Feeding the hungry and schooling the poor: Tutu’s fundraising campaigns

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu tirelessly fought against HIV/Aids, tuberculosis, poverty, racism, sexism and homophobia.

For many decades he and his wife Leah dedicated their time to improving the lives of many disadvantaged South Africans.

This they did through the establishment of charity organisations including the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation which, according to its website, provides funds, assets, services or other resources by way of donation to any approved organisation which carries out a public benefit activity.

The foundation's programmes include the Youth@Work initiative.

“The Youth@Work programme provides people between the ages of 18 and 20 with a chance to define, plan and begin to implement their career path. Youth@Work empowers young people to take control of their lives. The programme attracts young people from underserved communities across Cape Town,” the foundation's website states.

The Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation, the mission of which is “to use Desmond Tutu's life and teachings to inspire young people to build a world of peace within themselves, peace between people, and peace among nations”, advances the archbishop's humanitarian work.

Tutu was also a patron of the Ubuntu Education Fund, an organisation founded in 1999 by a former Port Elizabeth teacher, Banks Gwaxula, and an American university student, Jacob Lief. The fund aims to improve access to education and health care for impoverished children in township communities.

Tutu was Action Against Hunger's award recipient at the Restaurants Against Hunger campaign gala in November 2005 in honour of World Food Day.

He was made an honorary chair of the Amandla Aids Fund, part of Artists for a New SA, and a member of The Elders, an independent grouping of global leaders working together for peace and human rights, brought together in 2007 by former president Nelson Mandela. Its founding members were Tutu, Graça Machel, Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter, Mary Robinson and Muhammad Yunus, Ela Bhatt and Gro Harlem Brundtland.

At its launch on his 89th birthday in Johannesburg, Madiba said: “This group can speak freely and boldly, working both publicly and behind the scenes on whatever actions need to be taken. Together we will work to support courage where there is fear, foster agreement where there is conflict, and inspire hope where there is despair.”

Tutu, then chair of The Elders, said: “Despite all the ghastliness that is around, human beings are made for goodness. The ones who ought to be held in high regard are not the ones who are militarily powerful, nor even economically prosperous. They are the ones who have a commitment to try to make the world a better place.”

Tutu also highlighted a cause close to his heart in July 2018, when he celebrated his 63rd wedding anniversary with wife Leah by honouring the staff responsible for running the Tygerberg Children’s Hospital in Cape Town.

The Tutus had been active patrons of the hospital for the past 18 years, their spokespeople said. Apart from being regular visitors to the wards‚ their fundraising efforts had contributed to the hospital being able to acquire equipment to screen high-risk infants’ eyes to prevent blindness‚ and equipment for the paediatric intensive care unit, for which there was no public funding.

Throughout the 2000s, including on his birthday in 2020, Tutu highlighted the impact of climate change, which he described as the human rights challenge of this era, explaining in 2017: “The most devastating effects are visited on the poor, those with no involvement in creating the problem. A deep injustice.”

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