Race for school

RACE FOR SCHOOL
Hi! My name is Michiel, and in April I will be competing in the toughest footrace on earth- the 30th Marathon des Sables. That’s 250km in 6 days, carrying your own backpack with 10kg of food and sleeping gear through the Sahara’s 45-degree heat. (For more information on this run, visit http://www.marathondessables.co.uk/ ). To be able to finish, I have embarked on a grueling training programme, to firstly fix my BMI and then to learn to cope with the heat, sand, and long distance.

I will be running for a children’s charity in Morocco itself, based in Essaouira.

Essaouira, formerly known as Mogador, is an ancient port city on Morocco's southern Atlantic coast. 
Each year this beautiful place is visited by thousands of tourists.  Unfortunately, Essaouira is not paradise for everyone. Behind the scenes, many families live in desperate poverty and some kids spend much of the day and night on the street. Some parents - many out of work or without the skills to work in international tourism - do not have enough money to provide for their children. 

Many of these kids from disadvantaged families do not attend school regularly. They may have quit because they need to work to support their families; some have dropped out because of learning challenges or personal circumstances.

Association Bayti (www.bayti.ma) which means 'my house') does amazing work with these young people. In Essaouira, they provide a hot meal 5 days a week to around 80 kids and have on-site educators and social workers to support them. The non-formal education programme at Bayti seeks to bring kids who do not attend school up to speed with the curriculum so that when they are ready (educationally, administratively and psychologically), they can be re-inserted into the state school system.

The specific target for my fundraising is to provide salary for the teacher for one year and support as many children as possible in their university studies.