Final Appeal – Jail4Bail

A brave man, Gerhard Pieterse (Executive Director of Autism Western Cape) has been in a jail cell at Canal Walk mall for over 70 days now. He has been raising money for Autism Western Cape, and his target is R1 million. On Monday afternoon I went to visit Gerhard for the second time, but this time I went with my camera. I interviewed Gerhard, who at the time had already raised R580,000 – that is a huge amount of money! Gerhard believes that the overwhelming majority of those donations have come from the working class people, and he says that this is astounding due to the current economic climate that we are facing.

Below is Gerhard’s appeal, and I would like to emphasize that appeal. Please try to donate something to this worthy cause – and let’s all try to help Gerhard reach R1 million! Autism is a complex neurobiological disorder. It is part of a group of disorders known as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Today, 1 in 158 individuals is diagnosed with ASD. You can read more about Autism at the Wikipedia page.

Donations can be made at the jail cell, or online at www.autismwesterncape.org.za, or call 0861 AUTISM (South Africa only). Gerhard has sacrificed the comforts of his home and family for over 70 days, I’m sure we can also make a small sacrifice.

Gerhard leaves his cell tomorrow, Friday 29 August 2008, at 6pm – so this is one of the final appeals!

I would also like to thank my good friend Rafiq Phillips for taking the Jail4Bail campaign online – you can view him talk about it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4-oOBzZ-LQ. Some of the work collected on this page show the fruits of Rafiq’s efforts.