London to Cape Town to Fight HIV/AIDS 

 “I can”. It is with these words that we stoked our passions and fired our dreams until they became possible, then probable, and finally – reality. This time, it was going to be Africa – we were going to ride our motorcycles from the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution to the Birthplace of Man by way of the Cradle of Civilization. Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. 23,000 kilometers, 15,000 miles, 25 countries, 95 days. As any seasoned biker will tell you, there is simply no alternative to the exhilaration and intoxication of travelling cross-country by motorcycle. It was the freedom and the openness that drew us in – the limitless African skies barely bounding our journey, the world-old cultures filling our every pore… a conversation between man, machine, air and earth. And so we bought our steeds, flew them across an ocean, and prepared to set out on the long, winding road before us.

The United Kingdom. France. Belgium. The Netherlands. Germany. The Czech Republic. Austria. Slovakia. Hungary. Romania. Bulgaria. Turkey. Syria. Jordan. Egypt. Sudan. Ethiopia. Kenya. Uganda. Rwanda. Tanzania. Malawi. Zambia. Botswana. Namibia. South Africa. Down asphalt highways, pot-hole ridden roads, rock-strewn trails, gravel tracks, and sandy ruts we rode our bikes, and suffered the attendant frustration, fatigue, and fear. And yet in hindsight, it was all so sweet – the misfortune made the adventure – the challenge filling the achievement with meaning.

However, our journey had a larger purpose than simply the thrill of the challenge and the joy of the ride. For over the long days and nights spent planning this voyage of discovery, we discovered a painful truth – the suffering of a continent to which many had too often turned a blind eye; the challenges of cultures we had too often presumed to be alien or out of date. And yet there were lives here – people tending to their soil, raising their flesh and blood, struggling to exist in the face of endemic disease and poor sanitation in lands where so little counts for so much.

And so, we hope our trip serves to not only impress on you the incredible beauty of these lands, but also, the life and yearning of its peoples. Please support the continuing work Dignitas International, a humanitarian organization based in Toronto that was co-founded by James Fraser and by Dr. James Orbinski, who accepted the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize as International President of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF/Doctors Without Borders).

Dignitas works with communities as well as governments to train and support health care workers, implement HIV treatment and prevention programs, and provide access to antiretroviral drugs – thereby empowering them in their response to the ravages of HIV/AIDS. The vast majority of the world's 33 million people afflicted with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa, despite the fact that it is home to only 10% of the world's population. Some of the countries we visited are amongst the most HIV/AIDS afflicted in the world - in Botswana alone, HIV affects about a third of the adult population, and the rates in neighboring countries are not far behind. These numbers are simply staggering, especially since only 5-10% of the population has access to life-saving antiretroviral drugs. We believe this to be totally unacceptable. We hope you do too.

 Tyson Brust

Yarema Bezchlibnyk