A GROUP of locals set to make a difference have started a charity run through various countries in a bid to raise awareness and money for those in need.
Tinashe Sibanda Entertainment Reporter
The route started on the coast of Namibia, near Swakopmund at the beginning of September, and takes in Zimbabwe where some of the charities they are supporting are based, and depending on the political situation ends at Pemba, on the coast of Mozambique.
Some 4 000km depending on road quality, potential short cuts and dead ends and at approximately 40km a day, they think it will take four months.
They then came up with a plan that Emma Timmis would run across Africa through Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and also briefly visiting Zambia, Botswana and Malawi.
Timmis will be supported by Michael Whitehurst (on a bicycle), Robert Kazunga (guide), Lukasz Uzar (mechanic) and Aysha Madha (everything else) in a four-wheel support vehicle.
In early 2013, Timmis told Madha that she had run across South Africa in 2011 doing, on average, a marathon a day for two months. Madha, whose mother was brought up in Zimbabwe, wondered if she wanted a new challenge.
“We are expecting them in town tomorrow and Timmis on Sunday and through this they hope to get donations for their cause from various people who get to know of what they are doing,” said the team’s Harare contact, Joy Peacocke, in an interview with NewsDay.
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Peacocke said their main aim was to raise about $100 000 for the charity cause.
They will be raising money for, among others The SEED Project, a charity, which believes in helping people to help themselves, Tusk Trust, who will donate funds so each country they travel through, TPD and Madhais setting up a charity in the UK to give people all the skills and support they need when they want to do something amazing to benefit others.
The runners will also be travelling briefly through Botswana, Zambia and Malawi.
“Anyone can do anything they put their mind to,” as Timmis puts it, but Aysha thinks sometimes we need people to believe in us and someone to bounce ideas off.”
They will also be looking for a small local charity in Niassa to support. One that enables people to have happier, healthier lives in a way that is environmentally sustainable.
They can be contacted via email and Facebook, but they don’t get much opportunity to connect to the Internet as their route is taking them north of their main centres from Mlibezi to Nyamapanda.
However, the whole team will be in Harare tomorrow and on Monday to avail themselves to interested people.
