Running for Life was founded by, Yorkshire born, Téba Diatta to raise awareness and funds for children in rural Senegal. As the daughter of an African villager Téba visited her father’s homeland and spent four months teaching at the local school in Oussouye. During this time she was moved by the poverty there and the experience totally changed her life. Returning to England Téba joined with her fa
mily, friends and many generous businesses and organisations to launch "Running for Life”. This began with a 200 mile run, in 2003, starting at York Minster and ending at Westminster Abbey in London and the event was supported by many including Prince William, Tony Blair, the Senegal Embassy, Land Rover, David Beckham and Patrick Vieira. This 3 week run raised a total of £12,000 and some of this amount was donated to The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to contribute to the ’End Child Exploitation’ campaign in the country. The remaining sum was donated to a school in Senegal in order to give the children an opportunity in life by providing books, resources and an area to study in after school. In 2005, Téba also took part in the Flora London Marathon and has created Partner Schools to become involved in fundraising and support to help make a difference to the lives of children in the developing world. Running for Life was part of York based charity YOWLA: York One World Linking Association. (Registered Charity No. 1101092). Recently a library and resource centre has been built in the small village of Oussouye which will enable students to study after sunset. This will allow individuals to have access to educational resources such as books and computer facilities which have not been readily available in the past. The community centre has been completed and the next phase of the project is to fully equip the library/study centre.(Please see photos). Now Running for Life are looking to extend their work further and spread into new areas, involving individuals and groups in her fundraising campaigns. If anyone would be interested in getting involved with supporting the Running for Life project, Please email [email protected]
They are currently looking at setting up a contact group here in the UK that will liaise with people in Oussouye. It would be a great opportunity for anyone who would like to be involved in development work. They would be particularly interested in finding people who speak French and have an understanding of running a library. The idea is that they would mentor the people who are currently volunteering to run the library, and get a shared understanding of how it can be better used. There would be opportunity to speak to people in Senegal online , Running for Life see it as part of the long process of developing community links.
