MOSSEL BAY NEWS - The internationally recognised speaker, author and entrepreneurial coach, Nico de Klerk, will be in Mossel Bay soon.
He will be walking from Mossel Bay to Jongensfontein with a group which will include international and local walkers.
The group from overseas arrives in Cape Town on Tuesday, 5 March.
De Klerk will be doing the Harkerville walk in Knysna from 7 to 8 March. Different participants will be joining De Klerk's walk at different stages.
From 9 March, a group will walk from the St Blaize Cave at the Point in Mossel Bay, heading for Jongensfontein. They plan to arrive there by 13 March.
MasterPeace
De Klerk is organising this walk in association with the international initiative, MasterPeace.
Mossel Bay resident Gerrie van Deventer, who is the Pilgrimage of Hope coordinator in the Mossel Bay area, will be accompanying the group from Mossel Bay to Jongensfontein.
Be a Nelson Movement
De Klerk founded the StreetBiz Foundation non-profit organisation and the Be a Nelson Movement, encouraging people to have the type of mindset Nelson Mandela had.
He has coached many previously disadvantaged South Africans in entrepreneurial skills. A total of 15 of the walkers will be from Europe.
They are "social innovators", De Klerk says.
It is the first time a MasterPeace walk has been held in South Africa.
Previously they were in Kenya and Nepal.
Also, 15 of the walkers will be from the Be A Nelson movement - young leaders in the community involved in entrepreneurship development. Their participation is sponsored by the Europeaen walkers.
Spiritual
De Klerk said the walk was all about self knowledge and spiritual and cultural development.
He told Mossel Bay Advertiser: "Nature plays a role. The group is cut off from modern life, outside of its comfort zone. It demonstrates that development means adventure. It's not just academic, but practical," De Klerk says.
"We work on initiatives to address poverty and unemployment."
Jan Heenop, who is based in Stilbaai, is the co-ordinator and guide for the walk here in the Southern Cape. He is a life coach and runs a gap year for matriculants through his iALA (International Academy of Leadership Through Adventure).
De Klerk wrote the book, No fit: My 1,700mile Walk from Apartheid, which tells the story of his walk from Pretoria to Cape Town in 2018, through more than 100 townships, giving workshops.
De Klerk told Mossel Bay Advertiser: "At that time I was in Mossel Bay I walked in the Langkloof and to Plettenberg Bay, Kareedouw and to Mossel Bay, then over the mountain to Outsdhoorn and on Route 62.
"I had a lovely time there and made good connections in the schools and townships."
Lecturer
De Klerk is a lecturer at the School of Social Innovation, in the Hugenote Kollege, in Wellington.
It is an independent Christian post-school institution that specialises in training social and church service workers.
De Klerk completed his PhD in 2016. It focused on the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage from France to Spain, which he did after graduation.
In 2020, he served as adjunct-professor in Spiritual Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, USA.
He received the Edward de Bono Award for the Best Global Social Innovative Project for 2018 from Life Learning Academia.
De Klerk has a Master Trainer Certificate in Entrepreneurial Skills Development from the University State of California. As the national co-ordinator and keynote speaker, he took a team from township schools to the World Championship for Student Entrepreneurs in Moscow and achieved fourth place.
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