The Africa Trust was founded in 2010 by Ian Thorpe (founder of Pump Aid and The Elephant Pump) and Paul Searle (Managing Director, AquAid).

The initial funding for the Africa Trust was donated from AquAid. AquAid to date have donated in access of £6,500,000 to third world projects. Paul Searle and Ian Thorpe wanted to create a charity whereby they knew all of the money would be invested into sustainable projects which offered more than just Aid.

Paul ensured that all of The Africa Trust’s operational costs and overheads were absorbed by his company AquAid, this gave Ian the confidence that all money donated to the Africa Trust would go straight into the projects on the ground. Ian Thorpe, whose remarkable story can be found by following this link (hyper link) is responsible for designing The Elephant Pump and implementing them into Zimbabwe. Ian has visited over twenty African countries over the last twenty years and is permanently based in Africa.

The Africa Trust’s main goal is to provide sustainable solutions to developing countries across Africa. The charity has expanded its operations over the last year to provide projects in Uganda, Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe. The large proportion of funding goes towards installing Elephant Pumps in Zimbabwe, however significant funding is also used for income generating projects.

In order to create a sustainable quality of life, we have been implementing school programs that enable the older students to pay for their tuition fees. This is commonly done through banana plantations, we provide the students with all of the necessary tools to grow and sell their own produce which in turn contributes to their school fees. Another program the Africa Trust is about to introduce is micro finance loans. The idea within this strategy is to provide business training sessions within communities that are suffering from third world poverty. Once they have completed the training course, the candidates will receive the opportunity to present a business plan to an Africa Trust member. If it is agreed that the plan can provide a reasonable chance of success, a loan will be supplied to the approved candidate. The projects that the Africa Trust has invested in have been specifically chosen after significant research on the ground.