“A challenge for social change”

Africa is faced with a threat that could see it lose almost 10% of its adult population (66 million people) by 2015, if nothing is done about HIV/AIDS. We are already witnessing 12 million children orphaned by AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa and it is estimated that at least 9% of all children in Sub-Saharan Africa have lost at least one parent to AIDS.

Carol Bellamy the Executive Director of UNICEF stated that “If this situation is not addressed, and not addressed now with increased urgency, millions of children will continue to die, and tens of millions more will be further marginalized, stigmatized, malnourished, uneducated, and psychologically damaged.”

Thabang Skwambane is an executive director of Kaelo an HIV/AIDS and Wellness company. He has been involved in fighting HIV/AIDS for the last 3 years and in his work he has seen the devastating effect of the Global Epidemic on households, children and even entire communities.

“The disaster has struck and only radical action will ensure that we provide adequate support to it. This is a social disaster that will leave an indelible mark on all of us and we haven’t understood the burden we will have to bear in the near future!” says Thabang who will embark on an unaided, one man cycle through 6 Southern and Eastern African countries as part of a fundraising and awareness drive initiated by The Lonely Road Foundation, called The Lonely Road Challenge. The gruelling 9 week journey will start from Johannesburg on the 27th June 2007 and will cover over 5500 kilometres (3600 miles) on a bicycle covering Southern and Eastern African countries namely South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania. But that’s not where the challenge ends. Once in Tanzania, the second part of the challenge demands an exhausted and weary Thabang, accompanied by Grace Meadows – television personality and fellow director of The Lonely Road Foundation - and a handful of other volunteers whose names will be released in due course, to summit the highest peak in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro (5,896 metres). Starting the climb on, projected, 1st September 2007, Thabang and his team will have to survive extreme altitudes and probably what is the hardest mountain terrain in Africa, to witness a spectacular sunrise at Uhuru Peak and mark the end of the challenge.

“It will take me more than 2 months to reach Tanzania and we will still be faced with a mountain to climb as the final obstacle. But it will be a poignant reminder of the mountain that faces all children after they manage to survive their “childhoods” without any support, they are then required to contribute to a society that didn’t offer them anything in the first place and to do so in the same way as all of us privileged individuals.” says the 31 year old Thabang, one of the founding Directors of The Lonely Road Foundation.

The Lonely Road Challenge has received support and sponsorship from companies and broadcasters such as Standard Bank, Cape Union Mart, SABC and Multichoice and from an array of individuals namely: Cyril Ramaphosa (former activist and trade unionist and Chairman of Shanduka Group), Clem Sunter (Chairman of the AngloAmerican Chairman’s Fund and Executive Director of AngloAmerican Plc.), Justice Edwin Cameron (Justice of the Supreme Court of South Africa and author of Witness to AIDS – a personal account of his fight with HIV/AIDS) – their endorsement and comments are available on request.

Through initiatives like the challenge and many others to follow, The Lonely Road Foundation’s ultimate aim is not only to raise necessary funding and increase social awareness but also to provide financial, legal and operational support to underprivileged communities enabling them to set up a community response to critical issues such as Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC’s) and HIV/AIDS.

“During the cycle leg and the Mount Kilimanjaro summit, we will face many choices, trials and tribulations and will suffer physically, emotionally and spiritually but our suffering will pale into insignificance when compared to the lives of orphaned and vulnerable children like those living in Dikgale Village in Limpopo province and it is for them that we do this.” adds, Grace Meadows, a TV personality and Director of The Lonely Road Foundation.

The Lonely Road Foundation was borne out of frustration and desperation. In an attempt to assist a poor and destitute rural South African community (The Dikgale Clan), it became clear that without support, an underprivileged society will not be able to wade through the bureaucracy and respond to their own crises! To date the international community and donor agencies have pledged millions in the fight to offer orphans support. Although numerous organizational groups countrywide have taken on the challenge, there has never been a united platform bringing them all together to fight the problem holistically. NGO’S compete amongst themselves for funding and are becoming increasingly antagonistic; thus the growing trend within the ‘industry’ is to work in isolation. Amidst this flurry of bureaucratic challenge, child-headed households are still on the rise and very much a reality and the prevalence of vulnerable children grows at an alarming rate every year.

The Lonely Road Foundation seeks to be the platform of communication between already existing child-centred organizations. Through communication with social services and fellow NGO’S across the region, the foundation strives to gather resources and explore sustainable methods and models to actively deal with the problem of child headed households and ultimately seeks to offer support to orphans and vulnerable children in Sub Saharan Africa.

A media launch will be convened in due course. Members of the press will be introduced to the project team and sponsors and more information about the project and other planned project-related promotional activities will be released. A formal invitation will be forwarded in due course. The Lonely Road Foundation’s official website has been launched and will be helpful in providing project dates, routes, updates, pictures, new developments, participating country profiles and other additional information.

Weekly updates will be sent out during the cycle and summit phase of the campaign and all media personnel who wish to be part of the mailing list, must please email a request to the email addresses provide below. The foundation’s website will also be regularly updated with photos, journal logs and new developments and links will be sent to all interested media personnel.

UNAIDS, 2006 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, Chapter 4: the impact of AIDS on people and societies