple, some are more energetic and hectic, but at the end of the day they very rarely benefit anyone. It is very rare to see major brands or adverts selling anything else other than their products or themselves.

I am convinced that this will change at some stage and that brands will soon need to advertise for what THEY stand for and what IMPACT they and therefore their consumer are having. Identifying with brands will become far more that "oh they are cool" . . .

But that is a discussion and post for another day.

The Elephant Charge (and hopefully more projects soon) is my way to give back, to use my skillset to help improve the world around me and I am more than happy to do that in my own time and money (although I would love to make it into a full time job... :D )

I'd love to see more creatives or really any skilled professional do the same. So if you want to help or know someone - put me in touch! I'd love to start more of these projects.