Ben Cashman

Ben Cashman is from the gorgeous little island of Tasmania, Australia who makes his living as an IT Consultant for Logica, building and supporting computer systems from around the country. He is an avid scuba diver and is actively involved in research diving and conservation activities around Tasmania’s stunning coastline. His current project involvement includes urchin monitoring, recording stats on the migration of introduced urchin species, as well as survey diving for TAFI collecting important statistics on local ecosystems around the state.

Having graduated two years ago from a combined Computer/Commerce degree, Ben has been eager to travel the globe and soak up every experience along the way. After spending a month travelling through Thailand in 2004, Ben developed a desire to travel and was fortunate enough to be able to spend time in Spain, Austria, and the Czech Replublic towards the end of 2007.

Having participated in the Red Cross Youth Advisory team in Tasmania, Ben is a strong supporter of volunteer and charity organisations playing their part in the aid and development of people in need, especially in third world countries of Africa. One of his high school friends and their family are the founders of the Back-To-School Foundation in Malawi where Ben and Kate will be hoping to spend time volunteering and helping with development projects just south of Lake Malawi in Monkey Bay.

Kate Rayment

Kate Rayment also hails from Tasmania, after being born in rural NSW, Australia. Having moved to the Apple Isle as a child, she has now finished a Business/Law degree with First Class Honours and is taking a year out to join her beau on a life-long dream before beginning her graduate job working in a big law firm in Melbourne. Currently working as a tutor for law and management subjects,  as well as a research assistant on a number of legal projects, Kate has recently joined Ben in his pursuit of scuba and is learning every step of the way that relaxing is a lot easier than she first thought!

Kate has always been involved in voluntary committees and societies, both on campus at the University of Tasmania and in the greater community. With previous experience running these societies, waitressing for 10 years and filming a movie with an international director hailing from Melbourne, Kate has a varied CV. Nothing gives her more joy than traveling – the first trip around parts of Australia for 3 months during a year off before university gave her appetite for more, and since then she’s spent a month in New Zealand, 3 months in South East Asia, and 5 months firstly traveling in Spain and then living in Brno, Czech Republic where she studied and continued to travel around the eastern bloc.

This trip is a culmination of a life-long desire to travel to Africa, the joy of being able to help those who are less fortunate, and the practice of international law and policy that she has, until now, only studied.  As the Head Delegate to a poverty summit in Sydney in October, 2008, the fire burnt even more fiercely, and now Kate is willing to throw herself into the next 7 months putting into practice everything she’s learnt.