Today on the Buzz I speak to three gentleman who are making a 300 KM walk to creat awareness about Diabetes. Ransley Burrows, Dushan Pieris and Mario de Soyza hope to raise funds for this worthy cause. Today we speak about this epic journey and how we can also help even if we don’t want to make the walk. 

WHAT MADE YOU COME UP WITH STEPS? When we started Seeni Colombo, a predominantly branding and design consultancy, we knew we wanted to create work that had social impact. While we live by this mantra of conscious creativity professionally, we’ve always wanted to find a way of giving back personally as well. Steps Against Diabetes started off as a crazy idea of walking one of the toughest trails in Sri Lanka, the 300 km long Pekoe Trail as a fund raiser for diabetes.

WHY THE WALK, YOU COULD HAVE DONE ANYTHING ELSE TO RAISE FUNDS? Diabetes affects many parts of the body but the complications that arise from diabetic ulcers resonated with all three of us who have at least one parent affected by this condition. We then found a wonderful beneficiary in Paa Saviya, a specialized centre for limb salvage and wound care at the Faculty of Medicine of the Colombo University. Using our own feet to make a statement and raise funds for diabetic foot care seemed the only way to go from there.

HOW WAS THE 1ST WEEK ON THE GO?  It's been good so far. We’ve had a few challenges, but we’ve been adjusting to the early morning schedule of getting to the trail head early and getting through each day before the sun comes up. Currently we are in the Uva Province and so the days are hotter but as we return to the Central Province the weather should get cooler though that will provide its own set of challenges. However, the beauty of the Pekoe Trail and people we meet along the way more than make up for the sore and tired bodies at the end of each stage.

TILL WHEN IS THIS WALK ON AND CAN ANYONE JOIN THE THREE OF YOU AND WALK?  The Pekoe Trail has 22 stages. We started on 22nd July, and we’ve completed stages 22 to 17, as we are walking the trail in reverse. This week we’ll be doing stages 16 – 11. We will walk our final stage from Galaha to Hanthana on the 15th of August. We’d love to have anyone join us. Our schedule is on our Instagram page Stepslk or you can drop any one of us a DM and we can let you know where we will be on any given day.  

HOW CAN ONE CONTRIBUTE? Contribution can be made to the following bank account. The doctors at Paa Saviya do amazing work, and any contribution big or small will go a long way in allowing them to help more patients through the Paa Saviya Centre.   Bank Account Details:

• Account Name: The Pekoe Trail Company (Gte) Ltd.
• Account No: 104010136653
• Bank: Hatton National Bank  
• Branch: Narahenpita
• Bank Code: 7083
• Branch Code: 104    
• SWIFT key: HBLILKLX 

WHAT’S NEXT FOR THIS PROJECT? Once we’ve tallied the final figure, all proceeds will be directed to Paa Saviya with the funds being used for the development of diabetic footwear and insoles, capacity building of diabetic wound care practitioners, development of sustainable health education material and procuring of diagnostic devices utilised in diabetic foot/ ulcer care.

WOULD THIS BE AN ANNUAL WALK? We’d like Steps Against Diabetes to be a long-term project. With staggering numbers like 1 in 4 adults in Sri Lanka being diabetic, there is a lot of work we can and need to do. What that looks like we will assess at the end of this project.

TELL ME ABOUT THE ROUTE, AND HOW DID YOU GUYS PLAN IT? The Pekoe Trial has been very generous with their advice in helping us plan out the entire walk and given us first-hand information on what we need to do to prepare for the challenge of walking 300 km through the central highlands of Sri Lanka. We decided to walk the trail in reverse mainly to allow more people to join us closer to the end of the trail in Hanthana which is easier to access. We’ve also had the help of Ayesh Buddika, a seasoned guide who has been very thorough in his online consultancy with daily briefings on the conditions along the trail which has given us the best chance at completing this task.  

WHAT’S THE MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED ON THIS WALK? That’s easy. The people. The smiles, the stories, the free avocadoes...  

TRANSPARENCY IS IMPORTANT - HOW CAN THE ONES WHO ARE CONTRIBUTING KNOW THE PROCESS OF HOW THE FUND WILL BE UTILIZED? The entire process is very transparent. The money will be directed to the Pekoe Trail welfare account from where once the auditing for the project is done all proceeds will be handed over to the team at Paa Saviya. By following Stepslk on Instagram you will then be able to see the funds being used by the Paa Saviya team in the areas mentioned before.

WHO HAS HELPED YOU BRING STEPS AGAINST DIABETES TO LIFE?  Many. Our friends and families who’ve supported us by allowing us to be away from them for a month to do this, the numerous people who have assisted in finding the right connections that led us to Paa Saviya as well as the team at Pekoe Trails for enthusiastically jumping on board when we initially approached them with the proposition. We are also grateful to our partners who have made this idea a reality including our title partner Asia Asset Finance, Domestic Express (DOMEX) and Nations Trust Bank.