Charley transports vaccines by boat to the remote village of Riam Dadap, Borneo, as part of the By Any Means series.
© UNICEF UK/Indonesia 2008/Libby Hodgson
Charley and Ewan meet children at Addis Alem School in northern Ethiopia during their Long Way Down adventure.
© UNICEF UK/Ethiopia 2007/Sarah Epstein
Brief biography
Actor and Adventurer Charley Boorman (Deliverance, The Emerald Forest, Race to Dakar, Long Way Down) has been involved with UNICEF since 2004. Since then he has been on a number of visits to UNICEF’s projects, the majority of which have been integrated into his television programmes.
Summer 2008 saw Charley leaving his bike at home and travelling from Wicklow, Ireland to Sydney, Australia By Any Means of transport available. Since the theme of the trip was journeys and travel, the link with UNICEF's immunisation work soon became apparent. He saw for himself the long journey a vaccine needs to take in order to reach its final destination and the journey that must also be made by the women and children to receive the vaccine.
In Nepal the journey was by foot, bus and vehicle up a steep and muddy road to reach a village perched high up on the hillside. In Borneo two car rides, one motorbike and three speed boat rides later the tetanus vaccines were delivered to a village only accessible by river - the journey had taken 16 hours.
Once back in the UK Charley went over to Belfast to host a fundraising pledge dinner and undertake media interviews about UNICEF's immunisation work.
The summer of 2007 saw Charley and Ewan McGregor undertaking their second motorbike journey, Long Way Down, from John O'Groats in Scotland to Cape Town, South Africa. Once again they wanted to involve UNICEF in the project.
One project visit took them to Ethiopia and the border with Eritrea. Here they saw how children's lives had been affected by the conflict around Zalambessa. The area is littered with mines and unexploded ordnance and it is children who are disproportionately affected by them.
They met children who had lost limbs in mine accidents and saw for themselves how vital UNICEF's mine awareness work is. "UNICEF is preventing landmine accidents by educating hundreds of thousands of children about the risks,” Charley comments. “They are also trying to help those children that have lost limbs in accidents, counselling the kids and bringing in these new, incredible mobility bikes which give children a chance to move about on their own."
The Long Way Down team set themselves an ambitious target of raising £500,000 to support projects throughout Africa, which they exceeded.
August 2006 saw Charley travelling to Swaziland to film The Missing Face, a documentary about the effects of HIV and AIDS on children. He spent two days with Majaba, orphaned because of AIDS at just 13 years old and living alone.
Charley followed Majaba's daily routine and saw how he copes, his struggles and dreams. He learned more about the stigma facing children orphaned by AIDS on a daily basis. Charley also witnessed the positive progress being made in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and how peer educators are prepared to share their experiences of living with HIV to help educate others.
In 2004, Charley circumnavigated the world on his motorbike, the Long Way Round with friend Ewan McGregor. En route from London to New York they made three stop-offs to visit UNICEF-supported projects.
One project visit was to the UNICEF-supported Tamgaly Climbing Centre in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Many families come to the city searching for work and a better life, only to find high unemployment and few opportunities. Encouraging children to stay in schools is a positive step to giving children the life skills and knowledge they need. As Charley said: "I could see from the children at the climbing competition that the climbing clubs had helped them build up confidence, adopt a healthy lifestyle, make friends and increase their social skills."
Returning from their trip, Charley and Ewan were determined to raise funds to support the work of UNICEF offices of the countries they had visited. The biker themed fundraising party raised £115,000.
Charley Boorman says:
As a father of two, I have learned what children need to be healthy and fulfil their potential. Millions of children around the world are missing out on the very basics we take for granted: education, protection, a childhood. I have seen UNICEF's work for myself and it really does make a difference.
