Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
SARAH TAYLOR
A philanthropic hiker sets out to walk his way to helping those in need, writes
ANDREW Patterson is a man on a serious mission. Under his brand, 365 Ubuntu Climbs, he’s aiming to change a million lives in 365 days by climbing Table Mountain (1 085m) every day this year. When I joined the determined 38-yearold on his 151st hike to the top, he said he had already scaled the equivalent vertical height of 30 Mount Everests (8 848m) so far. On completion up Platteklip Gorge, an ascent of 730m from the lower cable car station, he will have scaled the equivalent of about 74.
Patterson has chosen the Platteklip route because it is the quickest and simplest way to summit, and he completes the route in just over an hour. However, when he is joined by others, he hangs back and ensures no one is left behind.
Patterson, who has a background in corporate management and is passionate about giving back to society, has dedicated 2018 to improving the lives of South Africans by aiming to raise at least R1 million for three charities by getting people to pledge money via the crowdfunding platform BackaBuddy.
“It’s really simple: all I am asking from individuals is that they donate R1 a day for a year: just R365 in total.”
Patterson aims to raise awareness of three NGOs that are geared to “living life and learning”, as he says. The Sunflower Fund focuses on leukaemia; One Heart for Kids, which helps under-resourced schools teach children to read; and Habitat for Humanity, which helps shack dwellers move into permanent housing.
“The Grade 4 literacy level in South Africa is just 28% and this is the root of so many of our problems,” Patterson says, adding that he dreams of a country where there is 100% literacy across all grades.
“Especially now, with the way the world is going in terms of the internet, theoretically a poor child in Africa has the same access to information as a rich kid in New York. So there can be no excuses.”
The money he raises for the Sunflower Fund will be used to pay for people to have type-testing done. Patterson has a long relationship with this NGO, as he has been a fundraiser for the past six years.
A retrenchment last year nudged him towards doing something different for others in need.
“I’ve seen how easy it is to give, but how difficult it is to get support, so part of my journey this year is to show people how easy it is to give: R1 per climb, that’s it. It’s just 30 bucks a month.
“What I want to show is that we actually have the power to sort out our challenges ourselves,” he adds. “If 50 000 Capetonians donated R1 day, we’d have R1.5million a month. For each donor that isn’t even two coffees a month. But if we work together, we can sort so much out and then we don’t have to have the government holding that carrot over them.
“I aim to empower a million South Africans who, through no fault of their own, started on the back foot in life.”
Patterson, who was a cub and later a scout as a youngster growing up in Johannesburg, says he realised early on in life that being out in nature was where he felt happiest.
“I love mountains and I love water, so this is a natural fit,” he says. He moved to Cape Town 12 years ago, but says he took four years to get into the mountains as he was unsure about the routes and the safety.
About half of these 2018 Table Mountain walks he has done alone – during which he says he feels “absolute peace, bliss and gratitude”, while for the other half he has been joined by friends and family, interested members of the public and members of the media.
He says he isn’t looking for people to walk with him without donating money to these three causes, and people are welcome to donate without joining him.
“I’d prefer their support to come from the monetary side, to support these very worthy organisation,” he adds.
To prove to his supporters that he has completed each walk, come rain or shine, wind or sleet, each day he takes a timelapse photo at the lower cable car station and then another time-lapse photo of the upper cable car station from the top.
It’s an inspiring and insightful experience walking with Patterson.
We talk as we walk and he meditates on life and making our time on Earth worthwhile. He talks about values, such as respect, as we pick up discarded plastic bottles and bits of broken glass along the path.
Respect is a large part of what makes him tick.
One-third of the way up the mountain, we come across two unprepared tourists, already reeking of alcohol at 8.30am and carrying more alcohol in a duty-free bag. It was threatening to rain, and strong winds were expected on top. It took a while for Patterson to persuade the pair to turn around or risk serious injury, or possibly even death.
He says many people climb Table Mountain ill-prepared for the serious hike it can be and the often dramatically different weather one can encounter more than 1 000m above sea level.
The blurb on Patterson’s Renaissance Guy website reads: “If you have the opportunity to do amazing things in your life, bring someone with you.”
And this is just what he is doing: giving back to those in society who don’t have the means to empower themselves.
He has chosen to incorporate the word “ubuntu” into what he is doing due to its Nguni meaning, encapsulating “humanity”, and which is often used more philosophically and translated as “I am because we are”.
For further information, please visit: Sunflower Fund www.sunflowerfund.org.za
One Heart for Kids www.oneheartforkids.co.za/
Habitat for Humanity www.habitat.co.za
For more information or to sponsor Patterson’s worthy causes, see www.backabuddy.co.za champion/project/365-ubuntuclimbs (https://renaissanceguy.co.za)