SIX WARRIORS IN LONDON MARATHON

On Sunday 13th April 2008, a team of six Maasai warriors ran the Flora London Marathon. Their aim was to raise enough money to provide the village clean water, anything up to £60,000.

They were from Tanzania and they weren’t in usual running clothes. The warriors weren’t even trying to break any records, or may be even finish the race. They were only hoping to bring attention to the drought in their country. They also wanted to raise money to dig wells for safe drinking water in their village.

The six warriors were Isaya, Kesika, Lengamai, Ninna, Nguvu, and Taico. The village is home to about 1,000 people. Their land was affected very badly by a 40-year drought. About ten years ago, they didn’t have even a drop of rain for almost a year. This caused the deaths of many older adults, children, and cattle. However, they found some underground water sources in the area. This is why the warriors wanted to raise money for water wells.

“They asked, ‘What is a marathon?”’ said Paul Martin who is a member of Greenforce. The organization worked to help those people. “I explained to them that many people run every year in the London Marathon to raise money for different reasons. They found it very strange that you can raise money just by running because this is something they do every day, anyway,” Martin said. The villagers often walked far to far places to find water. They walk about 20 km from home each day with their cattle. They ran between houses, which could be as far as 6 miles away from each other. Children ran to and from school.

On the day of the marathon the warriors was wearing their traditional red blankets, which are called “shuka”. They weren’t wearing running shoes. Nguvu, Lengamai, Kesika and Ninna completed the race in 5 hours 24 minutes. Isaya was ill half way through the race and was taken to hospital. But showing the pride typical of the Maasai, Isaya walked out of the hospital that afternoon and the following day, on Monday 14th April Isaya and Taico returned to the part of the course where they had to drop out and continued around the 14 miles of the course which remained.

Having completed the race, it was announced that the warriors had achieved their target of £60,000. “We have been overwhelmed by the support shown by the public. The fact that people have heard what the warriors are doing and that they understand how magnificent it is, is a great sign,” Bedford said.

After the race, fundraising continued online. As of May 19, the warriors had raised over $200,000 for their village.