I have been fundraising and serving as an ambassador for Street Child of Sierra Leone for over 10 years now.

After a three-year Covid-enforced hiatus, a few dozen people (mostly Europeans) are about to return to Sierra Leone to visit Street Child projects, meet the people in-country who spearhead them and – sort of in solidarity with people whose lives are very much characterised by hardship – run a hot, sweaty marathon.

One of the things I have long given up doing is trying to explain to non-runners why I run. They don’t get it and I don’t get why they don’t get it. They think it is futile and I am wasting my time. That’s fine now. I no longer proselytise. Running for no good reason may indeed seem like a strange thing to do.

But the fact that we have somehow succeeded in establishing a tradition of intertwining ambitious sporting endeavours with raising both awareness and money… well, I see that as a rather glorious and serendipitous evolution of human custom.

This will be my 150^th marathon, and my ninth in Sierra Leone.

Each time I visit the country, I see first-hand just how vital, and how appreciated, this money is. Over the years, I have visited Street Child projects in Makeni, Masimra, Magburaka, Freetown, Bo, Lunsa and numerous other tiny villages and settlements. The teachers I first met a decade ago in the schools I visited were men and women who had only just been recruited. Then on subsequent visits, they themselves would be recruiting and training new teachers. And year in, year out, the pupils I met were children who – until Street Child’s intervention – had been eking out a living on the streets of Sierra Leone for their survival.

I have seen just how much the country has changed in only a few years. Despite people’s living conditions, there is a palpable sense of optimism in the air and it feels as though the country is on the move again after 10 years of civil war and bloodshed, followed by the world's deadliest Ebola epidemic, followed by the mudslides of August 2017. This progress can – in no small part – be attributed to the work of Street Child and the help of people like you. To say that I'm grateful for the support that I have received from my friends and colleagues over the years simply does not cut it.

But thank you.

A small group of us have been coming to run in Makeni every year since 2012. Why? Because we truly, truly believe in what Street Child is doing... and every year we get to see tangible proof of how effective its projects are.

Most runners are hardy and tenacious. And the long-distance variety of the species is accustomed to embracing adversity and making friends with pain. Even so, running through the jungle on a hot West African morning is more than moderately challenging. But not nearly  so challenging as eking out an existence when you have no access to education or welfare.

So do – please – consider making a donation to Street Child. When I get back, I will look you straight in the eye and tell you with absolute certainty that you have done the right thing.

You will – after all – be helping to bring about long-lasting change in the lives of some of the world's poorest children.

P.S. If you think you have come to the end of the road as far as Street Child is concerned, I will completely understand. But perhaps you could consider sharing the link on social media…?