Jul 23 2008
by Andrew Baldwin
Huddersfield Daily Examiner
‘Cycling in a hot tropical climate is unknown territory’
CYCLING through 300 miles of tough country is a hard task.
But that’s what Adam Kirby will attempt in November as part of a World Vision cycle challenge through Cambodia.
The event will raise money to provide clean drinking water for one of Cambodia’s poorest areas, Koh Andaet, hit hard under Pol Pot’s Communist regime.
Adam was born and brought up in Huddersfield but has been settled in New Zealand a while now.
He will be cycling in a country devastated by the murderous Pol Pot regime, whose rule brought the deaths of an estimated 1.5m people.
Adam says: “Rural communities in Cambodia are really struggling and need consistent help to overcome the problems of poverty and lack of resources.
“The cycle challenge will help one specific area by providing them with something we take for granted every time we turn on a tap.”
Adam has been back in Huddersfield for a reunion with mother Audrey and brother William, who both live in Netherton.
With him are wife Lalita, a New Zealander he met in Thailand, and son Christopher, 18.
Adam will be 50 on August 2 and had an early celebration at Durker Roods Hotel, Meltham.
He spent the first six months of his life at Almondbury before the family moved to Lindley, where he was brought up.
Schooling was at Oakes County Junior, Salendine Nook Secondary Modern and Greenhead College.
Dad Peter died 11 years ago and worked for ICI from 1940 to 1968
Adam gained a history degree at Lancaster University, living in Morecambe for a year during his studies.
“It was the year the West End pier was washed away in a storm,” he remembers. “There was water flowing everywhere.”
He trained as a teacher and worked with the Ockenden Venture in a project with Vietnamese refugees.
He was an administrator and English teacher and spent 18 months at a reception centre in Bridport, Dorset.
Two years in Thailand followed, working with refugees for South East Asia Outreach.
Adam came back to Huddersfield and spent four years as an English language teacher at Westborough High School, Dewsbury, in the 1980s.
After a further spell in Thailand he returned to England to train for the Baptist ministry at Oxford.
By the end of 1992 he was in New Zealand with his wife, who he married in 1989.
He now works as an English lecturer at the Manukau Institute of Technology in the southern part of the city of Auckland on North Island.
When World Vision asked if he was interested in the cycle challenge he thought: “Why not?”
Adam cycles the 11-mile round trip to work at the Manukau Institute of Technology to prepare for the challenge and will increase his training in the lead-up to the event.
“Cycling in a hot tropical climate is unknown territory,” he says.
Son Christopher was born in Oxford while Adam was doing his theology degree and is spending a year as a student at a Baptist college in New Zealand.
He plans to study law in Wellington and hopes to specialise in the area of human rights and poverty.
The family are over here to August 12 and will spend 10 days in Israel during their visit.
Adam sponsors a 12-year-old in Cambodia and is learning the Khmer language so he can talk to her.
He added: “My personal goal is to raise £4,000 through the cycle challenge and I am asking for sponsorship that will go towards the water project.”
He can be contacted by email at adam.kirby@manukau.ac.nz
by Andrew Baldwin
Huddersfield Daily Examiner
‘Cycling in a hot tropical climate is unknown territory’
CYCLING through 300 miles of tough country is a hard task.
But that’s what Adam Kirby will attempt in November as part of a World Vision cycle challenge through Cambodia.
The event will raise money to provide clean drinking water for one of Cambodia’s poorest areas, Koh Andaet, hit hard under Pol Pot’s Communist regime.
Adam was born and brought up in Huddersfield but has been settled in New Zealand a while now.
He will be cycling in a country devastated by the murderous Pol Pot regime, whose rule brought the deaths of an estimated 1.5m people.
Adam says: “Rural communities in Cambodia are really struggling and need consistent help to overcome the problems of poverty and lack of resources.
“The cycle challenge will help one specific area by providing them with something we take for granted every time we turn on a tap.”
Adam has been back in Huddersfield for a reunion with mother Audrey and brother William, who both live in Netherton.
With him are wife Lalita, a New Zealander he met in Thailand, and son Christopher, 18.
Adam will be 50 on August 2 and had an early celebration at Durker Roods Hotel, Meltham.
He spent the first six months of his life at Almondbury before the family moved to Lindley, where he was brought up.
Schooling was at Oakes County Junior, Salendine Nook Secondary Modern and Greenhead College.
Dad Peter died 11 years ago and worked for ICI from 1940 to 1968
Adam gained a history degree at Lancaster University, living in Morecambe for a year during his studies.
“It was the year the West End pier was washed away in a storm,” he remembers. “There was water flowing everywhere.”
He trained as a teacher and worked with the Ockenden Venture in a project with Vietnamese refugees.
He was an administrator and English teacher and spent 18 months at a reception centre in Bridport, Dorset.
Two years in Thailand followed, working with refugees for South East Asia Outreach.
Adam came back to Huddersfield and spent four years as an English language teacher at Westborough High School, Dewsbury, in the 1980s.
After a further spell in Thailand he returned to England to train for the Baptist ministry at Oxford.
By the end of 1992 he was in New Zealand with his wife, who he married in 1989.
He now works as an English lecturer at the Manukau Institute of Technology in the southern part of the city of Auckland on North Island.
When World Vision asked if he was interested in the cycle challenge he thought: “Why not?”
Adam cycles the 11-mile round trip to work at the Manukau Institute of Technology to prepare for the challenge and will increase his training in the lead-up to the event.
“Cycling in a hot tropical climate is unknown territory,” he says.
Son Christopher was born in Oxford while Adam was doing his theology degree and is spending a year as a student at a Baptist college in New Zealand.
He plans to study law in Wellington and hopes to specialise in the area of human rights and poverty.
The family are over here to August 12 and will spend 10 days in Israel during their visit.
Adam sponsors a 12-year-old in Cambodia and is learning the Khmer language so he can talk to her.
He added: “My personal goal is to raise £4,000 through the cycle challenge and I am asking for sponsorship that will go towards the water project.”
He can be contacted by email at adam.kirby@manukau.ac.nz
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