The SEED Project

To school and back: a marathon!

AyshaLeave a comment

3am. The young man gets up in the dark and drinks water. Without a torch or shoes he sets out into the Equatorial darkness. His way is lit by stars and the moon as he carefully navigates the dusty path, wary of snakes and scorpions. He is conscious that not long ago there were lions and elephants living in this area and there are still wild dogs hunting in packs. As dawn rises, 2 hours later, he is almost half way to his destination. School. He can speed up in the light. 20 kilometres he travels each morning, without breakfast, studies all day and then makes the return journey home, arriving late afternoon, when he can finally eat.

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This day, however, is unusual, he meets white people from countries he has never had the chance to be to, running on the road. Choosing to run more than the distance he runs to school everyday (well, only one of them). Traversing his country and continent. A luxury experience and education he cannot imagine.

It was my privilege to meet this young man and slowly realise what an incredible person he is. I had joined Emma running. I do this occasionally to keep her company and add variety. For me, it’s refreshing to be moving, to be in the environment. There is the gorgeous view of the Zambezi, cutting through the valley far below us, dust beneath our feet and Cleo is the only car. As sometimes happens, school children excitedly run alongside us. We are a novelty. They run close to Emma, but too close, almost tripping her and shouting and laughing. I drop back and try chatting. It works and they slow to my pace. They are wonderfully exuberant and great company. All on their way home from school. Robert hops out the car to run and translate their stories for me. As the children drop off to go to their homes, we are left with this last young man. He is the tired looking man in the middle of the photo.

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The conversation takes place between the padding of our feet and haltingly.

“Is it safe to travel in the dark?” I had naively asked.
“No,” He answered, “There are many animals that will bite you.”

Eventually, discovering he has little opportunity to drink water, we offer him some.

“Would you like the container? ”
“Yes” is the quick and happy reply.

Now, he has a bottle to carry water on his journey.

He exchanges contact details with Robert and we hope that SEED will be able to do something more constructive and empowering in the future. I think he would make a good employee.

Or maybe I missed a trick and he would make a great athlete. If you have the resources behind you and wanted to help this young man I am sure we could find him again.

*****

Meanwhile, Emma has continued battling with her pain to run a phenomenal distance.

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*****

Number of Days: 41

Total distance run by Emma: 1734 km, 1078 miles

Daily average distance run by Emma (including rest days): 42.3 km, 26.3 miles

Distance run today: 51.73 km, 32.14 miles

*****

If you have enjoyed reading this, please consider making a donation to The SEED Project, a highly cost-effective charity, praised for its innovative and long term sustainable work. Or you can make a donation to our fundraising page:

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/EmmaTimmis

Donations can be accepted up until 15th August 2016.

 

 

 

First Radio Interview Experience

Aysha1 Comment

Its 7.30am: not a normal time for me to be out on a Sunday morning. London is surprisingly busy. I can’t get a seat on the Victoria line train. There are suits and ties, tourists, shorts and hoodies, little dresses. No-one speaks. Birds chatter in the early morning, humans don’t. I pass a homeless man, blended into the building scenery, having a morning cigarette.

There is a receptionist at the studios, he lets me in the glass security gates and directs me to an empty room.

The hot seat
Anybody there?

I call a number to chat to a nice man who checks the sound is working and then he tells me to wait for BBC Radio Cambridgeshire to call. And silence. I’m surprisingly relaxed or maybe still asleep.

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Not my best look. Headphones carefully balanced as they were huge.
15 seconds to go to 8.15am ...
15 seconds to go to 8.15am …

At 8.15am … no-one calls.

I’m slightly concerned there is a problem but am distracted by the temptation to press buttons.

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If I press something will it make a difference and can I fix it before I’m on air?

Then a lady comes on the line, I’m not sure if I’m live on the radio and stutter. But, after initial greetings, she says that I’ll be speaking to the presenter in a minute and hangs up, leaving me connected to the radio. My adrenaline soars as I listen to the music.

When the presenter, Suzie Roberts says “Good morning”, I almost fail to speak. Luckily, Marie goes first and I’m interested in what she has to say. Listening to her, I relax. Then Suzie asks me question. I respond and all other sound cuts out. I can only hear my voice whilst sitting in an empty room. Surreal. It stops you babbling though, as you have to listen to what you are saying. The questions are good and easy to answer.  Then its goodbye and silence again. I’m a bit confused. Is it over? Seems to be and off I go without ever having mentioned that the run is called Head over Heels 2014 and how you can follow us. Doh!

You can hear the interview here, Marie’s first and my bit starts at 2.50 (a huge thank you to BBC Radio Cambridgeshire for having us on the radio and being friendly): 

 Lessons Learned:

  1. Don’t repeat the question because if they cut it you can sound stupid (I didn’t learn this from the radio, I learnt it from my friend in PR who I met up with the night before)
  2. Also, I’d say don’t repeat the question because the presenter doesn’t have much time between songs so if you’re not concise you won’t get much info across.
  3. Interviews are short, its not a chat show, make sure you get the key points in quick and notice when they give you an opportunity to do this.
  4. Its surprisingly fun

All PR advice gratefully received

Have you had a radio interview? Any tips? Any funny mistakes?

What made you choose Robert?

Aysha2 Comments

I would like to introduce you to Jackson because I’m sure if you met him, you’d get on well. He’s one of those people. Also, he and his wife, Marie, founded The SEED Project. One of the charities we are raising funds for. Today, I recorded him talking about SEED’s Project Manager, Robert Kazunga. This means, within 1 minute,  you get to meet Jackson (as much as is possible), and hear about Robert and SEED.

Robert is outstanding in his role and passionate about his country and his job. When Jackson first met Robert, he was a gardener in Harare, Zimbabwe, now, he is SEED’s Project Manager. Robert’s solution to the cholera outbreak was recognised by a UN organisation as an example of best practice: educating over 70,000 people with only 2 staff.  In this clip, I asked Jackson, “what made you choose Robert?” Robert’s story is SEED’s story.