Stuff your rucksack

A website set up by TV presenter Kate Humble which aims to help travellers who want to take something in the spare space in their rucksack (or suitcase) which might be of use in the place that they are visiting.

There is an interactive map which you can zoom into to discover projects which are happening in an area of the world that you might be visiting (although you have to go a little beyond Skegness...)

For example, here's a project that needs support in the Central African Republic. The website will tell you what they need...The site suggests a list of the sort of small items that you might have space for to STUFF YOUR RUCKSACK with that the project would find helpful.

Some stories of successful meetings are included...

As Kate Humble says on the website:

My Stuff Your Rucksack journey began in 1999 in a remote oasis village 200km north of Timbuktu. Having spent 35 days crossing the Sahara I visited a school, where the children wanted to know how long it would take for me to get home (in camel days). I drew lines in the sand, but when I discovered they had no concept of the sea, I realised we wouldn’t get far without a world map. I would have brought one with me, if I’d known it would’ve made all the difference.

Pack a bag, change a life

I am determined to go back to Mali to deliver that map. I am also determined that no traveller experiences the same frustration of arriving at a small, inspiring project to learn the items they need cost practically nothing, and are sat at home on the kitchen table.

Stuffyourrucksack.com is a small charity that’s light on its feet so it can deliver direct action. We’re not here to encourage begging; we’re here to show how a simple gesture can bring indescribable joy....