Hey! My name is JayJay, General Partner and Expedition Leader of BraveHearts Expeditions, West- to Central Africa's sole Outdoor Leadership, Adventure Sports and Experiential Learning Expeditions firm. We provide fun, active and exhilarating experiences for people from all walks of life as we push our clients beyond their regular limits of physical, recreational, cultural and mental endurance on our jungle, mountain, white-water and wilderness experiential learning expeditions. 

Our Expedition Projects also contribute to providing economic, social and environmental incentives for local communities to halt the process of environmental degradation and prevent biodiversity loss. These incentives come in the form of scholarships for bright but needy students, provision of access to water and sanitation, and the payment of 10% royalties to the rural economies of destination locations totalling some 10,000 US Dollars over a two-year period.

Our Mission

Our Vision is to create a global community of inspired and inspiring young people committed to working together regardless of age, social background, culture and nationality, towards building strong global communities and changing the world, one expedition project at a time.

Our Mission is to inspire young people to make a positive difference throughout their lives by exposing them to experiential learning expeditions, challenging programmes of practical, team-based community projects and sustainable environmental projects to conserve life on earth in partnership with non-governmental organizations, universities, governments, conservationists, environmentalists and marginalized communities in Africa.

Our Mission Statement

We work to create a sustainable and profitable Adventure Sports culture in Ghana and West Africa by being the market leader in experiential learning expeditions for people from all walks of life and being the Leader of Adventure Sports in Africa.

1.     To advance profitable education and global citizenship.

2.    To provide relief to countries and communities in need by reason of disadvantage.

3.    To advance environmental protection and sustainable community development.

4.    To harness African tourism profitability for sustainable development

These objectives are achieved through our expeditions carried out in Ghana and on the African continent for the purpose of providing experiential learning and personal development through adventure, challenge, and through community, environmental, and development projects.

We’re running a crowdfunding campaign to set up an Outdoor Educational Centre on Survival Island, a small piece of land we own in Lake Volta, the largest man-made lake on earth. The Centre is to provide experiential learning opportunities to corporate institutions in exchange for fees that can help us to better support our beneficiary communities and prevent 50-thousand hectares of conservation land from going under due to rural unemployment. We have successfully raised £31,000 for the Outdoor Leadership Centre and now need £19,000 to build the Outdoor Educational Centre. With your help, we will be able to achieve this. So far, we have provided 20 students with educational scholarships in our Expedition locations. If we succeed, we will be able to support so many more communities in ways that make ecosystems more beneficial alive than dead.

We have already conducted 290 expeditions so we are the experts of when it comes to the jungle learning experience. Due to this, we have been able to provide 20 scholarships to students of deprived communities in some of our deprived Expedition locations. With your help, we will be able to foster economic growth in many more communities and transform lives through our Expeditions.

We have only 30 days to reach our target and have a variety of rewards on offer. Please support our HelpingB campaign to make this idea a reality.

Gregg Fairbrothers, Chairman

Mr. Gregg Fairbrothers brings to BraveHearts Expeditions more than 22 years’ business experience in almost all operational and investment-related aspects of the upstream oil and gas industry, including exploration, exploitation, production, marketing, acquisitions and divestment, joint ventures, and corporate finance through banks, multi-lateral institutions, limited partnerships and public markets (including IPOs and unsolicited purchases). 

Mr. Fairbrothers is the founding director of the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network and an adjunct professor of Business Administration at the Tuck School of business at Dartmouth College.  Prior to returning to the New Hampshire Upper Valley area of the United States in 1999, he was President and founder of a mid-sized international oil and gas producer, Samson International, Ltd (SIL), as well as president of Samson Resources, Inc., and a director of the companies’ parent holding company, Samson Investment Company. 

Within Samson International, between 1987 and 2000 Mr. Fairbrothers managed, founded and built exploration and production companies on three continents. The International companies had operations in Venezuela, Canada and Russia, a combined staff of over 150 employees, and annual revenue exceeding $US 100 million. 

Mr. Fairbrothers came to the Samson companies in 1980 from Texaco, Inc., and held a variety of management positions in exploration, production, and acquisitions.  From 1998 Mr. Fairbrothers was President of Samson Resources Company, the US subsidiary of the Samson Companies, which operated in all the major producing areas of the US. Samson Resources grew from a company of fewer than 100 employees in 1980 to a maximum employment of over 1,000 during that period. 

Upon leaving Samson in 2000, Mr. Fairbrothers became involved in a number of startup initiatives, some in cooperation with faculty of the Tuck School.  Out of that activity grew the proposal that became the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network a department within the Office of the Provost at Dartmouth College which supports entrepreneurial initiatives and facilitates integrated efforts toward entrepreneurship education and commercial implementation.  In 2004 he founded the Dartmouth Regional Technology Center (DRTC), Inc. a free-standing New Hampshire non-profit corporation which operates a 55,000 sq. ft. technology incubator facility developing technology-based innovations with the potential for significant social impact.  Mr. Fairbrothers continues to serve as director of the DEN program and on the board of Trustees of the Center, and in addition, as a professor of business administration at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, he teaches three courses in entrepreneurship at the Tuck School and a fourth at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine. 

Mr. Fairbrothers graduated Dartmouth magna cum laude in 1975 with a B.A. in Earth Sciences (high distinction). He also earned an M.S. degree from Rutgers University in Geology in 1977, and an MBA from the University of Tulsa in 1983.

Brian F. Kunz, Senior Advisor - Outdoor Leadership & Experiential Education

Mr. Brian Kunz is a skilled and experienced educator and administrator with forty years of experience working in the field of experiential education, primarily with university outdoor programs and Outward Bound schools.  He has extensive experience lecturing and providing practical sessions on experiential learning internationally, and brings the same level of international expertise to BraveHearts Expeditions.  

Brian has designed and delivered experiential learning programs for Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business since 1987.  In addition, Brian designs and delivers the outdoor learning component of the Tuck Bridge Program, the Tuck MBA First Year Orientation, the Dartmouth Medical School First Year Orientation, and oversees the undergraduate outdoor orientation program for over a thousand new students at Dartmouth. 

Brian introduced adventure education to Russia during a two month lecture series at Moscow State University in 1990. Subsequently he helped foster the growth of adventure education in the Moscow Region, in the Mari El Republic, in the Black Sea area and in the Altai Region of Siberia.  

Brian provides management training sessions for corporations including Lucent Technologies, Hewlett Packard, the Bank of America and the Dartmouth Medical Center. 

Brian started his career in outdoor education with the Boston University's SURGE program in the early 70's and then worked for Outward Bound Schools in North America, Great Britain and Germany for ten years before moving to Dartmouth in 1984. 

Brian has skied the length of Norway and was the first American to complete the Euroloppet ski series in 1976.  He is a mountain guide who has climbed the Matterhorn, spent 36 days on Denali and climbed to the 23-thousand-foot Pik Kommunisma in Tajikistan.  He is also an avid canoe tripper and whitewater kayak instructor.  

Brian lives in the New England area of the United States on a property on which he built a log sauna from logs he harvested on his property in Norwich, using Swedish scribe technique.
 
JayJay D. Segbefia, NAV; Expedition & Abseil Leader 

Dziedzorm “JayJay” Segbefia is General Partner of BraveHearts Expeditions and works as Expedition Leader on the firm’s Outdoor Leadership and Experiential Learning adventure programmes. He led the firm to win this past year’s StartUp Cup Ghana Business Model Competition, in which he was personally acclaimed and honored with the Ghana Angel Investor Network’s coveted Most Promising Entrepreneur 2013 Award. The firm subsequently placed second in the first World StartUp Cup Competition hosted in Armenia in January, and compensated four months later by winning the Enablis Business Launchpad Competition, co-sponsored by UT Bank Ghana and ABL. 

JayJay is a Washington Fellow of the prestigious Mandela Washington Fellowship of the US Government’s Young African Leaders Initiative. The Mandela Washington Fellowship embodies President Obama’s commitment to invest in the future of Africa.  The first class of Mandela Washington Fellows arrived in the US in June 2014 for six weeks of intensive executive leadership training, networking, and skills building, followed by a Presidential Summit in Washington, DC.  Through this initiative, he and other young African leaders gained the skills and connections they needed to accelerate their own career trajectories and contribute more robustly to strengthening democratic institutions, spurring economic growth, and enhancing peace and security in Africa.  

Although his academic backgrounds are in Communication Studies and Journalism, JayJay has over a decade’s experience in extensive adventure leadership, having conducted a total of 387 jungle, mountain, white water and wilderness experiential learning expeditions across Africa. Before founding BraveHearts Expeditions, he honed his skills as a Public Relations officer of the Kings University College in Accra and briefly as Junior Communications Adviser to the African Cashew initiative (ACi) of GIZ, Germany’s leading provider of international cooperation. Some of his unparalleled expedition achievements are as follows: 

Ghana 1999-2014. Mountain-hiked over 131 jungle routes, leading high grade expeditions in all survival terrains. Extensively developed private hiking routes in the Akwapim-Togo-Buem Ranges, including 31 first international expeditionary force ascents into the Togolese uplands from Afadjato. 

Tanzania 2006 to 2013: Kilimanjaro. Guided over 15 expeditions to Kilimanjaro. 5895m Routes: Lemosho, Machembe, Western Breach, Rongai and Umbwe. Fastest hiking ascent of Umbwe /Western Breach route to summit down Mweka route in 56 hours. 

Morocco 2007: Atlas Mountains. Jebel Toubkal 4200m and 2 other 4000m peaks. Guided 12 international clients. 

Mozambique 2008: Isla de Mozambique to the Tanzania border. (330km. 9 days) 

Zimbabwe 2009: Chimani-mani Mountains. 5-day treks on the range into Mozambique. Climbed the rarely climbed 5th range in 5 days. 

Ethiopia 2010: Guiding in the Simian Mountains. Ras Deshen 4700m.
 

Nana Adjoa Darko, VOY; Corporate Relations Manager

Nana Adjoa Darko has extensive experience in sports circles and brings a vast wealth of experience in handling internal business communications as well as building external relations to BraveHearts Expeditions. 

Nana joined BraveHearts Expeditions at its start-up stage in 2012 and has since taken on many challenging roles, including competing alongside the Expedition Leader in the World StartUp Cup Business Model Competition in Armenia, January 2014, and leading BraveHearts Expeditions'participation in the ENGINE's drive to enhance growth in new and emerging enterprises.

As Head of Sponsorship, Nana turned around BraveHearts Expeditions'corporate policies and grew our multinational clients and revenues to include high profile companies such as Glaxosmithkline, Maggi and Aquafresh. 

Nana's experience includes business-to-business strategy, sales and new business development and strategic business planning. In her new role she hopes to empower and involve more corporate institutions in our Corporate Outdoor Leadership Expeditions programme and increase the long-term sustainability of their businesses by providing them with innovative leadership training and world class service.

Nana Adjoa has earned the rank of Expedition Voyager, and is the first African female to rise to that prestigious rank. She has participated in more than 50 high-grade African expeditions and led ten full-scale international mountaineering expeditions in the Togolese highlands on the escarpments along Ghana's eastern edge. She facilitated the staging of the Lucozade Icarus Challenge II Wilderness Survival Expedition in the Kwahu Mountain Ranges in April 2011 and has since endeared herself to expedition clients by her impeccable client services skills and hands-on approaches to client comfort.

Sampson Afrifa Jnr., EXP; Expedition Curriculum & Research Manager

Sampson Afrifa Jnr comes to BraveHearts Expeditions with in-depth experience in the field of psychology. In addition to helping our clients handle the intense and emotional nature of our expeditions, it is his job to focus expedition debriefs in part on how our modern-day Explorers will transfer the experience of our expeditions to the workplace and home/school setting for maximum output and personal development. As one of the key pioneers of the firm, his analytical and visionary abilities have been remarkable in the transformation exploits of our Corporate Expeditions.

Sampson contributes with diversity in the designing of psychological tools/kits that enhance experiential learning in the field in trust building, teamwork & cohesion, temperamental assessment & development, leadership, risk management, and emotional management.

As a writer and motivational speaker, he’s facilitated Excellence Clinics in over thirty Senior High Schools in Ghana, providing professional assistance to hundreds of Ghanaian youth in the areas of personality & career development.

Sampson contributes to the planning, execution and review of expedition policies through a research-oriented approach. An expert in social research and data analysis, he has contributed significantly in the terrain of policy formulation, implementation and feedback on the operations of BraveHearts Expeditions.

Sampson holds an M.Phil in Human Resource Management from the University of Ghana Business School. This accounts for his added responsibility as the firm’s Human Resources Manager and plans, recruits, trains and manages skilled and talented individuals to work effectively and efficiently for the company. He ensures that interns and employees are well-imbibed with the core values of the firm, and attain the standard of greatness in integrity, commitment, hard work and work ethics which he duly examines through standardized, regular performance appraisals. Sampson has participated in a total of 15 mountain, jungle and wilderness expeditions with BraveHearts Expeditions and has attained the Rank of Expedition Explorer.

Kusi Appiah, EXP; Youth Development Manager

Kusi Appiah is our Youth Development Manager. He joins BraveHearts Expeditions with the experience of a Minister of the Gospel, having served three different districts within his four years of theological practice. He has acquired extensive experiential knowledge in Youth Ministry serving in areas that deal solely with youth groups. His community development experience helps addicts deal with and overcome addictions. He also runs health seminars and educational workshops that aim at helping Junior and Senior High School students deal with difficult subjects. 

Kusi has lectured extensively at Youth Conferences and Camps on subjects that are at the core of self-development and confidence-building. He runs a centre, the Army of Youth Rightly Trained, which trains youth to be responsible, resourceful, and disciplined agents of moral change. 

His various studies in Pastoral Counselling and Youth Ministry puts him in charge of enforcing our Alcohol-Free, Drugs-Free Expeditions Policies. Kusi has a warm and welcoming personality. He creates a friendly atmosphere that allows for learning, sharing of experiences and building team work.   

In addition to his duties at BraveHearts Expeditions, Kusi serves as Assistant Chaplain at a Christian university in Ghana where he contributes to the spiritual, social and emotional development of students and faculty. 

Kusi holds a B.A in Theology and currently pursues an M.Phil in Theological Studies.