Dr Isabel Do Vale, Our Homeless Project and a Rose by any other name!

Here's what Isabel Do Vale has to say about climbing Kilimanjaro & why!

As Crazy as it sounds, I am Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro- The roof of Africa and one of the highest free-standing mountains in the world! But I'm not doing it for nothing..

Years back when we were still in school, my good friend Olga asked if I would climb Mount Kilimanjaro with her. My eyebrows shot up in shock and I said "why?". Olga shrugged, laughed and said "..just because." And so we settled on "Ok, one day..." . More than ten years on it was my turn to call her up and say "Olgz, Still want to climb Kili?". The best part is now we know why....- we're doing it for a great cause! Please help us raise money for the Liver Transplant Fund! Every little bit helps!

As you may know, I am currently working in Johannesburg's public hospitals and specialising in surgery. In the past few months I have become involved in the Liver Transplant Access Project.

This is a joint project between Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital and Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre. The main aims of the project are to improve access to Liver Transplantation for all patients in Gauteng and surrounding regions, and increase awareness around liver transplantation and organ donation.

We will take up our Kili Challenge from the 4 to 12 September 2009! Please back us up this mountain by giving from your heart to give someone a liver!

Nhlanhla Thwala's talk last week provoked much discussion. It was quite alarming that even big corporates don't generally have a language policy. The response to language problems in the work place maybe common sense, as he said but there seems to be a lack of it.

The language issue with "international" people like himself was quite fascinating. We are all looking forward to his next talk.

Linda Vink took some pictures at the shelter for the homeless in Rosebank when Paul Kasango and the Projects

team visited to clarify our involvement. It really looks a well run set up.

A Rose! This is the New Dawn Rose. I first heard of it when my son told me that he had bought one in Denmark so I looked it up. Apparently it is a "Heritage Rose" first registered in 1930 and is an ancestor of most modern climbing roses. I bought one at Ludwigs this weekend. It's just rather nice to have.