Below is the letter regarding sponsorship of this marathon:
Dear Family and Friends,
I know that many of you followed my blog during my most recent trip to Africa, and I also know that many of you shed tears with me when I was confronted head-on with the problem of unsupported, helpless orphans all over East Africa. In case you missed it, here’s an excerpt from that blog entry that I wrote the day I left an orphanage in Kampala, Uganda:
Later that day I was holding a baby that I realized was in desperate need of a change. This seems the most basic daily need for a baby. I carried him back to the changing room, only to realize there were no diapers around. No pampers, and no cloth nappies or towels. I went into the nearest administrator’s office and asked where the supply was. She gave me an annoyed glance, then stared back down at her desk and replied, “I gave you the last one an hour ago.” I wasn’t sure what she wanted me to do then, so I kept pushing, “so should I just wait? Or should I go somewhere to get more?” “There are no more,” was all she kept replying, then finally gave me a look that read, you can leave my office now. I went back to the changing room and stood over this baby in a dirtied diaper, face covered in dried food, eyes seeping tears, and felt completely helpless. Completely and utterly helpless, that’s what this feeling for the last 24 hours has been, I thought. I did not know what to do. I did not know what to do about this baby with no clean diapers. What to do about this place that needed so much. What to do with the realization that this was one of thousands of such places, and that thousands more babies existed on the streets in far worse conditions. What to do?
I honestly have no idea. I left that day with a heavy heart, feeling completely drained, dismayed, and yet grateful that I’d forced myself to confront this side of my beloved East Africa. I’ve decided sometimes that’s all we can do. We can confront an issue. Confront it, acknowledge the complicated manner, and hope that when the chance arises you will have fostered the compassion needed to do something. It may sound like a cop-out or a way for me to cope with the troubling issues that I encountered, but the human mind is usually compelled to resolve such conflicts somehow. This is my temporary resolution. Head-on confrontation. I know some of those haunting moments will never leave me, and I am thankful for that. Haunting moments are what motivate action.
Well, the time is here. 2012 will be the year that I act on the powerful emotions that the Sanyu Babies Home left me with. A year ago many of you inspired me and pushed me through one of the greatest physical and mental challenges I’ve ever undertaken. In support of my first marathon, you pulled your funds to raise over $900 for Global Grassroots, and organization that supports female victims of violence in countries scarred by genocide. I was thrilled by the positive response from everyone, and the idea that something as seemingly selfish as my love for running could bring more awareness to such important issues. This year, I’m humbly asking for your support again. The charity that I am trying to bring awareness to this time around is much smaller, and much more personal to me. That is because a friend that I met in Kenya in 2008 founded it.
Sabina moved to Shinyalu and began volunteering at a local conservation education program just a few months after I’d started working with the monkeys in the forest there. She is a very kind, generous person that just could not leave Shinyalu at the end of her term without doing more. She has since formed Little Prinz Children’s Aid Project and is now diligently working on the construction of an orphanage in Shinyalu. Through her work with parasite prevention and treatment in local children, she and her coworkers felt compelled to take in two severely malnourished children (Eunice and Lawrence) and provide them a chance at life in their own homes. The children flourished, and Little Prinz became more than just an Aid Project when Sabina and the others started searching for affordable property for an orphanage. Their newly purchased property has dormitories, a large kitchen, and great indoor and outdoor spaces, things that orphans in the area would not even dream of having in their daily lives.
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| Eunice in July, 2009* |
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| Eunice in March, 2011* |
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| Lawrence October, 2011* |
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| Lawrence June, 2010* |
My former fellow researcher and roommate in Kenya, Corey, recently visited Sabina and the new orphanage. Corey was able to raise enough donations of supplies and money to give Sabina a solid start, but much more help is still needed. About the same time that I heard from her about this, I was preparing to train for my second marathon, and I needed a good enough reason to push myself even harder this time.
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| A view of the new orphanage from the garden.* |
On April 29, 2012 I will be running the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon, and this time I’ll be meeting my older brother at the finish line after the grueling 26.2-mile journey. I am not only hoping for an injury-free training season (unlike last year) and a much faster time, but more importantly a chance to bring more attention to the amazing effort that Sabina and others are putting in at building futures for hopeless orphans in Kenya. If you are interested in sponsoring my marathon, please read for more instructions on the next page. All of the money that you donate will go directly to the Little Prinz Orphanage in Shinyalu. Each comment and dollar that you offered to me last year never left me from the start of training, to the painful series of physical therapy sessions, to the finish line on race day, and I can assure you that it will be the same again this year. For more background on the Little Prinz Children’s Aid Project, the orphanage, or the progress of the two orphans mentioned here, please visit their website http://www.littleprinz.org.
This time around I will also be keeping a training blog. You can follow my progress or thoughts on the Little Prinz Children’s Aid Project here http://runalicia.blogspot.com (comments are welcome!). Also, here is the link to the rest of the blog entry that I wrote about the orphans in Kampala http://africa-alicia.blogspot.com/2011/08/sanyu-babies-home.html. Of course, for more information you can always email me as well at aliciamrich@gmail.com.
Sincerely,
Alicia Rich *photos taken from Little Prinz Children's Aid Project
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