The two-week expedition is run by the charity Azafady.

2011-06-13 (Sydney, Australia) – Andrew Ingersoll, a world traveller, professional

nurse, and travel photographer for Rick Ingersoll’s blog “The Frugal Travel Guy,” has been accepted to participate in a two-week conservation expedition in Madagascar that is run by the charity Azafady.

On August 26, 2011, Ingersoll will depart from Sydney, where he has lived since 2008, to join Azafady’s Lemur & Biodiversity Research program in Madagascar, which will run through September 8.

“I’ve been lucky to have served in different volunteer settings in numerous places across America and am looking forward to volunteering in such a unique environment,” said Ingersoll, 30. Originally from Traverse City, Michigan (US), he has also worked as an evacuation and repatriation nurse in Australia and is currently pursuing a law degree at the University of New South Wales.

Azafady runs projects in rural southeast Madagascar supporting conservation, humanitarian and sustainable development projects. As part of the Azafady team, Ingersoll needs to raise a minimum donation of £600, or approximately $1000 USD, which will go to directly support Azafady’s work. A small proportion of that donation helps cover the volunteers’ food, training and travels in Madagascar.

Set in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa, Madagascar is the world’s fourth largest island and is recognized as one of the planet’s top conservation priorities. Eighty per cent of the island’s plant and animal species, including 71 species of lemur, are not found anywhere else on earth. For its Conservation scheme, Azafady works with Parc Botanique et Zoologique de Tsimbazaza (PBZT), the national botanical and zoological gardens of Madagascar, which is striving to be the leader in captive breeding of the nation’s primate species.

Andrew Ingersoll will work with the PBZT staff and with Azafady in the Fort Dauphin region of southeast Madagascar, an area that has been substantially deforested but retains fragments of some of the most important tropical forests in the world. The Conservation team’s work will concentrate in the littoral forest (close to the shore), a highly endangered coastal habitat.

Ingersoll is accepting donations to his target goal by phone (+4420 8960 6629) or through this direct link: http://www.bmycharity.com/AndrewIngersoll . For more information on Andrew Ingersoll, visit http://frugaltravelguy.com and click on “Andrew Ingersoll: Photographer.”

For further information on Azafady and the Conservation scheme, visit www.madagascar.co.uk.

About the Conservation scheme:

The non-profit Azafady UK Conservation scheme was set up in 2009 to support the ongoing conservation projects of Azafady. It runs year-round and allows volunteers to be involved in all the different aspects of Conservation work through modular courses. All revenues generated above costs are donated to Azafady (registered UK Charity number 1079121). For further information contact Mark Jacobs, Managing Director, Azafady UK, 020 8960 6629.