A team of 18 climbers led by German adventurer Joachim Franz today gather against the backdrop of Table Mountain in Cape Town to mark the final leg of their nine week Cape2Cape AIDS awareness expedition. During their journey, Joachim and his team climbed 18 mountains and visited 20 countries from the North Cape of Norway to the South Cape in South Africa.
The team is today joined by the United Nations Joint Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS), the German Consulate, and non-governmental organisation Hope in a commemoration of World AIDS Day.
The Cape2Cape expedition is the seventh in a series of AIDS awareness expeditions that have seen Joachim and his team cycle from Paris to Dakar in 30 days, carry a giant AIDS ribbon all the way to the top of Pik Pobedy, the highest peak on the Kyrgyz-Chinese border, and cycle along the 23 000km Queen of Roads route in the United States in just 35 days.
The Cape2Cape expedition was designed to increase awareness of the need to scale up efforts to tackle HIV and raise money for a number of African non-governmental organisations working directly with people living with or affected by HIV.
Joachim Franz said: “The theme for World AIDS Day this year is 'Lead - Empower - Deliver', principles we took on when we started this expedition. We set ourselves ambitious goals to raise further awareness around HIV and to demonstrate that no matter how difficult the climb, with the right spirit we can reach the summit.”
Kyocera Mita is one of the proud sponsors of this spectacular mountain-climbing expedition. “The Cape2Cape helps raise awareness in the worldwide fight against HIV/AIDS. The disease remains a vital global issue affecting millions of people and Kyocera Mita believes it is important to continue to promote awareness of HIV/AIDS internationally,” says Jody Harrington, Commercial Operations Senior Manager at Kyocera Mita South Africa.
Kyocera Mita has made an international commitment to this global challenge, with its offices in the many countries along the route getting involved to raise awareness of the project and even take part themselves. Kyocera Mita South Africa's very own Oneida van Wyk, Paul Wendlandt, Ismail Schuster and Vincent Lombard joined the Cape2Cape team to climb Mount Mafadi, a peak on the border of South Africa and Lesotho which, at a height of 3 450m, is the highest mountain in South Africa.
The global AIDS burden is still harshest in sub-Saharan Africa and particularly southern Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 67% of all people living with HIV and for 72% of AIDS deaths; 61% living with HIV in the region are women. Nine countries in southern Africa continue to bear a disproportionate share of the global AIDS burden - 35% of HIV infections and 38% of AIDS deaths in 2007. HIV prevalence among adults exceeds 15% in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
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