The Solidarity Walk is a virtual sponsored walk of 2,414 miles from Cape Town to Beitbridge, on the border with Zimbabwe, and back again, to raise awareness and funds for the South African Solidarity Fund.
Different localities, regions and countries can set up their own routes for walkers to walk together, socially distanced, for mutual moral support, or participants can choose their own routes. The total distance will be displayed on our website along with a moving map to show current progress in miles. Another counter will show the total funds raised.
The Solidarity Walk will take place over the UK Bank Holiday weekend of August 29th to August 31st inclusive. This is a one-off event that will not be repeated.
Whether you’re South African, or a friend of South Africa, we hope you’ll get involved. It is vital for the future that the diaspora come together to offer as much support to the people at home as we possibly can at the current time.
Corporate and community groups are encouraged to organise groups of staff/members to engage in the walk, and to set up leader boards for sponsorship raised or for miles walked. Individuals and families can connect with others via our facebook group to plan routes together or join other groups who will be walking. Other suggested routes will be published on our Strava Club page.
South Africans need our help!
The global Coronavirus pandemic has been tough on people and wrought great economic damage everywhere, but the situation is particularly serious in South Africa. The pandemic has amplified and exacerbated many of the underlying social and political issues the country is facing, inequality, youth unemployment, poverty, corruption and a lack of service delivery, all of which already tear at our social cohesion and undermine the fabric of our young democracy.
Unlike the UK and other advanced economies, the South African government doesn’t have the luxury of offering significant levels of direct financial support to the huge numbers of families who as a consequence of lockdown no longer have jobs, or are unable to travel to their jobs. Millions of people are now struggling to pay for the essentials they need to survive.
High density, low income communities in South Africa are particularly vulnerable to the spread of Coronavirus, and lack the resources to properly protect people or provide adequate supplies of PPE.
The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa has called upon the private sector to help, and on 23rd March 2020, the Solidarity Fund was formed in response, with four main aims.
- Prevent; to support measures to reduce the infection rate of COVID-19
- Detect; to supply testing kits to detect cases of COVID-19
- Care; to support the care of the sick, and provide PPE supplies to the people caring for them
- Support; to provide food and shelter to those affected by the lockdown
Being independent from government and fully audited and accountable, we are assured that funds provided to the Solidarity Fund will all directly benefit those in need. The Solidarity Fund’s website provides clear information on monies received and spent, along with up-to-date press briefings on any current issues of concern.
Currently, the Solidarity Fund has delivered more than 280,000 food parcels to families in need and has raised a total of just over R3 billion.
It’s really easy to join!
Just click to book your place on this challenge, then further instructions will be emailed to you along with a sponsorship form. You will need to be logged in on this site to book, if you don’t already have an account you can create one in a few moments.
There’s a small registration fee of £1.50 to cover the charges incurred by the Chamber in running this event, which can be deducted when you send the money you have raised from sponsorship. You’re also welcome to use other fundraising platforms, such as setting up a facebook fundraiser, or using justgiving.com to help with your fundraising efforts.
It’s also possible to simply donate if you would prefer not to raise sponsorship.
Once you’ve signed up for the event, or even if you haven’t, please also share on social media and let others know about the event and encourage them to also take part. The more people we can get involved the more likely we will be to reach our target, and show our people at home how much we care and that we walk with them through this crisis.