Letter from Ian & Pat French

The motivation for GapAid was inspired by the recent death of our younger daughter Georgia who died while travelling in Peru.

“On Saturday 24 March 2007 our lives changed forever. We received a phone call informing us that Georgia, 19, had been killed in a bus crash in Peru. 

Georgia was only two weeks into her gap year trip of a life time, between finishing school and starting university.  She was travelling with two friends, who were both injured in the crash, as they headed through Peru to the Inca trail on their way to Bolivia.

In the months that followed it came to light that not only were there five fatalities in that particular bus crash, en route to Cuzco, but more shockingly, according to Peru’s Center of Investigation Overland Transport 557 people were killed and 2,581 were injured in inter-provincial bus crashes between 2004-2005(the last year of official stats). 

If one adds this statistic to those of many other countries that have poor safety records and the travel problems alone are a serious problem

We have been contacted by many parents, who have both experienced problems or were concerned that their children were about to embark on a gap year and heading to countries in the developing world and other dangerous areas. These young adults have little knowledge or experience of these types of countries and don’t realise the lack of help available when thing go wrong.

The Foreign Office assistance is great but it can only do so much.  GapAid wants to give young travellers a useful, usable infrastructure that they feel comfortable with and can easily access to get advice and help.

GapAid will try to help in any way possible; help with local language skills, poor communications and poor medical resources, travel difficulties and the general frustrations of dealing with problems in remote locations. It will also act as a resource for young travellers and their parents and families to not only properly research, and therefore enjoy the adventure and excitement, but also to provide real time advice and help should things go wrong.

We will never get over losing our beautiful daughter but hopefully GapAid will be a lasting memorial to Georgia and a truly valuable resource for thousands of gappers who set out each year.

Ian & Pat French