Two friends’ EPIC 6000km walk for orphaned children

In 2017, Tom David and Warren Handley, pulled off a remarkable walk for orphaned children. In their twenties at the time, the two friends first summitted Mount Kilimanjaro and then decided to walk the 6 000 km home to South Africa.

Nearly a decade on, Warren (24) and Tom (23) were both University of Cape Town (UCT) economics graduates. Both had interned at Aluwani, a Johannesburg foundation that works in early childhood development (ECD) in rural communities. Its founder, Thabang Skwambane, had famously cycled unsupported from Johannesburg to Kilimanjaro a decade earlier, in 2007.

HISTORIC WALK FOR ORPHANED CHILDREN

To mark the foundation’s 10th anniversary, the pair decided to do the same route in reverse. But this time on foot. They summited Kilimanjaro in April 2017, then set off South, through Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. They carried all their gear, camped, and lived on $2 a day, South Africa’s food poverty line.

“We wanted to walk for orphaned children because we don’t fully understand the hardships of poverty. We wanted the experience to be as relatable as possible,” they said at the time. Along the way, they stopped at villages to teach caregivers how to make toys from waste, like milk cartons and vegetable sacks. They also raised funds for Aluwani and awareness of the importance of ECD for orphaned and vulnerable children.

HOW LONG DID WALK FOR ORPHANED CHILDREN TAKE?

It took six months, through illness, hunger, sore feet and exhaustion. The pair later said, “You learn that big plans fall away when you’re surviving day by day. And putting one foot in front of the other is only way to keep moving forward.” In 2018, they published Walk With Us, an account of their walk for orphaned children.

Then in 2022, five years after the walk, Warren wrote about friendship on Medium. The question he’s most often asked, he said, is whether he and Tom are still friends. “The answer is unequivocally, yes. We don’t see each other as often as we’d like, and we’ve each dealt with the walk in our own way since, but we have more love, respect and pride for what we did than ever,” he wrote.

WHY IT’S WORTH REMEMBERING

Aluwani, meanwhile, has carried on its work in rural ECD since 2007, with “hundreds of passionate people still giving themselves to it,” says Thabang. Nearly a decade on, it would be easy to forget the good work done for vulnerable children. But two young men chose to experience a small part of what millions of Africans live every day. That’s something worth taking to heart this weekend.

But what do you think? Do you remember this walk for orphaned children? Would you consider doing something similar? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below …