Green activist Enzo van Vuuren (49) began an epic journey of 6 000km on an international cycle challenge to raise awareness of health issues and to raise funds for a youth project in South Africe.

Inset: Wearing a green hat and green shoes, Enzo van Vuuren spreads a healthy message along the beautiful Garden Route (Photo: Knysna-Plett Herald).

His challenge began on September 1, 2011 to spread a 'green' message to as many towns and cities in South Africa as possible. One of his main interests is the life-giving power of pure water and how this relates to people becoming disease-free.

Van Vuuren admits to being inspired by Knysna's own cycling Aids-activist, André van Zijl, to take up a challenge of his own.
"I cycle to different Nedbanks on my route all over South Africa and also hope to eventually do the same type of trip abroad," he explains.

His bicycle has been fitted with a satellite system to make it possible to log his journey as well as the kilometres he has completed.

"To date I have cycled 1 340km, but I don't cycle the whole time. I have to wait for finances to be available before I tackle each phase."

Van Vuuren is the head of media at Heal the World Projects in George which is also his base when he is not on route.
"Discoveries recently made concerning the healing properties of pure water are nothing less than mind-blowing! The more I learn and experience, the more scientists discover how water even reacts to sound, the more I feel it is certainly one of God's greatest gifts to us!"

Noticing the ailments in his own life and close family members, Van Vuuren decided he wanted to change his life. "My grandfather died at age 62, my dad was always drinking tablets by the handful and I didn't want to become diabetic like my grandmother."

His increasing awareness of lifestyle choices motivated Van Vuuren to research natural ways that can help heal people without the side-effects of pharmaceuticals.

"The more the truth penetrates my being, the more I change and the more I want to change. I have stopped drinking myself and I trust God for healing because I sincerely believe it has both a natural and supernatural component!"
Van Vuuren says that over the last two years he has gained a lot of knowledge about the almost miraculous power of pure water.

"Water is a substance that is actually alive! But unfortunately, as we all know, with all the pollution of our water resources with chemicals, fertilisers, metals as well as radio-active substances together with the fact that water is pumped over long distances in eroded pipes which contribute to breaking down the original structure of water, what we now get as the end product is no longer that fantastic life-giving substance which it is supposed to be."

He therefore concludes that most of the water available today no longer does the work it is suppose to do in one's body - transporting nutrients and washing out toxins - and that it has become so polluted that it is actually 'dead'. Water, says the experts, needs to be able to work at one's cellular level.

"People are killing themselves slowly because they don't read the labels of products they use. When it comes to water the choice is not always clear. Consumers must look at the labels to check what they drink - drinking water with a Ph close to 7.4 is better. Some water sold with a Ph level below 6 is acidic and is not healthy.

People must eat more alkaline burning foods, for example lemons, apples, pineapple juice, avocado and tomatoes. Disease cannot live in an alkaline body. This is why I love planting lemon trees. Lemons are the best natural antiseptic known to man and helps to make your body alkaline as it assists to bring more oxygen into your blood."

Green Fingers for Jesus is one of Van Vuuren's own initiatives and a project in the Magaliesberg for which he raises funds to show the youth how to erect and cultivate their own organic vegetable tunnels, as well as how to purify water.
"I'm not selling anything. I just talk to people and we discuss the importance of clean water and how people can change their own lives to become healthy again," says Van Vuuren.

Before he started on his cycling tour, Van Vuuren had not been on a bicycle in thirty years. "I walked a lot before I started, but in the beginning I had to take it really slow and I can tell you my bum hurt!" he chuckles. "I also cycle in a green hat and shoes to draw attention to my cause, and I'm glad to say I'm a great deal more fit now than I was when I began and now I just enjoy my quiet time on the road."

So far he has visited 55 Nedbanks in South Africa because they align themselves with sustainable and green principles.
For more information visit his website, www.healtheworldprojects.yolasite.com or contact Van Vuuren on 071 303 4007. Friends can also follow him on Facebook.

(His back-up vehicle is sponsored by Bryanston Renault and his accommodation by Lagoon Lodge, Knysna Log Inn, Royal Hotel and, in Plettenberg Bay, the Beacon Hotel and Forever Forest Resorts in Keurboomstrand.)

By Anoeschka Von Meck