Cycling for Pomeroy

At the beginning of October 2014, Johan Viljoen (Program Manager of the SACBC AIDS Office) set out with three Dutch businessmen on mountain bikes. The final destination was Nairobi. The purpose of the expedition was to raise funds for the Homeplan/SACBC AIDS Office collaborative program, building houses for orphans in remote rural areas – in this case Pomeroy, KZN, Diocese of Dundee. Funding was raised in the Netherlands – ongoing for the duration of the journey. The four participants paid their own way – every cent raised was to be used for orphan houses.

The team set out from Pomeroy on 7 October 2014. The journey is covered with daily blogs on Facebook (Facebook page named “Cycling for Pomeroy”, on the Homeplan website www.homeplan.nl and on www.cyclingforpomeroy.com). Johan completed half of the journey (2 500 kilometres – as far as the Malawi/Mozambique border)before turning back on 28 October.  The other three continued all the way to Nairobi, a total distance of about 5 000 kilometres, arriving there on 1 December.

On 22 January 2015 the three Dutch team members visited the Homeplan office  in Breda, Netherlands, to hand over a cheque for the funds raised – the total came to Euro 54 413, equivalent to R707 369 at current exchange rates.

Three Dutch cycling team members (Maarten Van den Belt, Albert de Vries and Rob Manassen) handing over a cheque for the money raised to Marike van Seetert (Director: Homeplan).

One of the houses built for orphans in Pomeroy by Homeplan/SACBC AIDS Office.