Australian Kate Leeming has finished cycling across Africa from West to East. It took 11 months covering more than 20,000 kms.

Her purpose:

to learn firsthand about the causes and consequences of extreme poverty and through the story of the expedition which unfolds, educate and inspire actions which will assist in making communities more sustainable and resilient to the issues. Essentially this is about giving a ‘leg up’ NOT a ‘hand out’.
breaking the cycle in africa

Kate was interviewed on ABC Radio National's AM program by Alison Caldwell. When reflecting on her experiences in Ethiopia Kate made these general observations on the effectiveness of aid:

They've been a party to the wrong type of aid, the band-aid effect, for many, many years and that's, it's actually killing Africa that type of, the hand out kind of scenario and people were throwing money in. But it's just like throwing money into a bottomless pit if you don't actually have any skill transfer and if you don't make that type of development sustainable, community development.
Cyclist home after crossing Africa 25 August 2010

Kate blog posts can be found here. There is also a parallel website with photos, video and lots more.