Cape Town adventure couple Stan and Sally Hannath travelled from Norway back to South Africa to raise funds for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa - In April 2013 Wheels24 reported Stan and Sally Hannath would travel from Noordkaap in Norway to Cape Agulhas in the hopes to raise some funds and awareness with their cape2cape journey. The adventure couple set on their journey in June to October 2013.
DONATIONS WELCOME
The cape2cape4kids epic road expedition spanned 27 countries and 32 000km
during the past five months. The Hannaths funded their journey so all
donations will go directly to the hospital. The couple have currently raised
over R16 000. Donations are still welcome via the GivenGain and JustGiving
websites.
Stan Hannath said: “Our incredible self-funded overland journey, cape2cape4kids, took us from the northern-most tip of Europe to Cape Agulhas, the southern-most tip of South Africa. We visited many hospitals and schools along the way to raise awareness for the soon-to-be-built children’s hospital in Johannesburg.”
He said the most memorable part of their journey was the route through the picturesque Omo Valley in Ethiopia to Kenya past Lake Turkana. “Lowlights included narrowly avoiding the violent unrest in Egypt and a bottle through their windscreen in Zambia, hurled from a passing bus,” he added.
The Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital will be one of only five dedicated children’s hospitals in Africa. Currently there are four hospitals serving nearly 450-million children in Africa. This compares dismally to Canada which has 23, Australia (19) and Germany with 20.
Hannath said: “In addition, the fourth United Nations Millennium Development Goal, as stated in 2000, is to reduce child mortality. We hoped to raise sufficient awareness and funds through our journey to implement this global goal by building a world-class children’s hospital in the easily accessible city of Johannesburg.”
LONG WAY TO GO
The Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital Trust has already raised approximately R250-million but the development needs an additional R125-million to begin building and equipping the hospital. The total needed is R1-billion to recruit and train the best medical professionals as well. The hospital hopes to open doors in October 2015.
CEO of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital Trust Sibongile Mkhabela said: “We are honoured to be a beneficiary of cape2cape4kids expedition. Stan and Sally’s initiative is not only an admirable feat, but their support of the building of this facility shows what is possible when citizens take it upon themselves to ensure a better future for our children.”
The retired couple travelled through Jordan, Greece, Israel, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia and finally South Africa.
You can re-trace Stan and Sally’s journey through stories and photographs posted on their blog.