Gideon Swart, a resident from Pretoria, will take on the 75km 2023 K-Way SA MaxiRace Cape Winelands to raise awareness of human trafficking in South Africa.
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According to the local non-profit organisation Brave to Love, human trafficking generates more capital than the illegal drug trade. Swart has been using his love of sports to raise awareness on important matters since 2022, when he completed the Ironman Africa Champs in Gqeberha even though he never cycled further than 100km or ran further 30km at a time. Just a few months later, he completed the 75km K-Way MaxiRace Cape Winelands in October.
The K-Way MaxiRace Cape Winelands is hosted by Banhoek Chilli Oil in association with On Shoes.
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Now he is back to take on the challenge again. ‘I will be running to raise awareness for the work Brave to Love is doing in the human trafficking arena,’ says Swart. ‘Their mission is to rescue, recover, rehabilitate, restore and re-integrate women and girls that have become victims of sex trafficking in the sex trade in our country, our continent and our world. This is done through providing medical, psychological, emotional, physical, and mental support to those women that have been vulnerable and ended up as slaves in the sex trade.
‘Running MaxiRace last year was honestly one of the highlights of my year, not only was it an awesome event, but it allowed me to spread the word about Brave2Love and what we need to do to help eradicate this evil from our country,’ he adds. ‘I am back again for 2023 and look forward to the new route and meeting new people to help us in our battle!
‘I hope that through this we are able to spread awareness and raise funds for Brave to Love so that they can continue with their awesome work,” says Swart. “I don’t want anyone to live in fear, but I want people to know what is going on around them so that they are able to protect their children and loved ones.’
The race will take place on Saturday, 30 September in Stellenbosch and Franschhoek. For more information on the race, visit here.
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Also read:
Report: South Africa fails to meet human trafficking elimination standards
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