Tutus, bikers drive rallies to help girls
THE DESMOND & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation have collaborated with Bikers for Mandela Day and the Nelson Foundation in an attempt to supply sanitary pads to three million girls across the nation.
Two mass motorbike rallies have been organised to support the Keep a Girl Child in School project, one of which will take place in Cape Town on Saturday.
The rally will double as a celebration marking Nelson Mandela’s birth centenary, joining a vast array of activities around July 18, which would have been his 100th birthday.
The programmes director of the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, Razaan Bailey, said the “incongruous idea of charitable bikers collecting sanitary pads for girls strongly echoed Mr Mandela’s special ability to connect people and communities”.
Organisers are requesting that instead of paying a registration fee, bikers donate as many packs of sanitary pads as possible to support the cause.
Bikers for Mandela Day project partner Mimi Women, a proudly South African organisation that makes, sells and distributes sanitary pads, will also be selling pads at the event.
The Cape Town rally will assemble on the Grand Parade from 8am on Saturday and make its way to Paarl, where the ride will conclude outside the Drakenstein Correctional Centre (formerly Victor Verster Prison) from which Nelson Mandela walked to freedom in 1990. For those unable to participate in the event, a crowdfunding page has been launched. Please visit https://www.givengain.com/e/ bikersformandeladay2018/ to donate.
The rally can also be followed on Twitter, @Bikers4MandelaD, and Instagram @ BikersforMandelaDay. – Staff Reporter