Former BBA housemate out to raise money for Somalia

Aug 31, 2011 (The Namibian/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) — FORMER Big Brother Africa 3 housemate Thami (Prusent) is on a mission to raise awareness about the disaster in Somalia. The South African reality TV personality is travelling from Cape to Cairo without a cent in his pocket. The aim is to hold fundraisers along the way with money raised going directly to an NGO involved in Somalia aid relief. Thami has been in Windhoek for the last few days, staying with Namibia’s BBA3 housemate, Lucille. He was set to leave for Zambia yesterday. The initiative is the brainchild of Sili Rabbit, “a fresh, inspired and slightly over-the-top urban wear clothing label”. 


Thami and his business partner, Thato Mogane, say that “strategically our greatest goal isn’t just to be Africa’s first Carbon Neutral clothing label which causes no harm to either the environment or the people who live off it but to be a corporate advocate of real change”. “Now is the time we put our wishy-washy lip service to the test and live up to our company’s mantra of ‘Not On Our Watch’. ” Thami is relying on the kindness of strangers for food, lodging and transport (no flights will be used on the trip). Whether on the back of a truck or donkey cart, he is venturing through South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and Egypt. He’ll clean toilets or do whatever chore it takes to get a roof over his head and food in his stomach. “This will give him the realest opportunity to engage with the youth on the ground,” says the original concept proposal. 

Although the campaign, which will include daily blogs, video and picture uploads, will be run from the Sili Rabbit page on popular social media website Facebook; the URL www.cape2cairo4free.com has been obtained for the campaign’s legacy programme. He and his partner’s preferred NGO is the ‘Gift of the Givers Foundation’, which is the largest disaster relief organisation of African origin on the African continent. “They have delivered over N$450 million in aid to 32 countries around the world, including South Africa. They have designed and developed the world’s first and largest containerised mobile hospital, which was deployed in Bosnia. It was comparable to the best hospitals in Europe and remains unmatched to this day. 

They have received 61 awards to date, four from Heads of State, all of which recognise the contribution they have made in the course of fulfilling our humanitarian responsibility,” the concept proposal notes. Payment details and links of reputable NGOs and other organisations operating in Somalia will be included on the Sili Rabbit page as to give people as many options as possible to participate. “The sheer scale of this task and the ‘Africans doing it for Africa’ message will hopefully raise much needed awareness. Funds for the cause will be raised through creatively innovative and newsworthy events throughout the estimated two-month trip. The aim of these events is to show that saving lives doesn’t have to be an uptight affair left to the old and well-off but can be every bit as exciting as it is fulfilling to the youth,” Thami and Thato say.

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