Durban North contestant vies for Survivor title
Claire De Sylva is playing to win R1000 for her chosen charity, I Care, and uMhlanga based organisation that assists street children.
DURBAN North resident, Claire De Sylva was selected to participate in South African Online Survivor: Lockdown (SAOS), an online edition of the International Survivor Series.
What’s more, De Sylva won immunity for the first challenge when she gained more than 300 votes.
The game is run through Facebook and participants log on to take part in challenges and tribal council meetings, using the messaging app and live video features.
The aim is to ‘Outwit, Outplay and Outlast’ the other contestants until just one remains, said Riaan Rautenbach who co-hosts the game with Stefanie Classens.
“We brain storm challenges and throw in our own twists and turns to make the game more interesting. The goal behind this is to grow the online Survivor community. The prize money is set at R1000 and this is expected to grow as contestants from season one contribute,” said Rautenbach.
Also read: Lockdown ‘runathon’ raises more than 30k for street children
Contestants were split into two tribes and De Sylva is part of the Akala Jinmu (Pink Warrior) tribe.
“We are playing to win money for our chosen charities,” said De Sylva who has chosen to support I Care, an uMhlanga based organisation that assists street children.
De Sylva discovered I Care while working for her own NPO, Project Loo.
“I love what I Care does, they are so passionate about what their work. I have a teenage son and the fact that there are children his age out on the street really impacts me,” she said.
Also read: Support Project Loo fundraiser
While financial support for charity is an end game, De Sylva also hopes SASO will uplift audiences who log on to view the video challenges.
“With Covid-19, it’s been a really rough time. The mood in South Africa has been really stressful. This is such an amazing opportunity to bring some fun and joy to others, since the online presence has been quite dreary. As much as it’s a game and one person has to win, my tribe and I are really passionate about sprinkling some joy online during this hard time,” she said.
The Survivor challenges take place in the evenings, allowing contestants to juggle work and play.
“We have to be available in the evenings. We kick off at 6pm on the dot,” said De Sylva.
“We communicate via Facebook Messenger using voice notes or typing and when we do a challenge, we post a live Facebook video,” she added.
Audiences can keep tabs of the game and vote for their favourite players through the SASO Facebook page.
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