HERO’S WELCOME:
Gauteng cyclist Azhar Vadi, left, in a blue top, cycled 3 000km from Musina to Cape Town to raise funds for the education of underprivileged children in Limpopo. Vadi left on February 7 on his #Riding4SAeducation journey.
What type of generation will we produce in future with this situation?
GAUTENG journalist Azhar Vadi, who cycled 3 000km from Musina in Limpopo to Cape Town to raise funds for underprivileged children, received a hero’s welcome at the end of his epic journey in Athlone yesterday.
Thirty-four-year-old Vadi was chaperoned by some Muhammadeyah Cycling Club MC2 riders, as he arrived to loud cheers from flag-waving pupils and teachers from the local Darul Islam and Al-Azhar schools, along with Muslim Judicial Council officials and other dignitaries, who made welcoming speeches.
Vadi, who is the son of the Gauteng MEC for Transport and Roads, Ismail Vadi, cycled in support of the #riders4education fundraising campaign organised by Johannesburg’s Salaamedia online and satellite radio station and Salaam Foundation.
Emphasising the fundraising campaign’s importance to the gathering, Vadi said: “In Limpopo, pupils still use pit toilets and the bucket system.
“Some of them walk thousands of kilometres a year to school and back home.
‘‘Kids still don’t have books and stationery.
“What type of generation will we produce in years to come with this type of situation?” he said.
He encouraged the gathering’s pupils to share their belongings such as pencils, old bags and shoes with disadvantaged children, to whose lives it would make a difference.
Among those who addressed the gathering were Athlone’s Ned Doman High School principal Gwynne Philander, MJC president Sheik Irafaan Abrahams, his deputies Moulana Abdul Khaliq Alli and Sheik Riad Fataar, who launched the Azhar Vadi fund in support of the #riders4education fundraising campaign.
“This ride will go down in the history of education as one of the most important events in education,” said Fataar.
Vadi, who also committed himself to riding in this weekend’s Cape Town Cycle Tour, said he would only know once he gets back to Johannesburg, how much his epic cycling journey had generated.