wfn.org | Cape Town’s Cathedral is final milestone for poverty walk

[Theo and Ruth Coggin <coggin@sn.apc.org>]

^From Quo Vadis Communications, +2711-648-5461

A 12 000 km walk against debt and poverty by 61 year old Swede and
former South African journalist, Boudewijn Wegerif, will be marked by a
special thanksgiving service in St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town, South
Africa, on Wednesday afternoon.

His long walk supports the call by the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town,
the Most Revd Njongonkulu Ndungane, for cancellation of the debt of
developing countries and the eradication of poverty.  

Wegerif has spent the past two-and-a-half years walking from Sweden to
Cape Town to raise awareness about pressing global economic issues
affecting the well-being of people throughout the world. He started the
South African leg of his walk in Pietersburg on August 30 and is due to
end in Cape Town on Wednesday, December 10.

He believes that the prevailing, debt-based economic system is causing
untold suffering - spiritual suffering for the rich and hard physical
suffering for the poor,

Says Archbishop Ndungane: “One can only admire a person who is willing
to walk more than 12000 kilometres campaigning for a world free of
crippling poverty.  I believe that all right-thinking people in this
country desire economic growth and the eradication of poverty.  At this
Christmas tide, I challenge all South Africans to ‘lift up their feet’
and walk the extra mile in following his example.”

Wegerif was previously an economic journalist and senior manager of a
large newspaper group in South Africa, before being forced into exile in
1971.

The thanksgiving service, which will be led by the Archbishop, will be
held at St George’s Cathedral at 15h00 on Wednesday 10 December.