RUN AGAINST HUNGER!

 The TNT Global Experience Programme has offered us the unique opportunity to work for the world’s largest humanitarian agency, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), whilst living in The Gambia, West-Africa.

Working for an organisation that delivers food and relief to the needy in a country that ranks 151st out of 169 on the UNDP Human Development Index is no easy task. Being confronted by this on a daily basis, during and after working hours, intrinsically generates the motivation and passion of alleviating the suffering of the less fortunate in The Gambia. This passion was the driving force behind our idea to ‘give something back’ to the community whilst raising awareness and advocacy for WFP and the global fight against hunger. After all, there are still 1 billion too many people suffering from chronic hunger!

But what should we ‘give back’? Philippe’s father had the idea to organise a marathon. Why not, we both like running and we often do that together with locals who just appreciate to join us during our training. However, when checking on the web, we were surprised to see that there already exists a local marathon, which incidentally happens to pass right in front of our house: the Brufut Marathon.

Coincidently, this year’s run was themed ‘Run Against Hunger’, which gave us the unique opportunityto join forces in a partnership with the local marathon committee, the Brufut Marathon Run Association (BMRA), in organising and funding the marathon. After all, our objectives are aligned, as the BMRA is an association that engages with the community for socio-economic development and raises awareness about pertinent social issues, such as hunger, through various sporting events. In addition, our strengths and needs ideally complement each other. The incredibly motivated BMRA has been organising this marathon for more than 15 years. However, since the global economic downturn, they are struggling to find a sponsor for the prizes. In a nation where 63% of the population is living on less than a dollar a day, it is vital to have attractive prizes to boost participation, which in turn raises awareness.

And that’s where we step in: our fundraising proposal seeks to collect donations from friends, family, colleagues and others who are willing and generous enough to help this good cause. With the money we will buy WFP labelled bags of rice, peas and salt, and cans of cooking oil (the traditional food basket provided by WFP around the world to feed the needy) and donate it to BMRA, who will then raffle off the different food baskets to the participants.

Acc no. 2325883 (ING)