Dr. Lillian Cingo

About The South African Phelophepa Train

South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu is Honorary Dinner Chairman of the Phelophepa Train’s annual award events in New York, and his wife Leah Tutu is the Patron of the project as well as a Director on the Board of the American Friends of the Phelophepa Train, a 501 © (3) Corporation. Sharon Allen, Chairman of Deloitte (USA) is the Chairman of the Board of the American Friends.

The Phelophepa Train (pronounced PAY-low-PEP-puh) represents social healing and reconciliation for what was a racially torn nation. Like the democratic nation of South Africa itself, the Phelophepa Train was founded in 1994.

The Phelophepa Train is a mobile medical unit that crisscrosses by rail the rural areas of South Africa throughout the year, stopping at 36 areas through the country for five days at a time, providing free medical and dental care to all regions without health care providers.

The Phelophepa has been described by its beneficiaries as "A Train of Hope" and "A Miracle Train," bearing testimony to the dire need for basic health care in South Africa. Additional information about the Phelophepa Health Care Train is available on its Web site at http://www.americanfriendsofphelophepa.org or PhelophepaTrain in South Africa.

The train has traveled more than 3.5 million kilometers since its inception, and en route it has utilized and supported local clinics, hospitals, social workers and doctors – sometimes village healers – to reach out to the local communities and to train more than 6,000 South African volunteers in its 5-day health programs. During its 36 weeks of operation in 2004, the Phelophepa reached more than 360,000 individuals through the AIDS education program in the Eastern Cape, registered more than 46,000 patients in its clinics, reached almost 26,000 individuals through counseling workshops, and screened more than 100,000 school children for health-related problems.

So, each year and for the past four years, the American Friends of the Phelophepa Train have organized a gala to help fund and build global awareness for the train. At the dinners, global business and social leaders who share the goals and have made significant contributions, are recognized not only for their support of the causes represented by the Phelophepa Train, but also for their efforts to improve the economic conditions in South Africa and the lives of its people.