Cheesekids for Humanity - Love, Peace and mo' cheese

le GrandFromage's KiliClimb

Posted on 22 Nov 2012 / Tags: Kilimanjaro, climbing, shaka sisulu / Comments()

Shaka's KiliClimb

In a few days, after months of anxiety I will join a group of 12 fellow South Africans who will all be attempting a climb to the highest point in Africa. It's an exciting prospect, one that I've long been harbouring I would embrak upon, only this year with a series of events did I decide to climb, and for a particular cause - Kiddie Camps. I'll tell you about the series of events in a momement, before that let me explain what Kiddie Camps are, and then I'll give some of the details of my climb.

The Short of It

I'd like you to back me on my quest and raise a little money for a whole year of Kiddie Camps - a network of learning centres where kids learn to grow into functional and fulfilled South Africans. So better versions of us - minus all the baggage + a better social context and concience.

To support it, simply back me and donate towards this cause at http://www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/kiddie-camps. Or pledge an amount (via FNB 62263413131 Branch Code 250655) towards the cause and send your proof of payment to [email protected].

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The Long of It

(photo courtesy of the Internet!)

I am climbing with a mixed bag of ages, races and backgrounds. The youngest are a boy and girl aged 15 and 16 and the oldest are in their 60s. We are rainbow-nationy hued, and we are as diverse in our interests and background. What unites us is the Climb. Everyone is climbing for different and very personal reasons. I’m am climbing for something that has been dear to me for a while - The Kiddie Camp (See below)

Follows is our schedule up and down the Big Mountain as well as a map of the route we’ll be taking... I’m very excited, and feel very ready for this mammoth undertaking especially after a gruelling 20km hike up the Drakensburg this past weekend

Date	Day	Description	Walking Distance	Walking Time
Mon, 27 Aug	Day 1	Machame Gate (1 640m/5 830ft) to Machame Camp (2 850m/9 350ft) We start off with a steep climb through tropical growth.	+- 11km	+-7 hours
Tues, 28 Aug	Day 2	Machame Camp (2 850m/9 350ft) to Shira Camp (3 810m/12 500ft) We pass through beautiful ‘fynbos’ vegetation, which gradually thins out as we approach the highland plateau.	+- 5km	+-6 hours
Wed, 29 Aug	Day 3	Shira Camp (3 810m/12 500ft) to Lava Tower (4 630m/15 190ft) to Barranco Camp (3 976m/13 044ft) This is a big day with an early start. Helping with acclimatisation, we will ascend high and then make a shorter decent, sleeping lower. From our camp we should see sensational views of the southern ice-fields and the Breach Wall.	+- 7km +- 3km	+-5 hours +-3 hours
Thurs, 30 Aug	Day 4	Barranco Camp (3 976m/13 044ft) to Karanga Camp (3 995m/13 106ft) This walk takes us along the southern circuit. We will climb and descend +-250m.	+- 5km	+-5 hours
Fri, 31 Aug	Day 5	Karanga Camp (3995m/ 13 106ft) to Barafu Camp (4 673m/15 331ft) It is a steep climb from Karanga to Barafu Camp. We will rest at Barafu Camp before attempting the summit at midnight.	+-4km	+-5 hours
Sat, 1 Sept	Day 6	SUMMIT NIGHT (Rising at 11pm (31 Aug), we will then set out at midnight with our torches and a full moon.) Barafu Camp (4 673m/15 331ft) to the SUMMIT Uhuru Peak (5 895m/19 340ft) Uhuru Peak (5 895m/19 340ft) to Millenium Camp (3 950m)	+-5km +-10km	+-9 hours +-8 hours
Sun, 2 Sept	Day 7	Millenium Camp (3 950m) to Mweka Gate (1 828m/ 6 000ft)	+- 14km	+-8 hours

Hectic neh? Here's an overview map of what this trip looks like, from the sky. Yes, it's all quite technical. Lol

Ok, so what is this all in aid of again, aside from sore feet?

The Kiddie Camp

Kiddie Camps, are a new project that I've been working on to set up a network of safe learning centres for children to learn social and life skills, to learn of wach other's cultures and language, to unlearn some of our historical baggage, to learn about SA history without guilt or anger, to learn the value of service and civil conciousness, to learn about each other - as different races, cultures and classes, and to unlearn some of the patterns of abuse, substance abuse and over-sexualisation that are so prevalent in our society. Basically a mini camp where we learn to become fully-functional and fulfilled South Africans. A place I'm sure many of us would have loved to go on weekends.

What on Earth do We Need another cause for, Let alone a “Kiddie Camp”?

So it’s not a starving kid in Somalia, it’s not a Rhino. It’s a place of fun. and it even has some kids from well off homes. So, Why in the name of all that is good should you support this Kiddie Camp thing?

Well, I’ve long felt that the interventions needed to make SA the dream nation we all thought it could be need to be directed at our children. That dream is perhaps theirs to inherit and ours to create, because in many respects it is a little too late for many adults - what wounds we have, we have.

Sadly, a lot of these wounds are being inflicted on our young, often not intentionally, it’s just the way life is. So ignorance and fear of the other, intolerance of other people and their culture, self-centredness and an undue sense of entitlement, vendettas stooped in history and a loss of innocence due to early sexualisation are just some of the pathologies our parents and we unwittingly pass on to tomorrow’s generations. So effectively, our future won’t be too different from our past and present... unless we shape it differently, starting with the kids.

So in a nutshell, this cause is “for the kids... for the kids”.

The Catalyst

Some months ago I received the heart-breaking news that a close colleague’s daughter had been sexually assaulted. She is no older than 5.

The shock notwithstanding my instinct reaction was to sound the war toll, and round up a posse of friends and relatives to find and lynch the perpetrator. It would not have been the most politically correct, or even prudent response, but I would be doing something. When I heard that the perpetrator was 12, my heart sank. I felt powerless. Not only could we not lynch this little boy, but I couldn’t understand how and where a little boy learns to terrorize another little child in such an inhumane way.

For some days I walked about shell-shocked. But this wasn’t a story reported on in the news and the incident wasn’t in a video clip gone viral and so everyone I interacted with was preoccupied with something else - the then big story of the week, whatever it was. I wandered and wondered how our society had broken down so irrevocably that a child would rap another child and it goes unnoticed. Worse, it goes unchallenged and unchecked.

The little boy was punished. For what it’s worth. And the little girl receives therapy. But some critical questions haunted me: where are our kids picking up such behaviour? what are they doing with their time that allows them to act these things out? why weren’t they playing together in a safe environment under someone’s watchful eye? Most importantly, what will become of this boy and girl in future, and how can we stop this scenario playing itself out -again and again?

What was an idea to just provide cultural, historical and societal cross-learnings became the Kiddie Camp, a place of safety. A home away from home.

How the Kiddie Camps work?

I’m hoping that we can grow this from a monthly Saturday school in one place into a weekly weekend Camp to having an annual super camp where thousands of kids from across SA go. And then? Perhaps, eventually daily after-care Kiddie Camps all over SA. But that’s light years away. The baby steps are a number of sites with volunteers teaching kids a wide variety of things they wouldn't learn at school but are necessary for their development.

Starting at one Kiddie Camp, run by mostly by volunteers we do the following (and replicate the model): organise the venues, food and the transport; parents enrol their kids, we sponsor lower income families through your pledges; we organise the activities such as fun outtings to the Voortrekker Monument to learn about the Afrikaaners, we bring in volunteers fluent in Xhosa to teach it to the kids, through story time we teach them how laws are made and they put together plays of how to say no to inappropriate behaviour and tell mum immediately, we take them to community service in safe and controlled environments, we teach them traditional dance and put on cultural festival which they attend in traditional attire and we go to the mint to see where money comes from.

How to get involved?

1. Back me on http://www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/kiddie-camps. A platform for giving and reciving donations towards causes.

2. Pledge: Simply pledge a monetary amount (to FNB 62263413131 Branch Code 250655) or something we need (food contributions every week, transport of kids, uniforms, stationery) or pledge your time and a skill you have (2 Saturdays a month teaching folklore or Venda songs). To make any other pledge do so at [email protected] and please be very specific e.g. “I can contribute with 5 khaki trousers for boys aged 8 towards their uniform”. The parameters of the pledge depend on you and we will let you know if we can do something with it or not.

How to track my #KiliClimb progress?

Check out my twitter name @shakasisulu for periodic updates. There is some limited cellular reception on Kili (yup, who’d have thought it). You can also follow the hashtag #KiliClimb on twitter, or check cheesekids.org.za for weekly updates and pictures. Listen to my station Talk Radio 702 throughout the week for updates and perhaps even a call-in...