Visiting Farmers in Kenya

Part of my job as Programmes Officer for World Vision Ireland is visiting the development projects to see how things are progressing.

The other day I made a long bumpy journey in the back of a pick up truck to a place called Mutonguni in Eastern Kenya – an area which has not received a drop of rain for almost a year.

Supporting Farmers

I met Lucy Ndemange and her husband Sammy. Lucy is a member of the Kauwi Farmer’s Group, one of twenty groups that received training in new farming methods from World Vision and the European Commission.

With Sammy’s help, she tested these methods on their land."We planted kale and tomatoes and we harvest once a week, which earns us 3,000 bob (€28) per week. We are using the money to pay for our daughter’s secondary school fees and we have plans to expand this technology across our farm. Our neighbours have even started copying these methods" explained Sammy.

Water

Lucy and her neighbours have access to a well, which they can water the crops from, but it’s not easy work: She let me have a go at pulling the 20 litre bucket up the 18m well shaft and laughed when I broke into a sweat before it was half way up. Not easy, I can tell you.

By Eileen in Nairobi

Don’t stop me now

The vibe around the Mini-Marathon this year was so positive and it’s amazing how you can still feel it in the air.

There are still a large number of women that can be sighted walking to work or with friends and jogging in evening times.

Besides all the health benefits, the imminent summer clothes season and the opportunity to catch up with friends and runners, keeping your training up now is so much easier that stopping and starting from scratch again.

If you need a goal or a little motivation to keep training why not try on one of these for size:

• Set yourself a running time or mile goal and work towards it.
• Set yourself a weight loss goal.
• If you walked the mini-marathon this year, start training now to be ready to run it next year.
• Get a group of friends together to train and motivate one another.
• Check out your local athletic club’s or the Athletics Ireland website for upcoming races.

Have you kept the momentum going? Let us know if you plan to continue running and what keeps you motivated!

I planned to train but…

…life got in the way.

For many of us it’s hard to juggle work and personal life as it is without trying to squeeze in another thing like training for the Mini Marathon.

The Mini Marathon is now only 2 weeks away so here a little bit of advice if you haven’t trained yet:

If you haven’t trained and were hoping to run/jog the entire stretch – think about revising your goal (maybe walk sections), start training now and don’t push yourself too hard, you don’t want to sustain any injuries before or even on the big day!

If you were planning to walk, try and add a little walking routine into your daily life starting today. Why not get off the bus a couple of stops early or walk to the shops instead of driving.

Either way, don’t try to force months of training into the last 2 weeks because it may do your body more harm than good and leave you exhausted!

Remember, participation is everything! So whether you walk, run just few miles or sprint the whole thing, know that you are showing your support for women in Sierra Leone and everywhere around the World!

Only 4 days left to enter

So I made a good start earlier this week and managed to walk all the way home (about 6km), I felt good and was ready to do it all again…and then the rain came! Here’s to wrapping up properly in decent rain gear over the weekend and getting out there – if you see a distressed lady, gasping for air around the greater Clontarf area over the weekend…show a little sympathy :-) Actually, join me! No more excuses, lets get training!

If you haven’t registered yet, we can’t urge you enough to get online as soon as possible! Registrations are closing on Tuesday and we are pretty sure that like last year, the numbers will fill up even a little earlier then that! Here’s the link:

https://www.womensminimarathon.ie/registration/enter_step1.asp

And don’t forget to call us (01-4980800 or lo-call 1850 366 283), once you’ve registered so we can send you out your fundraising pack with the team t-shirt!

Have a great training weekend!