Home | News | MAN WALKS 130KM IN FIVE DAYS FOR YOUTH

MAN WALKS 130KM IN FIVE DAYS FOR YOUTH

20/06/2014 04:09:00 BY SITHEMBILE HLATSHWAYO

Font size:

MBABANE – Determination to mobilise funds for the child-headed and vulnerable youth has led to an initiative where a young man has walked for 130 kilometres in five days.

The campaign hopes to raise money through an online platform where friends and people who are for the cause will make donations through online giving platforms during the walk.
Global Giving, an online giving platform, has been engaged to facilitate the fund-raising initiative.
The walk is envisaged to raise at least E350 000 in order to implement the project well.

The National Director of Youth for Christ Swaziland, Bongani Dlamini, is passionate about youth issues, hence has dedicated time for this course.
The journey began on Monday, from Manzini to Mbabane and on Tuesday from Mbabane to Hawane.
On Wednesday, from Hawane to Maguga Lodge and yesterday from Maguga to Pigg’s Peak. Today the final journey continues from Pigg’s Peak to Bulembu.

According to Dlamini, he aims to raise funds for a youth-focused practical life skills programme, aiming special focus on youth affected by disabilities and diabetes.
He said over 50 per cent of the youth in Manzini (project area) are from either a child-headed household, a vulnerable family setting or are raised by absent parents, resulting in a youth that is void of balanced psychosocial support. Dlamini said the project would be run in four schools with about 2 450 students, ages 12-24.

Passionate and sympathetic partners have committed to sponsor by providing much needed overnight accommodation in the different places where he will end his plus minus 30km per day.

These sponsors include the Emmanuel Lodge in Mbabane, Hawane Resort, Maguga Lodge and Bulembu, among others.
Beneficiaries of the walk include St Joseph’s Mission, a centre that caters for the development of disabled youth using the integration model.
Diabetes Swaziland is also another beneficiary.

Diabetes (one of the non communicable diseases) is one of today’s silent killer diseases that is linked to HIV which was for a long time thought to be only affecting adults or the elderly but has of late started affecting even the youth.

The other recipient is the Youth for Christ Swaziland (YFC SD )an organisation that works with youth from ages 12 to 35 years of age by taking the gospel to them through means that youth relate to and are familiar with.

YFC SD also equips youth with necessary skills like life skills, leadership development, entrepreneurship etc.
This includes making young people aware of challenges and problems they face in their societies and encouraging them to be part of the solution to those challenges.