Personal message

Thank you for visiting my Children in the Wilderness/Tour de Tuli 2011 fundraising page.  This is the third year that I'm participating in raising funds for Children in the Wilderness through riding Tour de Tuli, which is more than just a 200+ mile endurance mountain bike ride in the African Wilderness...allow me to provide you some background.

Children in the Wilderness (CITW) is dedicated to helping children whose childhoods have been interrupted and disrupted by life-threatening conditions such as illness, poverty and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It was set up in 2001 and is modeled off the late Paul Newman’s Hole-in-the-Wall charity.  CITW is active in Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.  Using environmental education, therapeutic recreation and good old-fashioned fun, CITW exposes children to new opportunities, increases their self-esteem, builds and strengthens their capabilities to cope with life's challenges and educates them with the life skills necessary to actualize their greatest potential.

The CITW program hosts children of between 8 and 17 years old in Wilderness Safaris camps (Wilderness Safaris is the largest safari company operating 61 camp sites throughout Southern Africa with a particular focus on environmental awareness and improvement). The children are hosted in groups of up to 45 participants at a time, for periods of about a week, at no cost to the child. The well-structured curriculum is offered in a safe wilderness environment where nature becomes the teacher and the healer, aided by experienced and well-trained counselors, mentors and medical staff.

During the children’s stay, the focus is on providing a wide variety of educational activities in an age-appropriate and fun way. By the end of the program, many of the children are motivated to continue with their schooling and to strive for a better life.

Education topics covered during their stay include: the geology and geography of the region; the area's wildlife and its conservation; arts and crafts; theatre; nutrition, sport, health and HIV/AIDS.  Morning or afternoon game drives are an essential part of each day and often in the evening enjoyable wildlife and educational videos are screened.

The children are encouraged to participate in various team-building sports to contribute to personal and leadership development as well as to facilitate more equitable interactions between boys and girls.  All field-based activities take place with the guidance of local guides and Wilderness Safaris lodge staff who become important role models for the children. The hope is to also inspire more children to become guides, field rangers, conservations and ecologists or to make a valuable contribution to the sustainable development of Africa’s natural resources.

As of the end of 2009, Children in the Wilderness had hosted 3013 children throughout 7 Southern African countries totaling 17162 children-in-camp days and changed their lives dramatically and positively.

To raise funds for this cause, CITW hosted an annual 7th epic mountain bike tour in Africa.  It was a four day adventure ride, called Tour de Tuli and it  took place from August 5-8, 2011.  There were over 250 mountain bikers who cycled through more than 200 miles of largely untouched wilderness on mostly single track trails were we followed various animal migration routes in restricted wilderness areas in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.  Each group of approx. 20 riders had a game ranger on mountain bike accompanying us and we stayed over in tent camps set up by the volunteer staff that we met up with each night.

As you can see, CITW is a wonderful initiative that positively touches and impacts the lives of the least fortunate children in Africa.  It is managed by people who have a passion for what they do in some very challenging environments and situations.  It was an honor to once again be part of this journey and also lead once of the cyclist teams over the four days...it was heart touching cycling through the communities/villages which we are raising funds for and seeing them lined up on the dirt roads dancing and singing out of thanks for what CITW are doing in their lives!

Donating through the backabuddy website is simple, fast and secure.  It is also the most efficient way to donate to CITW/Tour de Tuli 2011. Your contribution will directly benefit CITW (I covered all my own expenses) which have a direct influence on bettering and changing the lives of young people in Africa.  Please note that our fundraising close end of August and that your donation will be made in South African Rands...a rule of thumb is for every 1 US Dollar, you are donating app. 7.1 South African Rands, thus a R710 donation will be app. US$100. You can also visit http://www.oanda.com/convert/classic for more up to date currency conversion information.

Many thanks for your support, I appreciate it very much!

Nicolaas Vlok

To learn more about Children in the Wilderness, please visit: http://www.childreninthewilderness.com/

Donations