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Join on Telegram Casablanca – Linda Ricketts is an ambitious South African who has covered thousands of kilometers on foot.
An experienced long-distance walker, she has completed a 9-day camel safari in the Sahara Desert walked over 240km on the Camino de Santiago between Portugal and Spain, and crossed the murderous Tankwa Camino in South Africa, covering a distance of 267km in only 10 days.
In an interview with Morocco World News, Linda shares her history and the story behind her first fundraising campaign, the proceeds of which will go into funding education for Moroccan girls in rural areas.
Overcoming adversity
Linda’s passion for long-distance walking began with a traumatic experience that transformed her life. Ten years ago, she had a car accident in which she smashed both of her knees.
A professional runner with big ambitions by the time of the career-altering accident, she did not give up and instead focused her energy on long-distance walking.
“I think, given where I come from with my injuries, how I changed myself to overcome these to still be able to enjoy and love life, although in a different way, gives me the credibility to be a role model to young girls still in the process of finding out who they are, what they want from life and why,” Linda said.
Linda during an earlier desert excursion
Linda’s love for Morocco inspired her to choose Moroccan rural girls as the main target of her first fundraising campaign.
“Because Morocco has given me so much already in the past, I wanted to, as an educated woman, give back to Morocco’s village girls, and not another country,” Linda said.
“I didn’t just want to travel to Morocco, as I’ve done that many times in the past. I wanted to return to the desert I love so much. I want to go to Morocco with a clear goal in mind, to do something that will satisfy my restless and adventurous soul, and at the same time to give back, again, to this wonderful country and her people.”
‘A Walk Into Ténéré’ fundraising campaign
Linda’s fundraising project is associated with Education For All Morocco (EFA), a non-profit organization founded to help girls from the High Atlas mountain region by giving them the chance to attend secondary school.
Linda’s charitable trek will see her walk through approximately 540 km of Moroccan Sahara Desert, assisted by only a small support team and camels.
Linda anticipates that the trek will take roughly 40 days and she plans to set off in February/March 2023, as these months provide “the best conditions to walk in daytime Sahara Desert temperatures.” Her fundraising goal is to raise as much as $10,000 for Education For All.
Through this journey, which she calls “A Walk Into Ténéré,” Linda’s aim is to motivate and inspire others and promote awareness of the need for girls’ education in today’s world. For her, “to educate a girl is to educate a village and bring hope for the future.”
Linda explained, “My aim and my passion with this Sahara trek are to emphasize that through sheer determination and a dream to succeed, and through working together in partnership (Ubuntu) with key stakeholders, we can all assist in educating some girls, at least.”
Linda’s inspiration
Linda during her volunteering at Education For All Morocco
It all started when Linda volunteered in 2020 as an English teacher at Education For All Morocco, which transformed her entire perspective on charity work.
Through her experience, she recognized that relatively few girls from the High Atlas Mountains’ remote areas have the opportunity to continue their education beyond basic schooling.
“Being mindful of the challenges the EFA organization has to deal with and the cost involved to keep each girl in school, I came up with the idea of combining an extreme adventure desert walk with a fund-raising campaign,” Linda said.
“Being part of a Moroccan Women’s group, I knew about the fantastic work that Education For All does, and also that through generous and much-needed donations they manage to keep around 250 girls from rural Atlas villages in six boarding houses and in school.”
Despite the Moroccan government’s support for and investment in education and women’s rights, relatively few girls from remote areas in the High Atlas Mountains have the chance to continue their education beyond primary school.
Secondary schools, which are often located several kilometers away in larger towns, are inaccessible to them either due to the higher cost of housing in urban areas, or a lack of transportation, and occasionally due to parents’ worries and mistrust around sending their daughters away from home, Linda explained.
However, she added, “through Education for All the opportunity of a secondary education for girls from the rural High Atlas Mountain region is possible, as the foundation builds and runs high-quality boarding houses for girls from 12–18, where everything is provided for free.” Among other benefits, Linda believes initiatives like Education for All make it “easy for the girls to settle in and thrive in their studies.”
With EFA’s efforts, “an average of 90% pass rate across all years has been achieved, with over 50 EFA girls enrolled at university,” she underlined.
EFA was not Linda’s only inspiration for her Sahara journey, her best friend, Moroccan Youssef SahSah, who is currently cycling around Africa, also encouraged her.
Youssef “is always encouraging me to dream big and bold,” Linda said. “He is really my inspiration to think outside of the box, to always dream big, and to believe in myself.”
Linda’s trek
An approximate map of Linda’s trek itinerary
Linda’s 40-day trek will begin in Zagora, continue to Feija Plateau, and then proceed to Djebel Bani, a steep barrier between the Atlas Mountains and the desert. From there she will cross dunes to reach Erg Chigaga, the tallest sand dune in the region at roughly 60 meters. After a short break at M’Hamid, she will continue on to Merzouga.
During this trek, Linda will be accompanied by four camels and a small support team, including a camel handler and a cook/guide.
After the hike, Linda plans to give motivational talks at the EFA boarding houses.
Volunteering and fundraising in Morocco are not Linda’s only goals. After this remarkable journey, she says she will “continue to volunteer, always combined with some extreme activity.”
“But,” she concluded, “for now…my first and foremost vision and mission is to do what I can for Morocco’s village girls.”
With these girls in mind, Linda’s motto in life is to “never sit back and say this is how my life is. Always strive for something better and through believing in change and in yourself, you can always make any dream come true.”
Donations to Linda’s quest can be made through this link.
