Raising funds for the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital - Cape Town, South Africa

In 2009 my young grandson, Tristan, suffered burns to his upper body and was treated in the phenomenal Burns Unit at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town. It was an extremely traumatising experience for us all and introduced us to the reality faced by so many sick children and their families who have to deal with this kind of trauma.

We are so grateful for the wonderful care and support Tristan received at the Hospital from doctors and medical staff that we decided, as a family, that it would be fitting for us to be able to give back in some way. I’ve therefore committed to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in July 2010 and will attempt to raise much needed funds for the Hospital.

100% of money I raise will be allocated directly to upgrade the Burns Unit - every cent donated to the Hospital Trust will directly benefit the Hospital.

Ultimately, the purpose of this project is to raise funds for an extremely deserving cause. I have given a personal guarantee to match the amount I must raise in sponsorships in the form of financial donations to the Trust.

I am very excited about being able to make a difference and sincerely hope you will be able to come on board with me in helping to get other sick children back home where they belong!



This is how you can get involved....

DONATE A SKILL

If you have a skill that you would like to 'donate' instead of money, this slot is for you.

I will create an event around what you have to offer and 100% of what people pay to attend will be donated to the hospital.

The hair spa day held in March at the Wayne.com salon at the One and Only Hotel is an example of such an event. We were able to raise R5250 on that day.

PLEDGES

Kilimanjaro is 5895m high. You can decide to pledge a certain amount per meter that I climb. You can email your pledges to me at: ferreira@netpoint.co.za OR you can download a pledge page from the section on the right of this page and fax it to me.

If you can't pledge yourself, how about getting your company to pledge and to perhaps even challenge other companies to match or better their pledge!!

DONATE ONLINE OR BY BANK DEPOSIT

On the right hand side of the blog, near the top, there is a section that includes a direct link to the hospital's website.

Read all the directions before clicking on the link, it is important for the hospital to be able to allocate your donation correctly.

The hospital trust will issue a tax certificate for any donation over R100, so that's an extra bonus for both individuals and companies!

AUCTION

I am currently collecting goods to offer on an auction to be held later this year - anything that we can turn into money is welcome!

Just to give you a sample of some of the things we have at this stage: three TOP NOTCH bottles of South African wines, compliments of Janet Malherbe, and five signed copies of a book written by the adventurer and master fundraiser David Grier!

For more info on David: http://www.davidgrier.co.za/

I'd love to be able to offer nights away at wonderful places in our country, romantic dinners at special restaurants etc. So if you have any connections or have something that you can offer yourself, I'd love to hear from you!

Just to make double sure you have my contact details - here it is again: ferreira@netpoint.co.za





Tristan enjoying being a healthy, happy little boy!


my blog entries

Will try and update on a regular basis!! :)

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Hakuna matata!



These amazing pictures of Kilimanjaro were taken by Tony Laubscher whilst flying over Tanzania - all in a days work!

Looking at these pictures and realising how the 21st of July is looming in a very big and scary way, I've decided that I am going to have to get to know this mountain and start preparing myself mentally for what lies ahead. So my first plan of action was to  arm myself with a catch phrase. I looked up some Swahili words and decided that 'Hakuna matata' or 'No problem!', will do for me!

So. What are the facts? The mountain is 5895m high. In 6 days one goes from Equatorial forests to arctic conditions. The range begins with the warm, dry plains with average temperatures of 30 degrees celsius where Moshi and Arusha are situated. The hike starts in a wide belt of wet tropical forest with plenty huge trees and Spanish moss. You then travel through zones with generally decreasing temperatures and rainfall, to the summit where there is permanent ice and below freezing temperatures.

July is the dry season, so generally considered a good time of the year to climb. Hopefully there won't be too many clouds as I have specifically chosen to summit on the 26th of July, the night of a full moon.

The biggest challenge one faces it seems, is Acute Mountain Sickness. This rival of all high altitude climbers can affect one from as low as 2500 meters but is more common above 3000 meters. Until you've been at these altitudes, you have no way of knowing how your body is going to react. AMS occurs as a result of the body's failure to adapt to higher altitudes.

One of the things that I have heard over and over is that one should climb slowly to prevent the onset of AMS and you should also be able to recognise all the symptoms, as well as know how to deal with them. I am doing my homework as best I can about this topic and have already bought my Diamox tablets - a must to have with you to help you deal with this condition. I will also be taking my natural remedy mix with, given to me by my friends Stefani and Phillip - they used it successfully when visiting Everest a couple of months ago.

SO...I think that is enough for now! I will tackle all the smaller issues one by one, no point in getting too worked up about AMS, it is what it is.

A definite positive is that the Outriders Fundraising effort is going really well and I have had a number of promises for smaller pledges. I have decided to have the auction later in the year and hope to be able to collect an amazing array of things to offer!

So quite a bit of work ahead, but as I said: Hakuna matata!
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