ON SEPTEMBER 19, AN INTREPID TEAM OF EIGHT UMHLANGA WOMEN WILL CHALLENGE THEMSELVES TO CLIMB MOUNT KENYA – TO RAISE FUNDS FOR OTHER WOMEN, WRITES GLYNIS HORNING
Beneath Cherry Armstrong’s bubbly exuberance lies a soft heart and a will of iron. It’s a combo that’s seen her through 15 years in project management for clinical trials seeking solutions for the likes of HIV and TB, the last three as CEO of Global Clinical Research SA. And it’s seen her reach out beyond that by also becoming CEO of Celebrate Life SA – an NPO devoted to empowering women with sustainable community projects.
“There’s nothing so rewarding as motivating and enabling women, like the ones we’ve got running their own bakeries through our Ubuntu Oven Project, supporting themselves with ovens we give them and supplying their communities with affordable bread,” she says simply.
The women who this petite dynamo inveigles into helping her raise funds for the ovens and other projects are just as motivated and empowered – for they do it by joining Cherry in sponsored challenges that stretch and strengthen them too. She’s now led different groups up two mammoth mountains, Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru in Tanzania, as well as on a 21km marathon in Kenya’s Lewa wildlife conservancy, where lion, elephant, rhino and buffalo roam free, and on a gruelling crossing of Lake Malawi – 28km of sometimes treacherous water, where hippos lurk.
Last year Cherry’s achievements won her the South African Chamber of Commerce UK Annual Business and Community award for Serving Community in South Africa; but instead of relaxing, this tireless mother of three climbed into her latest venture – to take eight women up Mount Kenya on September 19.
“I can’t wait!” she says happily. “The views and climb on Mount Kenya are far better than on Kili or Meru, because we walk through the Mount Kenya National Park and will be met with waterfalls as we ascend, and gorgeous foliage. The girls will be taken totally out of their comfort zones – nothing can prepare you for this kind of climb apart from being walking fit. The pace is very slow, “pole pole”, as they say in Swahili, but I have some good African songs to vibe along to on the way!”
The “girls” are rearing to go. “I’m very excited,” says Babongile Mkhize, 40, a transformation specialist at Hollywoodbets head office in uMhlanga, mom of daughters aged 12 and 15. “I was happy but nervous when Cherry invited me last year – people die on mountains, as my husband pointed out, and I’d been suffering from low blood pressure. But by this year my BP was normal and I was fighting fit, doing gymthree times a week and running 10km along the beachfront promenade every Saturday. My husband runs with me, and when I told him I needed to do something I thought I’d never do in my life, he understood. Especially as I’ll be fundraising – at work I head up our corporate social investment and B-BBEE department and part of it is to approve the social responsibility causes we support. Hollywoodbets has already donated to ovens for Celebrate Life, so I knew I’d be helping women in a sustainable way. I also hope I’ll inspire my daughters.”
Tessa Geyser, 49, who works in sales and marketing for City Logistics, and assists with events and social responsibility projects, will be leaving a daughter of five and son of 11 to join the hike. “I fly to Kenya the day before schools break up, so my husband will have to step up!” For Tessa, the pull of this expedition is partly the cause – “through my work I’m exposed to so many less fortunate people and I’m excited to be part of making a difference.”
She also wants to test her mettle: “I train five or six days a week, running, swimming, walking the hills of uMhlanga Village, and doing Movement X workouts (high performance training classes between floor stations, I love it). And then there’s the novelty of an all-women group. I work in a male-oriented workplace, and am looking forward to experiencing this adventure with a group of incredibly strong women.”
By Cherry’s reckoning, it will be new for the mountain too. “I haven’t heard of any all-women team doing Mount Kenya, so it’ll be quite an achievement. The greatest challenge will be the altitude – 5 199m (Kili is 5 895m) – and the cold: there’ll be snow and ice. But our first training hike, at Injisuthi near Giant’s Castle in June, showed we have an amazing team. It’s always interesting to see if everyone will gel, and each of the girls did that. So bring it on!”