We all know that Africa is the best place to plan your safari. You also probably know that the Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa and we have all learned in high school that Nairobi is Kenya’s capital. However, we found some interesting facts about this fascinating continent that you may not know.
Did you know for example, that the roots of Freddie Mercury, Queen’s former front man, can be found in Tanzania?
And did you know that in Kenya all days and nights have the same duration because of the position to the equator? No matter if it is summer or winter. Every night it gets dark at 6 PM and every morning at 6 AM the sun will rise again. No exceptions.
If this isn’t enough, watch this: Africa is the home of the South African Giant Earthworm. With an average lenght of 2 meters, this is the Anaconda among the worms. In 1967 your worst nightmare was discovered; a South African Giant Earthworm of 6.7 meters! In case you’re planning a fishing trip, you might want to consider bringing your own bait.
More of these exciting facts & strange figures can be found on Afrika.nl. It will give you all the info you desire about this exceptional continent.
Last week, we celebrated the fact that our very first spotlight project Picture a Wave of Change was fully funded within just a few weeks. Step by step we are making the world a better place.
However, there are still plenty of people, animals and places that need support. So let’s keep up the good work!
As we already revealed last week, Be a Dream will be the second spotlight project. This project aims to provide children in Ghana access to health care by building a medical post at the Hanukkah Children’s Home. This orphanage has been run by Mariette Asagbo and her Ghanaian husband Moses for two years now.
Within a few weeks, Dutch volunteers Dorien and Romy will pack their bags and go to the Children’s Home in Ghana. Curious what they are up to? Watch this short video above, where they tell you all about their plans.
The do good, feel good vibe is alive and kicking. Not only is the vibe growing within the Pifworld community, in the outside world people are also noticing what is going on at Pifworld.
As of today, travellers from all over the world can find a Pifworld project on their Waarbenjij.nu profile. The project they see is being carried out in the region where they are currently staying. With over 150,000 travellers, WaarBenJij.Nu is one of the largest online travel communities in the Netherlands. Talk about a great opportunity to spread the Pifworld vibe!
Our dream for the Pifworld community is to grow to a point that together we can realise every kind of project – no matter what size – within a day’s time. Waarbenjij.nu CEO Erik Mulder: ‘Everyday stories reach us from all over the world. As we feel responsible for contributing to a better world, we’re more than happy to help Pifworld realise their dream’.
With all you Players and with the Waarbenjij.nu travellers we are one step closer to realising that community; a community that enables kids to go to school, that supports entrepreneurs to start their businesses and that is even able to build a massive wild life park.
Thumbs up for all the Players and Ambassadors that supported our very first spotlight project. The budget of Picture a Wave of Change was fully reached within just a few weeks. Yeeha!
Some weeks ago we presented this first spotlight project to you: a project that we – together with the current Pifworld community- could definitely realise within a reasonable time frame. With 44 Players we raised a total of 2,235 euros for the kids in Peru to develop their entrepreneurial skills for a brighter future. An accomplishment to be proud of.
With Picture a Wave of Change being the third project funded on Pifworld, you can see the community effort pays off. It is clear: together we can make a difference.
Spotlight project II: Be a Dream
After the success of our first spotlight project, we are ready for the next one. We will continue so you can play an active role in realising more successful projects. Our second project in the spotlights is… Be a Dream: an amazing project in Ghana that aims to build a medical post near the orphanage of Mariette’s Child Care. Budget needed? 1,030 euros. On Pifworld you have all the tools you need to involve others.
One minute it’s Greek salads, sand between your toes and running around in your swimwear. But before you know it, you’re trying to squeeze yourself into your trousers, you only seem to have socks with holes and you’re missing one glove. It’s obvious, autumn has really started. And that means shorter days, no more leaving the house without an umbrella and daydreaming of the next holiday in front of the fireplace.
To make sure you don’t end up getting a winter depression, we selected 3 online tips to hold on to those happy summer feelings.
Tip 1: share your holiday vibe with your friends. Check out the Where I’ve Been travel application on Facebook. It shows where you’ve been, where you are, but also where you want to go on a world map.
Tip 2: Looking back to a great summer is nice. But looking forward to the next summer is way nicer! Video platform GeoBeats has visited popular destinations in 70% of the world. This great selection of very inspiring videos is a must see for any travel fanatic. So what’s it going to be next summer: Europe, Asia or maybe Africa?
Last but not least, an absolute recommendation for the fact lovers among us. How well do you know your countries, world cities, and famous places? On Travelpod you can find a fast-paced interactive traveller IQ game. Try it yourself!
Of course, going around the Pifworld globe is also a great way to see something of the world. With so many projects, you can become a globetrotter and make a contribution to a better world at the same time. It’s easy, just donate and play it forward!
It seems like this week can’t get any better. After all the great happenings so far, we also received a huge donation from Brief op Bestelling, a company that supports people in writing letters. We asked Brief op Bestelling’s Janna all about what they did to fundraise and how they did it.
What a great job you guys did! Congratulations on this great result.
Yes, the fundraising campaign has been great so far. We didn’t expect to raise so much money, but it really turned out to be a success.
You chose the Centre of Knowledge project in India. Why?
This project immediately caught our sight the moment we browsed the Pifworld globe. We truly believe schooling is the best way to help a country grow out of poverty. And since writing and reading is our core business, fundraising for this project felt like an true match.
So what exactly did you do?
We decided to put our hands together for the Centre of Knowledge project. A project that enables children to go to school. 86 of our copy writers decided to donate the revenue of writing one letter to this great cause. Meaning that in total we raised more than 3,500 euros! We are happy to be able to bring this project one step closer to realisation.
A job well done, guys!
To bring the project two or three steps closer to realisation you only have to play it forward. That way you can help these kids in India to learn how to read and write.
The past week has been a week of celebration at the Pifworld Headquarters. It was not just Pifworld that won an award, the main man of one of our projects on the globe was awarded a prize too. Cycling out of Poverty’s Luuk Eickmans won the World of Difference Award. This award entails a years salary to work on his good cause.
‘Winning the World of Difference Award is a dream come true’, so he says. Instead of making the world a better place part time, this prize enables him to change the world for the better full time! As a project manager for Cycling out of poverty he is going to work on partnerships between African partner organisations and African companies.
We congratulate Luuk with winning this dream job. It’s a great opportunity for a great project!
Luckily, you don’t need to compete for a national award to make the world a better place. By donating and asking 3 friends to do the same you can help people in Africa ‘cycle to a better future’.
At Pifworld we uncorked the champagne: we have won the IMA best in class award for the Pifworld website! Hurray!
The Best in Class award is the highest honor bestowed by the Interactive Media Awards™. This annual prize is given to companies that excel in web design and development. As our judge reports says: ‘The honour recognises that the project met and surpassed the basic standards of excellence that comprise the web’s most professional work’.
The jury consists of leaders in web design, advertising, public relations, publishing and other industries such as Microsoft, CNN and The New York Times.
Based on five criteria ranging from usability to content and design these distinguished professionals specifically honoured for excellence in Charity.
On each criteria, Pifworld scored almost a hundred percent and had an overall score of 488 out of 500. Not a score you see every day, as the jury states: ‘an achievement only a fraction of sites in the IMA competition earn each year.’
It’s great to see our hard work pays off. Yet, there’s always room for improvement. Our job is never done. Not as long as there are people, animals and places that need support. Let’s continue the good work!
As of today you can see Dutch DJ Mark Labrand on Pifworld. As a Pifworld Ambassador he plays it forward for the Elephant Corridor in Southern Africa. Watch his video message for all you Players and join him in his effort to save 100,000 elephants!
In this video we give you an update on our spotlight project. See how Femke and Nina of the Pifworld Team ’surfed’ the streets of Amsterdam to interview people. Watch Femke and Nina ask the interviewees about their passion in life and find out what the Dutch surf dudes and chicks have to say about surfing and helping kids in Peru. Want to help the kids in Peru too? Go to Picture a wave of change and play it forward.
Posted by mariechristien 
Posted by mariechristien 
Posted by mariechristien 
