Ballito News

The North Coast Courier - 11 Jul 2008

BY SHIRLEY NYEMBE
To create awareness about the spread
of malaria Zinkwazi resident Kingsley
Holgate and a South African
expedition team have been tracking
the outside edge of Africa since
April, carrying with them an Expedition
Scroll of Peace and Goodwill.
Nearing the end of the journey
Holgate and his team delivered the
scroll for Mayor Sduduzo Gumede
to sign at the King Shaka monument
on July 5.
Holgate started the journey from
the Cape of Good Hope armed with
a calabash filled with water from the
Indian Ocean and the scroll, which
was endorsed by Nobel Peace prizewinners
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
and Nelson Mandela.
The team has risked their lives to
reach out to patients affected by
malaria. Holgate said they experienced
lots of campfires and river
crossings, thousands of mud holes
and buckets of sweat during their
journey.
But most of all thousands of people
were given a means of protection
from malaria by their teamwork.
“The aim of the journey is to help
prevent the spread of malaria in all
countries on the edge of Africa. We
distributed mosquito nets to pregnant
women and children under the
age of five. We also gave out spectacles
to the elderly with poor eyesight
in refugee camps,” he said.
The team’s journey will end in
Cape Town from July 18-20 where
they will empty the calabash back
into the sea and will return the scroll
to Nelson Mandela.