Boikanyo Bug – supported by local companies MDIN, ENCONA & Beacon Bay Round Table 130
A Volkswagen with a heart of gold, sponsored by local companies MDIN (Pty) Ltd, ENCONA Ltd and Beacon Bay Round Table 130, to the value of R36 800, will leave South Africa’s borders today. The Boikanyo Bug, as it is affectionately known, is on a long life-saving drive through Africa, all the way to Dracula’s Castle in Transylvania, Brasov, Romania.
Why may you ask? Well let’s go back to the beginning.
In January 2007, the Boikanyo Foundation was initiated by a handful of medical specialists, paediatric cardiothoracic surgeons, business men and volunteers from the Round Table. Their main aim was to raise funds in order to perform lifesaving heart surgery on children in the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital.
The Boikanyo Foundation has managed to generate value amounting to R13.4 million during the past 3 years. Since January 2007, 100 heart operations have been successfully performed as a result of the funds raised by their Foundation’s resource mobilisation unit. These operations would simply not have materialised without their fund raising achievements.
But now, due to a lack of adequate facilities and particularly a shortage of intensive care unit nursing sisters who care post-operatively for these small patients, a backlogged waiting list of 300 children has built-up over the last 12 months. These children all desperately require heart surgery, ranging from relatively simple to more complicated procedures. In order to address the situation, the surgeons volunteer their theatre services at no-charge. However, the consumables used in theatre and the services of intensive care nursing staff who care for the small patients after surgery still need to be paid for. So more funds are needed… urgently!
To help raise these life saving funds, Round Table Golden East 181, with sponsorship & support from other Round Tables (including Beacon Bay Round Table 130) and businesses such as local businesses MDIN & ENCONA, have created ‘The Boikanyo Bug’, a Volkswagen with a heart of gold! Members of Round Table Golden East 181 will be driving this 1972 VW Beetle from Cape Town, through Africa, to Brasnov in Romania, where it will cross the finish line at the Round Table International World Meeting being held at Dracula’s Castle in Transylvania, Romania on the 24th of August 2019… where it will be raffled. This is not going to be an easy task and already the bug has caught ‘a bug’ and needed some assistance to get back on track. But with determination and a worthy cause, the bug has made it from the Heart Museum in Cape Town to Pretoria, and today, will be leaving the country on it’s epic lifesaving voyage.
The Boikanyo Bug and it’s Round Table team, will be crossing 12 countries including Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Turkey and Bulgaria, ending up in Romain after covering a distance in excess of 13 000 km. It will be spreading the Boikanyo message and raising funds along the way.
ENCONA and MDIN are both extremely excited about supporting this initiative, which has been supported by: Hans Trukenpolz, CEO of ENCONA Ltd (Hong Kong), Greg Haward, Global Operations Director of ENCONA and Managing Director of MDIN (Pty) Ltd; and Lloyd Staples, President of ENCONA.
Greg recently took to social media stating:
“Excited that Round Table Beacon Bay 130 & MDIN (Pty) Ltd and ENCONA Ltd are part of this incredible journey, supporting this Incredible Cause. The table guys will drive with an ENCONA plaque from Africa to Romania, as part of a symbolic opening of the ENCONA Brasov office in Romania….what a way to link Africa to Europe, and to celebrate years of symbolic change in South Africa & Romania”.
The money raised through branding, donations and raffle tickets will be used to hopefully save close to 125 young lives, a more beneficial project would be hard to imagine. People have also been asked to offer donations in kind along the route such as fuel, accommodation and meals.
If you or your company would like to contribute to this worthy cause, you can visit their website where you can donate funds, buy a raffle ticket, purchase some branding or volunteer help along the way. Who knows… you could actually win the big hearted Boikanyo Bug!
You can follow their progress on Facebook Page and Instagram.
Article: Sandy Loppnow
Bon Voyage!