My wife and I are riding down to Cape Town from London via the Middle East and East Africa. For no specific reason we decided to link our trip to a charity (everyone else is doing it so why can't we) purely in the hope that someone spotting our bikes and stickers would be introduced to Beautifulgate. The rest is up to them. What we will though be doing is visiting as many of their projects as possible on our way down i.e. Kitwe in Zambia, Windhoek in Namibia, Cape Town and Lesotho. We will also be making ourselves available to lend a hand at whatever comes our way as we head down. I'm sure our construction and pharmacy skills could be used for good. Once we arrive in SA and settle, we are going to commit ourselves to carrying on with providing our time to organisations in SA who are helping Aids orphans.

You might have seen a previous post here about the Aids orphans. People in the west (sorry for the generalisation) hear the words "Aids Orphans" but they don't really appreciate the monsterous significance this holds for the potential utter and total collapse of Africa. This is not a small isolated area we are talking about. Every country we will be going through from Ethiopia and down has a major problem. We are talking big numbers here; an entire generation that is growing up ferral. You have 12 year olds filling the roles of mothers and fathers for their younger siblings. If nothing is done to get these kids off the street, provide them with homes, give them clean water and food, and most importantly give them education then Africa is lost.

Well Beautifulgate is doing just that. They are providing homes, daycare, education, food and support for these kids and their foster parents through a number of projects in Southern Africa.

Please following the links to find out more:

Buya Ikhaya :: Beautiful Gate Ministries

Beautiful Gate Ministries

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If there's a will there's a way so I will anyway!
http://www.buyaikhaya.blogspot.com

I was scanning back ... know this is an old post, but ....

... My wife visited and worked with the Beautiful Gate Ministry in Lesotho a couple years back. It's one of two orphanages that they run that is specifically for children with HIV/AIDS, either infected or affected.

It's a heart-wrenching and daunting task, in a beautiful country that has nearly 50% HIV infection rate.

So, if you are riding in/near Lesotho, it's a great ministry to visit, assist.

Lesotho Mission Site:
Beautiful Gate Ministries

Bossies ... this is a great project !!!! I hope your ride went wonderfully!!!!