In our great Walk To Read! event, our President Robert Vallier will be making a 1,650KM (1,020 MILE) WALK to raise awareness of the importance in education of reading and the need for books and School Libraries for the children and young people of South Africa - and to put 1,000-book Ufosa Libraries into 100 Schools!

Robert’s gruelling endeavour will start in Cape Town in September 2012, route through Bloemfontein and Jo'burg and end in Pretoria in December.  School children and teachers can also take part in Walk To Read!, and walk along sections of the route.  Robert aims to present a Personal Letter to the Government, on behalf of Ufosa and the children and Schools of South Africa.  Learn how you can be part of this Great Event!

THE ROUTE - Cape Town to Pretoria via Jo’burg - a distance of 1,020 Miles (1,650Km), Sep-Dec 2012.
Walk To Read!

Ufosa’s Education Programme for South Africa places 1,000-book Libraries into schools.  So far, our Libraries have impacted on and helped well over 5,500 needy children.  Books are donated to Ufosa in the UK by school children, libraries and publishers, and then our Sponsors BRITISH AIRWAYS fly them to South Africa where they are stored and then subsequently distributed personally to our selected schools. 

The donations and sponsorship money raised from Walk To Read! will be used directly to increase Ufosa’s operation in SA.  Our target is to raise R1,500,000 from Walk To Read!, and to place a 1,000- book Library into 100 Schools in 2012. 

The Walk will be a personal challenge to Robert.  “After all, it’s a long way!”, he says. “And, I’ve suffered with asthma all my life, so any physical effort takes special planning. Running & cycling are difficult for me, but steady walking I can manage.”

The Ufosa President is no stranger to long walks - last year Robert made a 350 mile (550Km) hike in the UK to launch Ufosa’s UK Programme Touch The Sky, helping terminally ill, sick and handicapped kids and their parents.

Robert with Wayne Blauw, Head of the Western Cape Education Foundation.  The two will continue to work together.

But Walk To Read! will be almost three times as long.  “It will be a lot about determination too. It’s a fundraiser walk that will last for 3½ months on my feet, take up numerous pairs of socks, use (sadly!) zero wine, and doubtless involve blisters, bruises, aches, ice packs and painkillers...  It’s going to hurt, so you have to be ready for the pain.”

With  Robert’s usual sense of good humour and a willingness to party at the end of Walk To Read! (“I’ll need a drink by then, and I don’t mean more water!”), he’s training hard.  And Ufosa SA in Cape Town is working away on organising the details of the Walk, and action on the all-important fundraising is well under way too. 

Ufosa feels that Walk To Read! is a great opportunity to focus businesses, the media, politicians, and the general public on the vital importance and relevance of reading, and of the value of books and libraries in schools for the children and young people of South Africa.  With reading comes knowledge, wisdom, understanding and strength.  After all - South Africa’s children are her future.  They are her tomorrow.

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