Ko Kgotleng (KKCHBC), the community home-based care located in Gaborone West South, behind the Roman Catholic Church is planning a 777km sponsored walk.
The walk is slated to begin at the Ramatlabama Boarder, on the 21st of July and ends on 9th August 2009 at the Ramokwebana Boarder to raise funds for its needy clients.
Ko Kgotleng, which was started in 2001 by Mrs Flora Majafe and Mr Abbott Botipeng, was officially registered with the Registrar of Societies in 2003.
It is a nonprofit making organization which, among many services, offers day care for HIV/AIDS positive patients, destitutes, orphans and vulnerable children, as well as providing counseling, clinical visits, public education and project and clients rehabilitation.
But like many charity organizations, the home-based care is faced with mammoth financial impediments which hamper it from providing for hundreds of its clients, hence the sponsored walk.
The KKCHBC currently looks after 256 orphans, 60 patients and 20 destitutes but it has no premises of its own as it currently operates on rented premises which it might lose.
Despite looking after so many needy people, the organization depends on occasional transport assistance, which is very unreliable. These constraints has prompted the organization’s committee to organize a 777 km walk to raise funds to chiefly buy the premises they are using as the owner has given them up to the 15th August or he will sell it to other bidders.
The chief walker of this fund-raising event, Mr. Mooketsi Ras Serunya, who hails from Mahalapye, is not new in charity work as he once embarked on a 2000km sponsored walk around Botswana to raise funds for the construction of a day care center in Mahalapye.
He said he “pledges the nation to help with anything they can manage in order to have the Center operate on a 24 hour basis where clients will be able to source maximum support and sustainability”.
“I ask everyone to give a hand because tomorrow it might be the one who is laughing at the affected who would be needing help.”
The 777 km sponsored walk starting from Ramatlabama and around the country will pass through Lobatse, Otse, Gaborone, Mochudi, Palapye, Artesia, Dibete, Mahalapye, Radisele, Radisele, Palapye, Serule, Topisi, Tonota, Tati, Francistown and finally end at Ramokgwebana Boarder. The whole trip is expected to last 20 days, which shows the determination and commitment the KKCHBC committee and sponsored walk participants have in helping those in need.
In order to beat the distance and make the target an achievement, the walk has been divided into 50km-intervals, done between 0600hrs and 1700hrs; this approximately translates into 16 days for the whole trip with an additional four days to accommodate any casualties that might be incurred during the trip.
Serunya says the Vision 2016 pillar of a compassionate, just and caring nation always spurs him to contribute to his nation, saying if the nation heeds the KKCHBC cry, they can manage to raise the P400 000 needed to buy the premises they are currently renting and other necessities to run the center.
He asked the nation and companies to help with the sponsored walk prerequisites, such as First Aid kits, health facilities, clothing, accommodation, toiletry, food, security, transport and any other help.
Any cash donations may be directed to Ko Kgotleng Community Home Based Care, Account No.0121004674000, Stanbic Bank Fairgrounds, Gaborone.
