By Bampia James Bundu
The Chief Commercial Director of the mobile phone company Africell says his company has donated US$25,000 worth of communication materials towards the 2014 Street Child Sierra Leone Marathon to be held in Makeni.
Joe Abass Bangura was speaking at the official launch of the Marathon at Africell Headquarters at Wilberforce in Freetown. He said they owed it as a responsibility to the country to help street children by providing support to ‘Street Child Sierra Leone’, who are the organisers of the marathon.
“We will pay for stickers, banners, radio and TV talk shows, bill boards, public address system and stage among others, in order to publicise the events ”, he said, and
described the event as an initiative to raise funds to rescue some of the most vulnerable children in the country from the streets and “place them back into homes and schools.”
Sierra Leone’s Marathon 2014 Event Director, Greg Harris, explained that the primary purpose of the run was to raise funds to invest back into the communities, and also to give participants the opportunity to visit the Street Child development projects that they had been raising funds for, and also to directly interact with the children.
He revealed that last year's marathon brought in about 200 international runners who competed with about 600 Sierra Leonean ones. “Over the past two years we have been able to raise about £ 500,000 to offer street children throughout the country the chance to benefit from street child’s work”, he said.
Greg went on to explain that this year’s event would take place in Makeni on May 25, adding that the competition would be done in half-marathon-10km or 5km race, and give competitors an opportunity to experience and support the work of Street Child.
He said they were expecting about 700 to 1,000 participants across the country including about 200 international runners, adding that the event was open to runners of all abilities.
“Runners will compete for Le 9 million and the opportunity for winners to be spotted is imminent”, he said.
Country Director, Street Child Sierra Leone, Keifala Kargbo, commended all those who had supported them. He said they were going to ensure the marathon became a success and called on all participants to register come May 24 so they could secure their numbers.
(C) Politico 20/05/14
