The Sahara Marathon is an international sport event to demonstrate solidarity with the Saharawi people and this year celebrates its tenth edition.
It's promoted by the Secretary of State for Sport, Government of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and organized by volunteers from all over the world.
The coordination of the overall development of the event is run by two organizations of solidarity, the Association of El Ouali Bologna (Italy) and the Sahara Project Association of Madrid (Spain).
For the promotion and coordination of participants from other countries, the organization also partners with Marie Frison from France, Wolfgang Hoffman from Germany, Oddvar Rosten from Norway and Danielle Lewis from England
The Sahara Marathon, which along with the standard-distance marathon also includes the shorter distances of 21km, 10km, 5km and the children's race, is aimed at promoting sport activity among Saharawi young men and women and financing and developing humanitarian programs.
But also wants, through sport, raise awareness and sensitize the world about a 34-year-long conflict.
34 years of suffering for a population affected by a conflict that is burying their hopes, generation after generation, in the refugee camps of Tindouf (Algeria), far from their home.
34 years during which the international community has not been able to unlock the situation.
A race to prevent the Saharawi people from being forgotten.
We, the organizers, and you, the runners, started this adventure with our Saharawi friends 10 years ago, and we've seen it grow.
There were years of races with sand storms and years with unbearable hot weather, we had hard trips in jeeps or trucks to reach all the camps. We lived with many families, made strong friendships. All this gave us great satisfactions despite the efforts and difficulties.
The 10th anniversary of this project is the best opportunity to bring together the old participants to this adventure.
We invite all those who took part to one or more SaharaMarathon's editions in the past to come back e bring their friends and family. At the same time, we invite those who have never come to join us for the first time.
We'll travel to
Dhakla, the farest and less visited refugee camp, surrounded by the desert, and it is where we are planning to organize the children's race and other sporting events for this year's edition.
We'll try to organize the best SaharaMarathon ever, we'll try to make noise, because the world, at least the world of sport, knows that the Saharawi people has not been forgotten.
Close to Tindouf, within the Algerian territory, at a very short distance from Western Sahara and Mauritania, there is a border zone which has been home to 200,000 sharawi refugees for more than 35 years.
Each refugee camp is a “wilaya”, that is a little town, which bears the name of the corresponding abandoned Western Sahara city.
In Dakhla the sand creates majestic dunes, but most part of the surrounding area is “hammada”, that is a place whose climate is always extremely cold or extremely hot.
If you take a walk around the refugee camp, you will never feel alone, meeting people, children wanting to know your nationality or asking for candies, people stopping to talk to you and others who will just say hello without even stopping; most people will offer you some tea, the mark of hospitality for saharawi people.
It would be polite to take at least three cups. The first one tastes bitter as life, the second is sweet as love while the third is soft as death.
You came from a distant place for a very important reason, to promote more awareness of the health and food needs of Western Sahara children.
This event is much more than a simple race.
The route symbolically connects the three refugee camps of Smara, Auserd and ElAyoun, and leads runners through a desert which has been the home of refugees for 35 years.
Thanks to your effort and your concern for this issue, you have reawakened their hope, giving them the feeling of not being alone. But what is more important is that, as you decided to go there, they can now count on new friends all their lives.
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SaharaMarathon 2009
there is no path, paths are made by walking (Antonio Machado)
Saharamarathon 2009 medals, that will be produced at the Saharawi camps, and last year medals
The school of women of Dhakla has produced a turbant with an
embroid of
the SaharaMarathon logo that will be given to each participant
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SaharaMarathon 2008
The SaharaMarathon 2008 ended succesfully with a series of records in the history of SaharaMarathon:
- highest number of foreign participants: over 350
- highest number of total participants, including foreigners and saharawis: 550
- highest number of participant countries: 21
- record of the marathon: 2h 43m
Thanks to this great participation, we managed to raise from enrollment fees a total amount of 54,016 €, of which:
- 18,000 € have been handed over by SaharaMarathon to Polisario for accomodation and transport costs
- 7,600 € have been handed over by SaharaMarathon to the host families
- 6,466 € have been used at the camps to handle material costs of the SaharaMarathon and reward saharawi people working with us during the event (cookers, drivers, doctors, assistants at the water points, etc.)
- 18,200 € have been handed over to the Ministry of Sport to build the school of sport
- 1,750 € have been handed over to the director of the School of Women in Dhakla
- 2,000 € have been handed over to the laboratory for the production of medals (550 medals)
The total amount of 54,016 € includes donations made through PayPal on our Web site.
The Spanish Red de Cooperacion y Deporte added to the 18,200 € amount for the school of sport another 12, 000 € to build the sporting facilities for the school.
Medal produced at the Saharawi refugee camps
for those who run, with hope in their heart and wings on their feet
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SaharaMarathon 2007
Medal produced at the Saharawi refugee camps
and when they ask us what we
are doing, you can say:
we are remembering.
that's where we'll win out in the long run.
The school of women of Dhakla has produced a turbant with an
embroid of
the SaharaMarathon logo that will be given to each participant
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SaharaMarathon 2006
The SaharaMarathon 2006 terminated with success the 28th of February, after that 200 participants ran the four different races in a beautiful sunny day, without incidents or medical problems.
We wrote:
In the place you are going to, the plans change frequently and quickly.
The ones who have already been there just know it and learnt to overcome and appreciate these difficulties, which are part of the solidarity travel.
At the very last moment, a few weeks before the race, the Saharawi committee for the race decided, for security and logistic reasons, that the marathon should not ne held in Tifariti but on the classic route, between the camps of ElAyoun, Aoserd and Smara.
We hope, someday, when all the Saharawis of the camps will move to Tifariti to vote in their referendum, we will follow them and will run the marathon there, together.
On the 26th of February there was the registration to the races and the press conference, which saw the participation of Abel Anton, two times marathon world champion, who spoke about awareness of the Saharawi situation and of the sport and humanitarian message of the SaharaMarathon, in which he would run the 21km.
On the 27th of February, in the Smara camp, there was the fourth edition of the Children Race, this year sponsored by AIMS (Association of International Marathons and Road Races), which provided us with tshirts and medals for all the 1000 kids who took part in to the race.
Divided by age and school groups, the kids ran the 800 meters from the Smara gardens to the finish line of the marathon, where they received small prizes like drawing and school material, small toys and candies.
At the end they received water and oranges, and attended a show with clowns and music.
In the evening all the participants had dinner together, and received the last information about the race.
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On the 28th of February at 9.30, after a wake up call at 5am to be transported to ElAyoun, the marathon started, with the written wishes of Mohammed Dadach, ex Saharawi political prisoner, now human right activist, sent from the occupied territories.
The other races started at 10.30 and 11.00.
Weather has been wonderful and made us forget the fears of the last edition, when a sand storm made it extremely difficult for the participants to finish the race.
The saharawi volunteers helped distributing water and helping participants, following them with the jeeps and looking after them.
All the races ended without accidents or medical problems.
Marathon was won by Ramon Alvarez Sainz (Spain) among men and by Emanuela Berardi (Italy) among women.
Clicking on the following link or the Races menu you can see the results.
The same night there was the award ceremony, where the first three men and women of each race received a special medal, same for everybody.
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Through the marathon we collected 12000€ that we gave to the minister of sport for the realization of the Aoserd sport center.
Moreover, through donations, we collected a lot of sport material, that in part we transported to the camps with the charter flights, and in part will arrive at the camps with the next trucks expedions with the humanitarian aids.
Other 1000€ of medicines, bought by the SaharaMarathon, have been given to the hospital of the refugee camp of Dhakla.
A few days before our arrival the Saharawi camps have been stroken by heavy rains, unusual for that area, that caused a real flood. It was 12 years since an event like this.
Water destroyed the houses made with bricks of mud, took tents away, and ruined many of the public buildings, like hospitals and schools, leaving almost 50000 saharawis homeless.
There have not been deaths, and very few injuried, but many damages at the few things the saharawi owns.
Although all these difficulties, the moral is high, and the Saharawi hosted us as usual, offering us their tents, their company, and their tea.
We thank all the Saharawis for their hospitality, the participants, the Saharawi committee for the organization of the marathon, all the volunteers, organizers, saharawi and not, who participated into the realization of this edition of the SaharaMarathon.
See you soon, see you next year!
