Run For Humanity

Thank you for visiting our Run For Humanity blog!

The new run for humanity project for 2010 is currently being planned and will be in July. For 2010 the project will be bigger, better and even more painful on the knees with us running 400km in just 8 days.

More info to follow shortly:

Training for 2010:
Currently we are training hard to manage the new route of 400km in 7 days in 34c, starting at 6000ft. The Liverpool weather hasn't helped and the following video highlights how different the conditions maybe... a bit different to Uganda???

The 2009 project:
In June 2009 a team of 6 friends from the UK and Uganda will run from Pallisa (Eastern Uganda) to Kampala (Uganda's Capital) covering 240km in 6 days. The team will work in partnership with the Ugandan Red Cross to support vulnerable communities and make a difference to the lives of young people. The run will fund and raise awareness of the work of the Red Cross, first aid training and support communities to become resilient in times of crisis.

The Team - Martin, Jane, Simon, Sian, Michael and Eyria
Pictures of some of the team:

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Before the run...

"The advance party arrives"
Sian arrived in Uganda on the 29th May and quickly became a local with the Uganda Red Cross. The initial planning and arrangements have been going really well and there is already a buzz around the place!!

Local companies have demonstrated their value of the project by sponsoring the team with many valueable items including mineral water, t-shirts, communications and even a beer for each runner.. "Well if we complete each days run"!!. All the Red Cross branches have been busy preparing for the team and arranging the local first aid training sessions for the week of the run.

A press conference has been planned for the 16th June, which will raise greater awareness of the project and encourage the communities to get involved. We have set ourselves a target of 1000 followers for the website and would encourage everyone to spread the word and help us reach this target... "and don't forget to sign up yourself".

Back in the UK the rest of the team have been busy in the preparations, communicating with Sian and ensuring we get our knee's warmed up for the litte jog... Rumour has it that fried grasshoppers will be on the menu in Uganda, so now the runners will not need any supplements......... ..

Updated 10th June

The first day in Kampala has been full of meetings, planning and organisation for

the run. Everyone is so enthusiastic to get involved and we can't wait to see the plans unfold. The team are starting to realise the task involved and the challanges of the heat!!

A tired Simon said "it's great to be here and i can't wait for the challange, which will be amazing.. even the grasshoppers and advacado's Martin promised us".

Sian has done an amazing job on the organisation with the ever dynamic Uganda Red Cross team and has meant we can hit the "ground running"!!

Updated 15/06/09

Today has been a lot of organising and preparing for the run with the various branch staff and the headquarters. We held a press conference with local radio, newspapers and tv. The Chairman and the Secretary General of the Red Cross spoke about the project and praised all the efforts of everybody involved.

The press conference allowed Martin to discuss the plans in further detail and highlighted how important everyone's role was in this humanitarian activity. The team cant wait until tomorrow to get out to Pallisa and its famous chapatis that Martin is always raving on about. We concluded today with a briefing with the branch staff and we are excited about supporting their activities on the run.

Jane said 'I am really looking forward to tomorrow when we leave to travel to the 'real Africa'. Kampala is a lovely city, very lively and busy, and everyone I have met has been amazing and so friendly, however, after hearing all the stories about Pallisa from Martin, I feel this is when the real African experience will start.'

Updated 16/06/09

We finally left Kampala and hit the road.... On the way to Pallisa we visitted a few of the branches who will host the run and also met up with some of friends at Mabira forest and the world famous "take away" with the roasted chicken!! (Some people were very happy..).

Pallisa wecomed us the usually home coming and smiles, led by an excited "lizard". Pallisa is still very hot and is making Kampala feel very cold.. "are we really running even 1km in this heat.. you better have 500lt's of water bumba" asked one the runners!!!!

We have many projects to visit over the next few days in Pallisa and catch up with old friends. The "flag off" next monday to start of the run is getting closer, so the team have begun the stretches and training runs!!

The internet connection in Pallisa isn't amazing but we will keep you updated on the progress when we can get connection and visit Mbale....

Speak to you all soon..

Updated 17/06/09

All is going well but had challanges with internet.... all is going well and we are so thankful for all the messages of support, comments and people logging on to the website. We will update tomorrow and add pictures/ videos... if all goes well there will be an update by 2pm UK time (4pm Uganda time)... P.s the weather is dammmmm hot even for the half Ugandans!!!

Take care,

"Run for humanity team"

Updated 20/06/09

Simon meets some new friends during a visit to Robert Bruce's house. Si said "it's amazing being here and everyone is so friendly... The Mango's at Roberts house are the best in the world"... Robert spent some time explaining to the team the current concerns in the community and how the current crops have failed, which will result in a famine in the next 6 months. Robert told us that the run for humanity will support the communities by raising awareness of first aid and will save lives.

We also visited Green Valley school and the following video is how they welcomed us:

We also wanted to share with you one of our practice runs:

The Run for humanity was launched at the Pallisa branch of the Uganda Red Cross on Sunday the 21st June. The branch ran first aid awareness sessions, fundraising activities and also community awareness sessions. The event raised 2,750,000Ush for the branches activities including community based first aid. During the event the runners were flagged off with other supporters to run around Pallisa town for 3km (a good warm up run for the following day!!). The Secretary General of the Red Cross, the RDC and many other officals supported the event that provided valuable life saving skills which is so important to the Ugandan communities.

Day 1 - 21/06/2009

The first day of the run begins at the Pallisa Branch of the Uganda Red Cross. The run will leave Pallisa town with the noise of the cheering supporters in the runners ears and the thought of “we must be crazy to be running 240km in 34c”. The first 20km of the run is on the dusty red roads of the “Palisa Highway” passing villages and trading centres on the way. 10km into the run will see the team arrive at Buseta and chants of “go mzungu go”... The team will have a break and support the amazing Pallisa Red Cross volunteers providing training to the community. This part of the run will provide the team with the opportunity to practice their “high fives” with the local kids and get everyone motivated to

support the Red Cross. At the end of the dusty road we arrive at Kibuku which will give the team a chance to have a banana break, meet the community and say farewell to the Pallisa volunteers. At this point we join the new tarmack road which runs to Iganga. The next part of the run is quite rural and passes smaller villages,trading centres (Bulolo,Buyange, Kalamira), the swamps and arrives at Namutumba for the end of day 1 and the celebrations of surviving the first 43km.

Day 1 - Live Team Update:

Day one of the run began with a 5am wake up in Iki Iki, some mango and a quick

drive to Pallisa town. Everyone was quiet in the jeep on the journey and our minds drifted off to the realisation of the task in hand!!! We were greeted in Pallisa with our support team for the next week and some early morning stretches..

We left Pallisa on the dusty red roads at a good pace at 7.14am (a little late but we will get better!!). The radio stations have so far been amazing and all the local communities have been coming out to meet us and shouting "here come the runners for run for

humanity"... To which the happy runners replied "Jambo" and more smiles and waves were received.

On the journey we met many of the volunteers that were running community based first aid and raising awareness of the road safety (one of the biggest killers in Africa and major concern for Uganda). The journey wasn't as flat as we hoped but after 22km we did meet a tarmac road (which kindly reflected the heat for us!!!!).

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Day 2 - 22/06/2009

The second morning aches and pains will provide the team with a real understandin

g of the task ahead and the concern about “did I really train enough”!!. The run will continue along the main Mbale to Iganga tarmack road for 35 kms. This leg of the run provides us with a straight route through sparse training centres and villages. After visiting training sessions in Busembatia, Namalemba, Bukona, and Nakalam, we finally make the noisy trading road from Uganda to Kenya. This will now be the main road we travel on until we arrive on the outskirts of Kampala, but for day two we will be on it for only 6 kms.

This road is one of the most dangerous roads in Uganda and road safety is one of the biggest killers in Africa. This is why we are here… “to help people gain a greater unders

tanding of road safety, teach communities life saving skills, reduce poverty and increase resilience”. The road is bumpy and full of potholes, which highlights the amount of commercial traffic that uses Uganda as a main route through East Africa from Mombasa. The team will arrive in Iganga (Originally known as South Busoga until 1982 when it was renamed Iganga) and a warm welcome at the Iganga Red Cross office.

News update:

The team woke up at 5am to wash and prepare for the days adventures.After a break

fast that didn't appear apart from some buscuits and banana's we had left over from the day before!! We began the run at 6.40am and covered the first 10km in under an hour and even though it is cooler the heat is still intense!! The support from the local villages along the way was amazing and helped us feel very motivated. During the first 18km of the run, the road decided to not be as supportive and turn in to a few "knee challanging" hills.

The runners were joined by some enthusiastic locals and Red Cross volunteers during the run, which was fantastic and showed great teamwork. The running team did a very

good job and managed to cover the distance in a good time today!! The team will now have to re-evaluate the running program for the next few days as the run will be tougher (gentle inclines!!!) and we need to careful of the heat.

During the run the local Red Cross volunteers provided first aid training sessions and awareness on road safety at the various trading centres. After the run and a brief rest the team joined the Iganga branch of the Red Cross and their first aid/ road safety awareness with officials and community members.

After the offical duties for the day we visited the orphanage run by the sisiters in Iganga. It was lovely to catch up with some old friends and meet some new little friends!! The children loved the footballs we gave them and could wait to show us around their gardens... It was a great end to the day and now we need to get some rest as tomorrow will be a long tough run!!!!

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Day 3 - 24/06/2009

The third day will see us run from Iganga to Jinja and the source of the river

Nile. Even though the team will need no motivation but it’s worth highlighting that Jinja is also the home of the Nile breweries and an ice cold Nile special could be one of the rewards for the day!! As the team leave Iganga, we will be waved off by the Red Cross, community members and some very young supporters from the orphanage.

Day 3 will see us travel 42km to Jinja visitting Bukoyo, Mulingkire, Magamaga and Bugembe on the way. Along the road to Jinja we will be passing sugar cane and tea plantations through some gently sweeping undulating hills (which will feel like mountains in the heat). As we approach Jinja we will see the edges of Lake Victoria and the source of the River Nile at the beginning of its journey to Egypt. Jinja is the second largest city in Uganda, and will provide us with the opportunity to run plenty of activities and training sessions.

Live update:

Day 3 started at 5am after a very short and restless nights sleep. It has been a "posit

ive challange" to have dinner prepared earlier enough, to get a early/ quiet nights sleep and even harder to get breakfast before we start running in the morning!!! We left Iganga at 6am and found the early killometers very challanging with plenty of hills. Our convoy was joined by the Moonberg larger company and their PA team, who let everyone know we were on our way but also played some music to keep our spirts up.

We took advantage of the early cloud cover and set off at a good pace in an attempt to reach Jinja before the midday heat. On the way we visited the communities which the Red Cross were educating in first aid and road safety in Magamaga, Bugembe and Jinja.

As we ran through villages the local children came to cheer us on and also dance to the music from Moonberg. Uganda is such an amazing country and the people are so friendly and supportive!!

Martin said, "As i was running i was cheered, people shook my hand and told me the

y will now go and learn first aid so they can help others... even if i ran out of energy up those hills it will be the warmth of the people that will get me to Kampala".

On the run into Jinja we were joined by a convoy of Red Cross members on motorbikes and runners but also police vehicles who tried to clear a route through the traffic. As we entered Jinja the team ran through the streets and were greeted with waves and smiles as the Moonberg PA team informed the community about the run but also roadsafety/ first aid.

At the Jinja Red Cross branch the runners were joined by the RDC and Tom the chairman of the Uganda Red Cross to celebrate the 150 years of the Red Cross and also to promote first aid and road safety with the community!!! It was great to see the community and local business's support the Red Cross initiatives but also share in the presentation of first aid certificates.

Later in the afternoon a few runners went back out to run from the Red Cross office through jinja, accross the river Nile to the gates of the Nile Brewery to reduce the distance for day 4 and the real hills!!!!

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Day 4 - 24/06/2009

Even though day 4 will cover only 38km, it will be one of the most challanging days with us beginning 3,700 feet above sea level and more undulating roads!!!! We will leave Jinja across the River Nile at the Owen Falls dam and as we pass Njeru we wave goodbye

to the Nile brewery!!
After passing Bulumagi and Lugalambo we reach the welcome coolness of the Mabira forest reserve. As we exit the forest we’ll be met by the lively market sellers with stalls of amazing fruits and the smell of their roasting chicken on the charcoal.

After enjoying the roasted chicken we will continue though the tea plantations and hills through Najembe to Lugazi (the home of ugandan sugar) and a comfortable bed for the night!!

News update:

We started the day at the later time of 6.30am and returned to the Nile Brewery but alas no Nile special.. at least we have Moonberg with us!!! The run from the Nile started up hill and continued up hill for a few Km's.... "Now that was a good wake up call for Bumba"!!!

The communities all came out to see our progress today and they

were so happy, it helped us get up the hills!!! The pace today was again quite fast as most of the team were fresh and it was a little cooler through the forest legs!!

As we left the forest we came to the market sellers and their amazing chicken on the stick... The team joined the Uganda Red Cross team in providing first aid and road advice. At one point we parked the pick up and one of the team jumped up on the back off it to talk to the crowds. It was an amazing experience and the

feedback was so positive.

We were escorted into Lugazi by the traffic police and other members of the local Red Cross that kept us company on the final tough hills. At the end the run the Red Cross ran awareness sessions for the local people and encouraged them to support others in their community with first aid awareness and road safety. T

We have now completed 4 days and we are beginning to realise that we will make it to K

ampala on Saturday... One more long day tomorrow and the final sprint on Saturday will be with us!!

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Day 5 - 25/06/2009

After a restful night in Lugazi we will begin the day with some tea and Lugazi sugar to get us through a warm run to Seta.

From Lugazi we pass through Namagunga, Namataba, Mbalaala before arriving at Mukono (the gateway to Eastern Uganda). After a welcome break in Mukono we will continue to Seta and to reduce the amount of kilometers we need to run on the final day... As we leave Mukono we pass the famous drum makers and hope they are willing to play a few rythams to encourage us on our way.
Once we arrive at Seta, we will retrace our steps in the jeep to Mukono for accommodation and the local Red Cross fundraising activities..

News update:

The day started with a lie in untill 5.30am and then a quick drive to Lugazi to begin day

five of the run. Patrick (BFC for Mukono) had arranged lots of first aid and road safety training session on the entire route today. Even though we couldn't stop at all 16 venues, we did our best to greet the community and say thank you for all their interest and support.

In Africa Uganda is the second worst country for road deaths and it is humbling that we can support the local teams to try and save lives. The local volunteers had positioned themselves next to the trading centres and local hot spots for road accidents and began the awareness sessions. We have supported thes

e activities to take place and the volunteers are amazing!!!

One of the local runners asked the team why they enjoyed Uganda so much... The reply was simple "the people are so friendly, welcoming and want to help others so much"..

On todays run we had many new runners join the team on the route up to Seta. As we ran through the hills we greeted the local commuities, shook hands with the children and even ran to the local tea seller at the plantation to buy some tea leaves without even breaking a stride!!!

It is hard to understand what a difference we have made to the communities but we were told later that all the local villagers came to the trading centre to get advice and hear about the run!! One of the first aid trainers added that he had reached over 150 people today and it has had a massive impact on communities that really need the support.

The run was great fun today and most of the team didn't want to stop!!! At one point someone shouted "don't run all the way to Entebbe today... but maybe tomorrow"!!! The runners continued through Mukono and then ran up to the Coco cola factory before stopping for the day. As we drank our water sat on a rock, we looked at kampala ahead of ourself and in the distance the Mandela stadium and tomorrows run!!!

Later we attended an awareness session at Mukono branch that included road safet

y awareness by the police, presentation of first aid certificates and discussions with the community. At the event it was highlighted that we had reached over 8000 people in first aid & road safety. We were also told that one of our supporters Moonberg had been so impressed with our efforts that they had decided to donate the profits of their events for a month to the Red Cross for more trainings.

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Day 6 - 26/06/2009

We leave Seta on the final day of the run with the final celebrations just 30km

away.. As we approach the suburbs of Kampala we pass the impressive Mandela National Stadium, the home of the Ugandan Cranes (the national football team).... "If only we had time for a kick about"!!!

As we close in on Kampala, we will feel the warmth and humidity of the capital city. Kampala is built on 7 hills (and a few smaller ones....), so the route to the finish, may not be as easy as everyone had hoped for!! The people of Kampala and Uganda are known to be the friendliest people in Africa and their enthusiasm will spur us on to the finishing line.

The run is a team effort and by the end of the 6 days we hope to have supported the Red Cross to train over 6000 people in first aid advice and support the communities to be more resilient in times of crisis. As we finally arrive at the end of an amazing adventure, we would have made many new friends, had lots of smiles and helped raise awareness of the amazing work of the Uganda Red Cross.

News update:

Day six started a little later at 7am which allowed the runners to run through Kampala when the first aid sessions were being run and the community were ready to greet us. With Kampala in the distance the team chatted to each other and realised that we were so close to achieving something special. Some of the team had decided the night before that they were going to run the entire final day of 14-42km!!! (no one could decide the distance..). As we began the climb up the hills near the Mandela stadium we realised that running later was going to be hard due to the heat but it also felt very humid in Kampala!!!

The run was different to the other days as we couldn't get into a running stride due to the amount of stops we were having to support the first aid training team... or was it just that we had got better at running in the heat and had begun to run 15km in a row without a break!!!!

Kampala welcomed us with smiles and waves which we didn't expect (as it's a capital city) but the people were very friendly. The team of first aid trainers ran more events and educated market sellers, taxi's and buda buda riders as they tend to have more accidents. The children were again very excited to see us running and even more happy when we stoped at their market and began to chat to them..

Along the route we were again followed by the national press, radio and television. It is a pity that we are always on the move as it would have been very good to see our interviews on tv and radio!!! As we ran into the finish we were cheered on by the local community and the thought of "what shall we do tomorrow morning now" came in to our minds!!!!.

The final event was quite long and involved presentations, drama, speeches and many photo's but was fantastic. Everyone has been so amazing on the project and no one can believe what has been achieved.. not only on the run but what a difference we have made to communities!!!

"Even my friend Vanilla would be impressed with this one and the evaluation looks good... the logframe must have worked"!! said Martin.

There will be more to follow over the next few days so keep looking at the website.... and you never know we may even have the next crazy idea???