Ballito’s Dr Ernest Peresu recently reached the summit of Africa on a mission to eradicate period poverty.

Ernest crested Mt Kilimanjaro’s Uhuru Peak on Mandela Day, July 18, as part of an Illovo Sugar Africa expedition in conjunction with the Trek4Mandela team. Thirty-seven members of the combined teams reached the summit under the experienced leadership of Sibusiso Vilane, one of South Africa’s most accomplished explorers and two-time Mt Everest climber. The expedition was to raise funds for menstrual products for rural women in all seven African countries in which Illovo Sugar Africa operates.

“It was a wonderful, fulfilling feeling to reach the summit after so many months of planning and training,” said Ernest, who is Illovo’s social development director. A self-described hiking amateur before planning for the expedition began, Ernest made sure he was fit enough to finish the trip.

“This was basically my first major hike. As a team we decided that every week we needed to run, walk or hike at least 50km and a total of 1 000km before going to Kilimanjaro. I did some running and training hikes in the Drakensberg, but my main training was constantly doing the steps up from Minerva Road.”

Anyone who has walked that public staircase up towards Townsend Park will know just how steep it is! But although he felt fighting fit, Kilimanjaro is no walk in the park.

“We did the Rongai Route, which meant five days of climbing up to the summit and two back down. As we had a wide range of people in our group, we took our guides’ advice of going ‘pole pole’ [Swahili for slowly, slowly] and drinking lots of water to help with altitude sickness.”

The climb went largely without incident until day four, when one group member fell ill and needed to be carried down the mountain on a stretcher. There were no lasting injuries.

“The mountain humbled us all. I was glad to have Sibusiso leading us, as he was able to make an objective decision about sending the man back instead of pushing through. But the rest of us made it, including Daryl Williams, an amazing lady who had had double hip and knee replacements!

“Despite temperatures of -10 when we started the final summit, we got there. When climbing you think ‘I’ll never do this again’, but as soon as I was back at camp I wanted to go back.”
Ernest said he hoped the hike would become an annual event on Mandela Day.

So far, the majority of donations have come from corporates but you can still donate to the fundraising cause until the end of August. Find it at givengain.com. They want to reach 20 000 women, mainly teenagers, in a bid to stop poor school attendance because of inadequate menstrual products.

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