In early September, Daryl Wilson and good friend Lee Baird headed off to the USA for a 10-day hike through Shenandoah National Park.
In addition to reportedly having the highest concentration of black bears anywhere in the world, the route through the park forms part of the much larger 3,500km long Appalachian Trail. Daryl and Lee were inspired to do the trek by the movie, “A Walk in the Woods”, based on the Bill Bryson book about his own experience attempting to walk the Appalachian Trail.
The section Daryl and Lee hiked is around 165km. They carried all their own supplies for the trek including tents, food and water.
Funds raised from this hike will be donated via Save Projects Inc. to the Uthando House centre for children in South Africa and used for essential living expenses. This centre can be home to up to 30 children at any given time and they receive limited funding for the everyday necessities that we take for granted
Children are regularly placed at Uthando House by police and/or social workers. Many are the victims of abuse or trafficking. Social workers do their best to find the children’s families. This can prove to be very difficult, especially as some of the children are from other countries. Some children will remain at the Centre for years before their families are found, if ever. Other children currently housed at Uthando are indeed orphans, with no-one to take them. In some other cases, the children are simply not wanted by anyone, family included.
SAVE Projects inc. have helped Uthando House since 2014 with many initiatives aimed at improving the lives and futures for these vulnerable children.
If you’d like to follow their adventure, see our Facebook page for regular updates.
