On Sunday the 17th of September Mike Burn, Josie Burn and Greg Sangwine will be running The Bristol Half Marathon to raise money for the future developments of One Way School, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Why support One Way School? In August 2012 Sophie and Greg left the security of English employment to move to Harare as volunteers to open a school. In January of 2013 they did it solely on international donations and were educating 19 children. Currently, (August 2017) the school educates 153 children aged between 3 and 9 and employs 16 local people full time.
The goal for Sophie and Greg remains to; ‘establish a sustainable British standard primary school in Zimbabwe run by Zimbabweans‘ and for this to happen the school must remain affordable for the people of Zimbabwe. However, growth costs money which can only come through fundraising. $1746US has already been raised this year by the children and their parents through the activities of the Parent, Teacher Association but they need our help to develop the last 3 remaining classrooms.
“One Way School is a special place where my little girl is loved. I am so thankful that this school is in my local area and that I can afford it. Education in Harare can be brilliant but it is never free and often too expensive for many of us – she just wouldn’t have such a great education without the existence of One Way School.” A Dad of a grade 2 pupil.
If you want more information on One Way School then head over to www.onewayschool.co.zw
How would my donation be spent?
100% of your donation would be used to build new classrooms for children to learn in for many years to come.
Why a half marathon? Have you ever made a new years resolution you regret? Josie said that her’s was to run the Bristol half marathon and Mike held her to that.
Mike’s done a few runs before and is training to run the New York Marathon in November so this just seemed like good training as well as good Dad support I suppose! Win, win!
As for Greg; well I guess for him having a new baby girl, a 2 year old boy and having moved back into his parents house aged 31 he was just looking for cheap reasons to leave the house. So, running was as good as any?! ;) Except, Greg isn’t really a runner – in fact I’ve actually only seen him running when he chased an ice -cream van once and he looked rather uncomfortable at that time.
So good luck Greg -13+ miles- you’re gunna need it! Good luck Josie – keep shtum next new years! And, good luck Mike for having to keep those two in order!
But, a huge thank you for doing it. Smile because those lovely children will be willing you on the whole way!
Donate here now to help educate more Zimbabweans to the high standards we except for our children.