Hello, and thank you for dropping in. 

I am setting out to run the New York city marathon in 2 hours and 40 minutes. It used to seem like a fast time until I visited Kenya, and trained with my good friend John Kelai and his team. John does a marathon in 2 hours and 9 minutes, and so it was good training for me!

As you know, I live and work in Bangalore, India. Training in Bangalore for the marathon has been challenging. If you click on the attached video you will get a sense. And without a team, and without a training plan, I knew I needed help. And where better to turn for help than to the masters in Kenya.

I ran on the red dirt trails, through the green fields of Iten, Kenya - a mecca for runners. While there I met some exceptional people, and made some lifelong friends. The experience will always be with me - especially my visit to an orphanage that gave John a lending hand when he was starting out to become a runner - the Lewa Children's Home.

Lewa Children's Home is located near Eldoret, Kenya, just down the road from Iten. It takes care of more than 100 orphaned or abandoned children, and has established a parallel school. When you visit the home and meet the children you cannot help but be moved. The children steal your heart, and in my case, I knew after visiting the home that I needed to run for them. 

Lewa is self-sufficient in food, and makes enough milk to sell the surplus to local stores (they even have their own brand of cheese!). These sales help to cover the additional costs of running the home. But Lewa does not have secure water supplies. The home remains vulnerable to a bad drought, which would wipe out their crops, and mean they would have to sell their dairy herd (their only source of income). It would likely mean the end of the home. 

Lewa needs 30,000 pounds (GBP) to build a reservoir to secure their water supplies. Like 2 hours and 40 minutes, a tough target! But thankfully, for every pound you provide, Bread and Water for Africa (UK) will match it. 

Bread and Water for Africa was founded to support and strengthen grassroots organisations, like the Lewa home, across Africa. Over the years they have worked with 11 community programs in Kenya, Ethiopia, Burundi, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Mozambique. Together with their partners, Bread and Water for Africa UK is working to build real, lasting solution to local problems and give local communities the tools and resources they need to help themselves. For more information please visit their website at www.africanrelief.org

Running 2 hours and 40 minutes will not be easy for me. Yes, I've now trained with the best, but since coming back to India nearly 3 months ago, I've not been able to train as I should. Stomach issues and a heavy work load have got the better of me. I have some serious catching up to do to meet my target. A huge motivation for me on race day will be knowing that I'm running for Lewa.

Thank you for your donation and your support of Lewa. I will ensure you receive an update after the marathon on how things went, and on how much money we raised. 

My warmest regards,

Damian