No Kidding

In an effort not just to help kids in Africa but to experience and document their plight, a group of seven young travelers from around the world will cross the continent by public transport.

Using bus, bush taxi, tro-tros and train for their 14,200 km, 10-week trip from Marrakesh to Johannesburg, they’ll visit some 20 NGOs that help kids. The trip starts June 23. It will serve as the first fundraiser for their newly formed What Took You So Long Foundation — and, they hope, both connect the NGOs and “be inspiration for people to travel with the community in mind,” as their website puts it.

The group includes Evan Fowler, a Brit who crossed the United States on a bicycle to promote anti-pollution measures in his adopted hometown of Hong Kong (visit www.acrosstheusa.org for more information); Sebastian Lindstrom, a young Swedish army battalion ranger who runs the NGO Light for Children in Ghana; and Alicia Sully, an American ex-Peace Corps volunteer turned documentary filmmaker. You can follow the trip on Twitter.