Exsa and Organ Donor Friends Golf Day 16 April 2012
From left to right: Charles Gantz and Anton Du Preez from the Winning Anlin Shipping team, Kosie Laubscher (Exsa), Michal Calitz (Anlin Shipping team) and Hielie Uys of the Organ Donation Fund. The fourth player for the Anlin Shipping team was Reyn Dreyer.
On the 16th of April 2012 Exsa Exports hosted a golf day at Pearl Valley Golf Estate near Paarl in South Africa’s Western Cape to raise funds for Organ Donor awareness.
Players were invited to join hands with EXSA Management and Shareholders to contribute to the promotion of Organ Donation, specifically in the Western Cape. Exsa Director Kosie Laubscher, who is the recipient of a donated kidney, has made this cause his passion. Exsa supports this strongly and hosts an annual golf day to raise funds for this cause. This Golf Day is an initiative to get Business in the Western Cape behind making this Province a ‘leader’ in Organ Donation in South Africa.
The day dawned a beautiful autumn day and the 72 players that took part certainly enjoyed playing on this exceptional course designed by American golfing legend Jack Niklaus. The winners of the event were the team members for Anlin Shipping. The year’s event was very successful and raised R60 000. Exsa would like to thank our sponsors for their contributions to this day.
Our sponsors were as follows: Maserati, MOL, Mpact, DIPAR, Lombard Insurance, GF Marketing, Cape Dispatch, ABSA, Vitonova, CCG, Sensitech, FPT, Forktech, Old Mutual, Anlin Shipping, Jackson Transport, Muller Steel and The Grape Co.The organisations that were part of the day are as follows: the Organ Donor Foundation, the South African Transplant Sports Association (SATSA) and the Eyebank Foundation of South Africa.
The Organ Donor Foundation raises awareness of organ donation within the medical community and trains and health care professionals in organ procurement. SATSA is a sports association for people who have been the recipients of organ transplants. The members compete in national and international transplant games (much like the Paralympics) and Durban is the venue for the 2013 World Transplant Games. Their motto is “the celebration of life”. Kosie Laubscher is a member and has competed internationally. The Eye Bank obtains and distributes eye tissue to surgeons for transplant purposes in order to restore or improve the sight of people who are blind or partially blind due to corneal disease or injury. It is a registered non-profit organisation, authorised by the Dept. of Health.
“Organ donation saves lives and I am living proof of that. My daughter was born with glaucoma in 1980 has also been the recipient of two corneas which had to be imported from the USA. Exsa would like to use the funds raised from the Golf Day to create a culture of organ donation, starting in our home province, the Western Cape.” explained Kosie. “The most famous transplant ever was performed by Chris Barnard here in the Western Cape and the hospital named after him would be the ideal launch pad and symbol for raising transplant awareness.
“When asked, most people would be willing to be donors. In practice however, very few organs are successfully harvested even if the deceased had been willing to do so. The window of opportunity for harvesting viable organs is very small. Unfortunately this also coincides with the immediate bereavement of the relatives who also have to give permission so often this opportunity is lost.
“There are thousands of people, many of them children, waiting for organs throughout South Africa. Their lives could be saved if we could create a more pro-active culture of organ donation amongst the general public. We want to mobilize support from the public sector as well as engage volunteers to assist us with this task. By bringing together business people who would like to support these organizations, we hope to raise both funds and awareness of this huge human need.”