Successful Brian Habana video prompts food donation

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The airline will donate another R60,000 worth of tickets if it reaches 2.5 million YouTube hits by the end of August.

The video, in which Habana takes on its largest aircraft over 100 metres has already achieved over 1.5 million views and is on course to become the airline's most successful YouTube campaign.

Charity work

Habana is a patron of FoodBank South Africa, which is leading a co-ordinated effort to establish food banks around the country in communities with the highest concentration of hungry people. It rescues and procures food and essential groceries centrally and distributes these to depots from where its agencies are able to get it to people in need.

The lack of food security in poor and marginalised communities was starkly highlighted in the recent South African National Health and Nutrition Examination, which found that one in four households goes to bed hungry.

"Of course we've all watched the clip but never imagined that a YouTube video may help hungry people half a world away," says Jill Richie, FoodBank South Africa fund development strategist. She says the organisation plans to auction the tickets later in the year and hopes that the cause and the hype around the video will ensure they fetch more than their market value.

Successful clip

Sue Botes, British Airways' commercial manager for southern Africa, says the success of the 'man versus plane' clip had prompted the airline to make the donation.

"Quite honestly we were taken slightly by surprise, so thought we'd ask him if we could make a gesture to acknowledge the huge following the video had garnered. We're delighted that what started out as a bit of fun has enabled us help an organisation doing such important work."

For more information, watch the Youtube video below: