Five provinces and 2500km to raise funds for children

It takes a little bit more than just ‘guts’ to get onto a tractor and drive 2500km from Witrivier in a circle and back to raise funds for children and spread awareness about farm murders. Dr André Hattingh says it also takes a little bit of insanity, but in actual fact, it takes a caring heart to undertake a journey like this… Having just completed the ride from Colenso to Vryheid, Hattingh explains why he is so adamant to tackle this physically and mentally demanding annual tractor ride.

Pediatric Care Africa was founded in 2017 by Hattingh, as a retired neurosurgeon, specifically to help sick children who have no access to professional medical care and surgeries. The organisation has supplied free medical care to 6967 people during medical outreaches, of which 1334 children were attended to by private medical practitioners or specialists. Free surgeries were done on 116 children and 410,000kg worth of food parcels were distributed. The organisation also responded to four natural disasters, of which the biggest was Cyclone Idai in Mozambique.

Furthermore, they assisted during the veld fires in the Hertzogville district of the Free State, where farmers lost everything. During the Covid-19 pandemic, they delivered 2.2million meals to families who lost their financial income, and children who lost their school meals due to the closure of schools in food-distressed communities.
The organization also raises funds for several initiatives. One of these is their yearly ‘Ride for a Child’ 7000km charity motorbike ride around South Africa in February/March. Another one is the annual ‘On-Trac-Tor’ 2500km tractor ride through five provinces to raise funds for surgeries and to draw international attention to farm murders in South Africa. Hattingh has published a cook book entitled ‘Cooking with Doc’ that is on sale for R350 and is available online.

Regular golf days at local country clubs contribute to these funds and then, of course, kind-hearted donations from the public (as well as from overseas) also help the cause. The organisation receives no support from the government or National Lottery, despite many applications to that effect.

Some interesting information about the journey and the organisation…
• The tractor runs for eight or nine hours before it is empty of fuel, which is about 110 litres of diesel. The trip from Colenso to Vryheid took about nine hours.
• The tractor’s general speed is about 35km/h.
• The tractor is a demo model.
• During this year’s journey, the tractor claimed fame nine times on television, on five front pages of newspapers, and 34 international television and radio broadcastings, to name but a few.
• The tractor symbolises the farmers, which in turn raises awareness of farm murders.
• The motorbike charity ride raises funds for general surgeries, while the tractor ride raises funds for major surgeries on children.
• Hattingh also wrote children’s books to educate children on how a person contracts malaria, for instance.
• The aim is to raise R1 million this year, but during the first journey, they only raised R160,000.

• The Covid-19 pandemic hampered the expedition; hence this is only the second journey.

• Hattingh studied his post-graduate degree in America. In 1994, he joined the Red Cross as a volunteer in Rwanda for 21 days. What he saw during that time of war, where innocent children were injured and couldn’t be treated properly, saw him making a pledge to himself that one day (when his house was paid off) he would start an organisation to help these and all other children. After retiring as a neurosurgeon in December 2016, he started the organisation the following year.

• Hattingh and his wife run four different programmes.

• Pastor TJ rides his motorbike in front of the tractor in support of Hattingh’s programmes, while the good doctor in turn supports the pastor, who serves homeless people.

• Pastor TJ works on a farm where they house about 30 homeless families in Nelspruit.

• Pastor TJ is also part of the ‘911 Riders’ initiative, riding against farm murders.

• Both gentlemen are involved with the motorbike charity 7000km ride.

• On this 2500km ride, Hattingh jokingly complained that he never received any milk tart from the ‘tannies’.

• Day three and day nine are physically the worst days on the tractor, since those are the longest trips. Day nine is mentally the worst.

• The first 1000km, you ride physically; and the last 1500km, you ride mentally.

The Vryheid community takes their hat off to you, Dr André Hattingh and Pastor TJ… you guys are making a difference in many children’s lives.

ALSO READ: Bumpy ride to raise funds for children and stop farm murders

The news provided to you in this link comes to you from the editorial staff of the Vryheid Herald, a sold newspaper distributed in the Vryheid area.