Sports Heroes walk against AIDS

This annual event is organised by Cynthia Tshaka, well-known TV sports anchor on SABC Sport, business woman and fellow Friend and Ambassador of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation.

Each year a group of invited sports people lend their time and profile to participate in a walk to draw awareness to the issue of HIV and AIDS.  Sponsors of the event include Daimler Chrysler, MTN, Nike, Sasol, Xstrata, SAFAM, Newsclip Media, Siemens, the City of Tshwane and the Dept of Social Development.

Thus far a total of R3,2m has been raised and distributed to AIDS hospices and homes in the areas already visited.  The first walk, in 2002, was from Johannesburg to Cape Town.  In 2003 they walked from Johanneseburg to KZN, in 2004 the route was from Johannesburg to Bloemfontein and the 2005 walk was in Mpumalanga.   The 5th walk, in November 2006, saw 10 invited sports men and women donate their time to walk from Pretoria to Mafikeng over a period of 6 days.

The event culminated on 1 December, World AIDS Day,  and at each of the stopovers the group met with community leaders in the various towns that hosted the event.   They visited schools and sports development projects where the children could attend coaching clinics and interact with their sports heroes. A total of R800 000 had been raised by the event organisers for the 2006 walk and was distributed amongst AIDS hospices in the area and the sports heroes were also able to spend some time with patients in the hospices that they visited.

The 6th annual Sports Heros Walk Against AIDS is scheduled from 16 Nov to 2 Dec 2007 when a group of dedicated sports people will walk from Gauteng to the Eastern Cape.

Deshun is immensely proud to be associated with this project and we salute Cynthia for her dedication in organising this annual event to helping AIDS victims and those that care for them.