Into Africa

YOU wouldn't think it from the outside, and yet on entering John Lawler's office you find it's buzzing with activity. His staff are sitting at their desks, their fingers tapping away at keyboards, and one girl seems to be arranging someone's travel plans by phone.

A giant map takes up one wall - when John stands next to it, he's dwarfed - and on his standard swivel chair is draped a striking ethnic top. Yet what's most notable of all is not an object but a picture, which captures John and his wife Elaine in their resplendent chieftain's robes. It is his role as tribal leader that underpins John's livelihood.

The busy office where he works is where Madventurer is based. This is the company John runs, providing trips throughout the world, but unlike normal sunshine breaks, his all involve development work. To mark the ten-year anniversary since he first became a chief, he has devised a special plan for ten diverse North-Eastern groups.

"The big date in mind is next year - October 31, 2008 - and this is all preparation for that," explains John, who's 32 and lives in Gateshead. "I'm putting everything in place to try and get ten groups, essentially tribes, in the North-East and beyond, to link in with ten tribes in Ghana. One thing is to give back to Ghana and the other is to strengthen the ties between the North-East and the Volta region."

So far recruitment is going well, with two distinctly different groups - from Gateshead's Deckham Community Centre and the Newcastle-based Tyneside Cyrenians - due to fly out to Ghana soon.

Another group will be brought in with help from satellite television.

"We've teamed up with the Discovery channel and they are running a competition called My Tribe, and that's for anybody in the UK," explains John.

"They will be the third group and they will form part of this process. I'm after seven more groups to take part and also get support from local businesses, because it's obviously costly. One thing is to get out there on a trip and the other is to provide some funds to do some good stuff and give to the community - to get some win-win stuff happening."

The sort of trip John has in mind is what Madventurer exists for. It takes on clients of all ages, including school parties and students, and sets them up in worthwhile projects often comprising manual work. John says these may be short or long, but are designed to bring results.

"We've built schools from scratch, playgrounds, planted thousands of trees, taught 30,000 lessons, renovated five orphanages and completely built a home for street kids," he says. "It's all about giving back to communities through travel but it's not hardcore-type work - it's short, snappy projects that are fun and where there's an instant impact.

We take people out for one week to a year, but the average is two months, which is split between a five-week project and then usually people have a three-week adventure."

The reason John believes so passionately in voluntary work abroad is that his own first taste of this caused him to re-think his whole life. He was a student at the time and pretty sure he'd fail his course, so took a gap year mid-way through as things were looking fairly grim.

"I went to Ghana in '98 after taking a year out from Newcastle University," says John. "I'd just basically had enough. I didn't know what I wanted to do in life and just wanted a break, so I went backpacking, but I broke my ankle by falling down a storm drain, so I was on crutches and in a cast for the first two months."

Despite his injury, however, John did find useful work to do. He came across a village school which couldn't wait to take him on. "This secondary school had just been set up and I basically met the headmaster and asked if he wanted me to do some lessons and he said yes," he says. "I was a student at the time, so I didn't have much cash, but I did a bit of teaching and spent the rest of the money I had on books for the school. I stayed for four months and taught science because I was doing engineering at Newcastle and had a great time, basically. At the end of that four months I did my adventure bit, which was to backpack around West Africa."

Before he left for home, however, John had an offer from the village. Such was the impact he had made that he was asked to be a chief. "The village asked if I wanted a permanent role on their tribal council and if I would accept being their development chief," he says. "They knew that I had an interest in the development of the village but they also realised that being from the UK I'm in a good position to help them."

So John was named Torgbui Mottey - Torgbui means grandfather' or chief' and Mottey means pioneering pathfinder through the forest' - but had to go back to his studies and then return to be enstooled. The trip had proved a great incentive to get his future back on track. "I walked away with a 2:2 in the end and it was all because I had this gap year," says John. "This is one of the reasons I set up Madventurer - to promote people taking gaps from their lives."

He's highly honoured to be a chief and knows how privileged he is - "I think I was the only student probably in history to have received such an honorary role, and certainly when I married Elaine we were the first European couple to head up a joint chieftaincy," says John - but having such a vital job does mean a fair amount of work. He has to visit every year to see what's happening in the village and must abide by certain rules - although he claims they're not too strict. The main thing is, he's now committed and can't let the people down.

"They've got their own plan and I do what I can from that plan," says John. "I always do at least one project a year."

As far as Madventurer is concerned, it seems it's going from strength to strength, and in the current year alone, will take 1,000 people on its trips. If every person does their bit then John can feel he has succeeded.

"There's been a lot in the press recently about gap years being the new colonialism and I see it as complete rubbish," he says. "It's all about responsible travel."

* Madventurer, The Old Casino, 1-4 Fourth Lane, Newcastle, 0845-121-1996, www.madventurer.com, team@madventurer.com