{"id":765,"date":"2015-07-23T17:27:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-23T17:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maishaproject.org\/christmas\/?p=765"},"modified":"2018-03-06T17:27:46","modified_gmt":"2018-03-06T17:27:46","slug":"run-for-life-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maishaproject.org\/christmas\/run-for-life-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Run for Life 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At 11 a.m. on Saturday, July 18, over 40 men, women and children decked in bright yellow t-shirts stood ready at starting line. The Kenyan flag dropped, signaling the beginning of Run for Life 2015, and they took off running down the dirt road.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The second annual Run for Life was organized entirely on ground by Maisha\u2019s Kenyan staff. Although it was originally intended to include a half marathon and full marathon, participants were able to run in either a 1k or 5k.<\/p>\n

The majority of participants were from the ages of sixth grade to twelfth grade. Prizes were given for first, second and third place in various age groups, as well as a special category for people who traveled from town to participate.<\/p>\n

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Meshack Amollo, head of Maisha\u2019s orphans and vulnerable children department, said the race was a success in spite of not having a marathon. The community was able to see Maisha\u2019s commitment to making a difference in the lives of children, widows and orphans.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, it was successfully done, since it was the first step that we are trying to mobilize the community and the local people to initiate such projects\u2026 so according to us, it was successful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Run for Life 2015 was held in hopes of raising money for the new boys and girls dormitories on the Maisha property. Maisha was able to raise 22,500 shillings (approximately $225) by selling event t -shirts.<\/p>\n

Community donations and even contributions by Maisha children helped make the event happen. \u00a0Amollo hopes to see more next year so the half and full marathons can take place.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of the participants, we realized that kids from Maisha also took ownership of the event in contributing something small, like 100 shillings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a kid was able to offer 100 shillings, we took our own money to give them so they can buy a t-shirt, because if they give 100, what they want is a t-shirt\u2026 we were trying to not disappoint them, not discourage them for the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Getting the community involved is very challenging, Amollo said. However, he knows more people need to get involved so Maisha can continue making a difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunity participation is very essential. If there is no community participation, the project can\u2019t be sustainable. That\u2019s why we are so much involving them, currently involving them, so we can sustain our activities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Amollo said the race shows progress in the community and with each marathon, Maisha will only get stronger.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure by time, everything will get better. But now, I am very happy to raise that kind of money, even 50 shillings\u2026 it is a step.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach and every thing goes step by step and I\u2019m sure the next marathon we will have another step.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At 11 a.m. on Saturday, July 18, over 40 men, women and children decked in bright yellow t-shirts stood ready at starting line. The Kenyan flag dropped, signaling the beginning of Run for Life 2015, and they took off running down the dirt road.   The second annual Run for Life was organized entirely on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maishaproject.org\/christmas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maishaproject.org\/christmas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maishaproject.org\/christmas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maishaproject.org\/christmas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maishaproject.org\/christmas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maishaproject.org\/christmas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maishaproject.org\/christmas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maishaproject.org\/christmas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maishaproject.org\/christmas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}