MEDIA: Article in People's Magazine!!!
People's magazine did a really great piece on Team Zodwa and our mountain climbing.
http://www.peoplemagazine.co.za/article.aspx?id=11196&h=Summiting-The-World-For-Kids
The internet version
These brave women have set themselves the task of feeding a million children by climbing the seven highest peaks, seven highest volcanoes and seven highest islands.
The internet version
Real-life
Summiting The World For Kids
09:50 (GMT+2), Mon 08 August 2011
STRIDING along the roadside the two ladies certainly turn heads. Behind them, they are dragging bright pink tyres, a sign of both the femininity and rugged toughness that are two of the premier attributes of Team Zodwa. It is under this name that Kim Williams and Rachel Meth have set themselves the goal of feeding one million children through taking on one of the most difficult physical challenges ever attempted. Rachel and Kim hope to become the very first people to conquer what they are calling the Fire & Ice 777 challenge, which would mean making it to the top of the seven highest peaks on each continent, seven highest volcanoes and seven highest islands.
The goal is that for each metre they climb, one bag of Vitameal will be donated to feed a child. It’s a massive task and one that began years before with Kim and a handful of her fellow lady paramedics taking part in previously all male competitions, has seen them conquer a mountain totally ill-equipped and last year put the team through the harrowing experience of dealing with the death of their close friend and fellow team-mate Khabo Meduna-Legote. It’s a story of unbelievable charity and perseverance.
When you hear her speak you realise that Kim could be any mother in Joburg. She speaks of her family with pride and her boisterous nature glimmers below the surface. This bubbly exterior however coats a core of steel. As one of the most advanced paramedics in the country, Kim is trained as a fast water rescuer, one of just a handful in the country. It’s a job that takes focus, dedication and fitness. When she reached the top, Kim realised that women were very poorly represented at national rescue competitions and so set about putting together a team made up only of women. This side became a sensation on the competition circuit, placing in top positions time and again and drawing the attention of the media and the public.
It was then that Kim realised all this attention could be better put towards helping others, a pastime she has dedicated her life to. “As a paramedic you deal with immediate emergencies in some of the worst parts of the country. You patch people up and save their lives, but when you take a look around, you realise there is so much more that you should be doing. These people often need a lot more than just your paramedic abilities. They need everything from trauma counselling to basic STRIDING along the roadside the two ladies certainly turn heads. Behind them, they are dragging bright pink tyres, a sign of both the femininity and rugged toughness that are two of the premier attributes of Team Zodwa. It is under this name that Kim Williams and Rachel Meth have set themselves the goal of feeding one million children through taking on one of the most difficult physical challenges ever attempted.
Rachel and Kim hope to become the very first people to conquer what they are calling the Fire & Ice 777 challenge, which would mean making it to the top of the seven highest peaks on each continent, seven highest volcanoes and seven highest islands. The goal is that for each metre they climb, one bag of Vitameal will be donated to feed a child. It’s a massive task and one that began years before with Kim and a handful of her fellow lady paramedics taking part in previously all male competitions, has seen them conquer a mountain totally ill-equipped and last year put the team through the harrowing experience of dealing with the death of their close friend and fellow team-mate Khabo Meduna-Legote. It’s a story of unbelievable charity and perseverance.
When you hear her speak you realise that Kim could be any mother in Joburg. She speaks of her family with pride and her boisterous nature glimmers below the surface. This bubbly exterior however coats a core of steel. As one of the most advanced paramedics in the country, Kim is trained as a fast water rescuer, one of just a handful in the country. It’s a job that takes focus, dedication and fitness. When she reached the top, Kim realised that women were very poorly represented at national rescue competitions and so set about putting together a team made up only of women.
This side became a sensation on the competition circuit, placing in top positions time and again and drawing the attention of the media and the public. It was then that Kim realised all this attention could be better put towards helping others, a pastime she has dedicated her life to. “As a paramedic you deal with immediate emergencies in some of the worst parts of the country. You patch people up and save their lives, but when you take a look around, you realise there is so much more that you should be doing. These people often need a lot more than just your paramedic abilities. They need everything from trauma counselling to basicinstructor who changed her life after a serious accident to become a firefighter at the Benoni Fire and Emergency Services.
The other is pixie-faced Rachel Meth who works at the K9 dog unit. Together the ladies became an inseparable team and together raised R250 000 for various charities. They also prepared for the first climb on the challenge, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. In 2009 the three ladies were set for the challenge. Sponsors had promised them gear and they had been training for months. For Kim, who claims she is afraid of heights, the nerves and stress were enormous. Then just days before they were due to leave, the sponsorships fell through and the ladies were left scraping together what gear they could for the arduous journey. In the end it was the decision to climb in steel capped firefighting boots that they were to regret the most.
“The first few days were great, and then we hit rain,” explains Rachel. Torrential downpours gave way to the worst blizzards the mountain had seen in 30 years and very soon Khabo got sick. “We weren’t going to give up. We let the other people climbing with us go ahead and began to help Khabo stagger on toward the summit,” says Kim. The climb should have taken just six hours, but it was an unbelievable 19 hours later that the three reached the summit. Their toes had frozen in the icy boots, they were all experiencing illness, frostbite and hypothermia, but they made it. “When temperatures plummet to minus 30 degrees, my feet were aching. I could feel the blisters bursting in my shoes, but I just kept telling myself, I can do it. A kid dies every six seconds from malnutrition, I can put my body through anything to stop that,” says Rachel.
It was a startling wake up call for the women who were not, and never had been, climbers. Upon their return they began making more contact with climbing clubs and say that they have received endless support from the community. With their training regimes adjusted they started working on the next one, never for one second considering giving up on the challenge they had set themselves, despite a startling lack of support from big business in SA.
“We have it set up so that any money we make instantly gets used to buy food. We never even see it. It goes into an account that is accessed by Vitameal who then use it to pass food on to those who need it. It’s a great system and means we don’t need to worry about the logistics,” says Kim.
As the training began to take hold the team bonded even more closely. “We would be up before day
Should you wish to make a donation to the Fire & Ice 777 summits
(Ref: FI 777) or to buying a bag of Vitameal food at R185, the banking details are: Team Zodwa, Nedbank (191305), Savings Account
No: 291 33 95 899
When you hear her speak you realise that Kim could be any mother in Joburg. She speaks of her family with pride and her boisterous nature glimmers below the surface. This bubbly exterior however coats a core of steel. As one of the most advanced paramedics in the country, Kim is trained as a fast water rescuer, one of just a handful in the country. It’s a job that takes focus, dedication and fitness. When she reached the top, Kim realised that women were very poorly represented at national rescue competitions and so set about putting together a team made up only of women. This side became a sensation on the competition circuit, placing in top positions time and again and drawing the attention of the media and the public.
It was then that Kim realised all this attention could be better put towards helping others, a pastime she has dedicated her life to. “As a paramedic you deal with immediate emergencies in some of the worst parts of the country. You patch people up and save their lives, but when you take a look around, you realise there is so much more that you should be doing. These people often need a lot more than just your paramedic abilities. They need everything from trauma counselling to basic STRIDING along the roadside the two ladies certainly turn heads. Behind them, they are dragging bright pink tyres, a sign of both the femininity and rugged toughness that are two of the premier attributes of Team Zodwa. It is under this name that Kim Williams and Rachel Meth have set themselves the goal of feeding one million children through taking on one of the most difficult physical challenges ever attempted.
Rachel and Kim hope to become the very first people to conquer what they are calling the Fire & Ice 777 challenge, which would mean making it to the top of the seven highest peaks on each continent, seven highest volcanoes and seven highest islands. The goal is that for each metre they climb, one bag of Vitameal will be donated to feed a child. It’s a massive task and one that began years before with Kim and a handful of her fellow lady paramedics taking part in previously all male competitions, has seen them conquer a mountain totally ill-equipped and last year put the team through the harrowing experience of dealing with the death of their close friend and fellow team-mate Khabo Meduna-Legote. It’s a story of unbelievable charity and perseverance.
When you hear her speak you realise that Kim could be any mother in Joburg. She speaks of her family with pride and her boisterous nature glimmers below the surface. This bubbly exterior however coats a core of steel. As one of the most advanced paramedics in the country, Kim is trained as a fast water rescuer, one of just a handful in the country. It’s a job that takes focus, dedication and fitness. When she reached the top, Kim realised that women were very poorly represented at national rescue competitions and so set about putting together a team made up only of women.
This side became a sensation on the competition circuit, placing in top positions time and again and drawing the attention of the media and the public. It was then that Kim realised all this attention could be better put towards helping others, a pastime she has dedicated her life to. “As a paramedic you deal with immediate emergencies in some of the worst parts of the country. You patch people up and save their lives, but when you take a look around, you realise there is so much more that you should be doing. These people often need a lot more than just your paramedic abilities. They need everything from trauma counselling to basicinstructor who changed her life after a serious accident to become a firefighter at the Benoni Fire and Emergency Services.
The other is pixie-faced Rachel Meth who works at the K9 dog unit. Together the ladies became an inseparable team and together raised R250 000 for various charities. They also prepared for the first climb on the challenge, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. In 2009 the three ladies were set for the challenge. Sponsors had promised them gear and they had been training for months. For Kim, who claims she is afraid of heights, the nerves and stress were enormous. Then just days before they were due to leave, the sponsorships fell through and the ladies were left scraping together what gear they could for the arduous journey. In the end it was the decision to climb in steel capped firefighting boots that they were to regret the most.
“The first few days were great, and then we hit rain,” explains Rachel. Torrential downpours gave way to the worst blizzards the mountain had seen in 30 years and very soon Khabo got sick. “We weren’t going to give up. We let the other people climbing with us go ahead and began to help Khabo stagger on toward the summit,” says Kim. The climb should have taken just six hours, but it was an unbelievable 19 hours later that the three reached the summit. Their toes had frozen in the icy boots, they were all experiencing illness, frostbite and hypothermia, but they made it. “When temperatures plummet to minus 30 degrees, my feet were aching. I could feel the blisters bursting in my shoes, but I just kept telling myself, I can do it. A kid dies every six seconds from malnutrition, I can put my body through anything to stop that,” says Rachel.
It was a startling wake up call for the women who were not, and never had been, climbers. Upon their return they began making more contact with climbing clubs and say that they have received endless support from the community. With their training regimes adjusted they started working on the next one, never for one second considering giving up on the challenge they had set themselves, despite a startling lack of support from big business in SA.
“We have it set up so that any money we make instantly gets used to buy food. We never even see it. It goes into an account that is accessed by Vitameal who then use it to pass food on to those who need it. It’s a great system and means we don’t need to worry about the logistics,” says Kim.
As the training began to take hold the team bonded even more closely. “We would be up before day
Should you wish to make a donation to the Fire & Ice 777 summits
(Ref: FI 777) or to buying a bag of Vitameal food at R185, the banking details are: Team Zodwa, Nedbank (191305), Savings Account
No: 291 33 95 899
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