If you want to take a step further in your participation in this project, we invite you to contribute to raising funds to leave your mark of solidarity.
Bringing humanitarian material to the camps is complicated, sometimes it is more practical and faster to provide financial resources.
We want to give participants the opportunity to collect money for some projects, personally or by asking family and friends, to take it with them during the trip and to participate in the official delivery of the sums collected to the recipients.
In the 25 years of history of the Sahara Marathon there are several stories that we can tell in addition to the history of the Saharawi people in general. The choice is very difficult to have to choose a personal story for this solidarity initiative.
We can talk about athletes who, throughout these 25 years of this sports race of a solidarity nature, came to the camps for the first time in order to participate in the sports race and everything that arose from there, such as the example of a 42-year-old Italian, called Sergio Fiorenzano. In 2012 he travelled from Milan to the refugee camps to run the Sahara Marathon. Two years later he set up the first boxing school for children in these refugee camps, and years later he set up a boxing school in each camp. http://www.resistiryvencer.org/
In this new edition of the Sahara Marathon we propose two collaboration options:
1) Association of people with special needs
Ragheb Ahmedbaba is a former teacher and sports announcer on Saharawi Radio, with a weekly program on sport and its importance as a tool within society. He is the founder of the Association of people with special needs, taking into account that he, like many young people, was a victim of a vaccine in his childhood, which was the cause of his foot malformation. However, the difficulties of the desert have not prevented them from fulfilling their dream of creating this association that uses sport as a therapeutic tool for the social integration of young people of both sexes.
Climatic conditions such as high temperatures and sandstorms are often an impediment for this group to break the daily routine and carry out their activities in good conditions.
Ragheb’s enthusiasm and personal interest in keeping this group together with values of companionship, equality, perseverance and the value of mutual respect.
https://www.facebook.com/ragebahmed.hayay/videos/522461264002051
A young man from the Aaiun camp, lacking the skills necessary for daily life and with a clubfoot from birth. In these years of racing he has become a reference for the participation of the local population in this event, his physical condition has never prevented him from participating in this 42km race, although he has never reached the finish line. From the organization of this charity event, we believe that the hardships of this race have exceeded the physical conditions of this young athlete, and his will to reach the goal.
Therefore, his personal story of overcoming and challenging in order to feel free on the day of the race surrounded by athletes from different parts of the world, despite sometimes exhaustion, pain and the helplessness of not achieving this dream. All this must have a reward in order to get ahead like other young people and exercise new projects to help his family.
The objective is to help this group of more than 30 people to build a small place for personal hygiene, raising €2000.
2) Help for families who are victims of the recent floods in the Dakhla Camp, more than 350 families, and families of war orphans, more than 180 families
The long wait for a political solution to this conflict that could allow the refugee population to return to their homeland and the harsh weather conditions have forced the refugee population in this inhospitable desert to improve their living conditions and build small buildings to survive. However, during the last months of this year, the rains recorded in this area of the desert affected one of the refugee camps, more than 350 families were evacuated due to the heavy rains, their houses, mostly made of adobe, collapsed due to the volume of water, leaving all these families homeless and without anything. Keep in mind that the situation of the refugees
The Sahrawi families in the camps depend mainly on international humanitarian aid.
Your help can be a support for them to feel stronger in the face of this tragedy!
The families of war orphans
For the last three years a war has been fought between the Polisario front and Morocco in the territory of Western Sahara, which, although it is being silenced by the media at an international level, already has approximately 180 human losses among the Sahrawis. Some of these were nomadic families who lived in the Sahara desert far from the camps.
In every war, in addition to the fatal victims, there are other types of victims such as families who are left helpless and orphans.
For this project we propose a donation of 50 euros, the proceeds of which will go to all or part of the affected families. The number of families that will benefit will depend on the amount raised.
