Update: From Benoni to climbing Kilimanjaro
Farrarmere resident Nolan Pillay and his team were excited to climb the highest mountain in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro
Nolan Pillay, who is no stranger to summiting the highest mountain in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro, faced difficulties this year – cutting his adventure short after reaching a height of 5 200m above sea level in an attempt to reach Kilimanjaro’s highest point.
The Farramere resident and six other people, from Johannesburg and Cape Town, embarked on a journey to summit Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, from August 21 to 28, to raise funds for Miss, Mr and Mrs Deaf South Africa and the Foundation for Children with Hearing Loss in Southern Africa.
Out of the seven team members, four of them made it all the way to the highest summit.
Climbing Kilimanjaro for the second time, Pillay said: “On summit night (August 26), we started off at 23:00 as recommended and around 03:00 the team had reached a height of 5 200m above sea level.
“I and two other climbers started to take some strain and decided to turn back. Though I experienced a mild heart attack nine months ago, I took the challenge and did well to get up to that height,” he said.
Pillay shared that their adventure involved lots of walking and in total covered 78,1km.
“This was the first for the foundation and it was a major success as our goal of gifting one child with hearing aids has been fulfilled. From the funds raised, this will enable us to have a few workshops to start bridging the gap between the hearing and deaf communities.”
Pillay said he has found that it’s not that the hearing people don’t want to communicate with the deaf community but it’s just that they don’t know how to. Pillay said this is where the foundation will play a major role.
He connected with the deaf community in 2019 when he launched his company, StraightTalkWithNolan.
“At the launch, I invited three deaf people to speak, including the late Ms Deaf SA 2019, Judith Madi. She told the audience that imagine if all of them could not hear and she was the one who could hear. Her words struck me.”
He said he realised there is a huge gap between hearing and non-hearing hence he decided to partner with deaf people so that hearing people can understand and experience the challenges faced by deaf people.
The youngest climber was 29 and the oldest 50.
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