This article was published on August 28, 2010

Call to take part in an Internet-powered journey of a lifetime


Call to take part in an Internet-powered journey of a lifetime

Fancy a trip to a distant land while raising money for charity? One woman is preparing for a social media-powered trip around the world and she’s hunting for people to join her along the way.

7 Wonders in 7 Days is an ambitious project organised by Manchester-based Chi-chi Ekweozor. “It all started last April when, inspired by a TV show about a man caring for his elderly wife who had Alzheimer’s disease, I decided to do something rather unorthodox to raise some serious cash for charity”, she says. “A chance misreading of a travel article about the new 7 wonders of the world led to a curious brainwave”.

That brainwave led to Chi-chi deciding to attempt what she says is a never-been-done-before trip around the globe to see the “New 7 wonders of the world” in 7 days. The New seven wonders of the world are the Taj Mahal in India; the Great Wall of China; the Colosseum in Rome, Italy; Chichen Itza in Mexico; Christ the Redeemer in Brazil; Machu Picchu in Peru and Petra in Jordan. “Yes, it is possible to visit these seven locations on four continents in seven days, but only just!”, she says.

Chi-chi’s plan is to attempt said trip in October this year. She’s got seven charities on board and in order to raise money for them, she plans to have seven complete strangers join her at different points in the journey. Each person taking part will have to agree to share their journey via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube in order to help raise awareness of the project and reach Chi-chi’s goal of raising £777,000. She wants to try new things too, “I’m desperately hoping Facebook Places is operational for non-US residents by October as I’d love to use it on the trip.”

Ahead of her trip, Chi-chi is promoting both the project and the charities involved via online events. Most recently, she held a Twitter-based Q&A session for YoungMinds, a UK charity dedicated to the mental well-being of teenagers and young people. “The event was designed to involve more people on Twitter with the charity’s pioneering work and featured a ‘chat’ with UK comedienne and actress Isy Suttie of cult TV series Peep Show and future British Formula 1 racing star, Jon Lancaster“, Chi-chi tells us.

Early in her preparations she got some travel advice from well-known Internet personalities like Robert Scoble, Craig Newmark and Matt Mullenweg. You can watch the videos here.

To apply to take part in 7 Wonders in 7 Days, you’ll need to create a 60-second video. Details are here. Each person wins a 3 day holiday to one of the seven wonders.

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