2 October, 2008
YARED AND GUDISA--RUNNING TO HOPE
The genesis of Running Across Borders came in March, 2008, as Garrett Ash and David Alcock made their way through the unpaved, uneven streets of Gurd Shola, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, guided by their Ethiopian friends and fellow athletes, Gudisa and Yared.
Ash, a sports physiology graduate student and member of the Oxford University Track Club, and Alcock, a British runner, had traveled to Ethiopia for the experience of training at altitude, in the 2,500 meter (8,100 feet) plus elevations around Addis. In the Ararat forest where runners congregate, they had met the two young Ethiopians, both orphaned as children and now living together, teammates in a real sense, to survive.
Invited to their home to visit, Ash and Alcock reached the Ethiopians’ living compound. Negotiating a slippery, muddy courtyard, they ducked through a mud-structured door into a room the size of a medium closet. In it sat a single twin bed frame covered with cardboard sheets, in lieu of a mattress. In front of the bed sat a second-hand kerosene stove, a gym bag, and only several square feet of empty floor space.
“This is our house”, said Gudisa, a 16-year-old student athlete who lost his parents in a car crash. “It is not good”.
The gym bag contained all of their possessions: some school books for Gudissa, one change of clothes for each, and a third-hand digital watch. They had no blankets for warmth. Huddled in bed at night, they would strategize about how to find several hundred grams of bread or rice the next day, in order to fuel another day of training, school or work.
Like Gudisa, 26-year-old Yared came to Addis Ababa seeking a better life. Both young men have a small number of relatives, who occasionally provide small amounts of support.
“Sometimes Yared, he have money, and we eat,” explained Gudisa to the foreigners. “Sometimes me, I have money, and we eat. Sometimes, no one have money, so we not eat.”
Like many young Ethiopian athletes, Yared and Gudisa see running as a way to escape poverty. The two determined that Yared is the one most likely to make it as a professional athlete. Life, therefore, meant investing all their available resources in that possibility.
Time and effort were on their side; money, materials or official qualifications were in short supply. Yared needed to perform up to two hours of vigorous training every day, while consuming, on average, less than 1,000 calories from the small amount of food they could muster. To accommodate the daily calorie deficit, Yared limited other activities, sleeping 10 hours every night and two hours between daily training runs.
Meanwhile, Gudisa devoted his time to supporting Yared. While Yared slept, Gudissa would scour the neighborhood for casual work, in order to purchase food. Gudisa is in grade 12, his last year toward an accounting degree at Yenegesaw College. However, this training holds little relevance to the professional world in Ethiopia, with a saturated job market and high unemployment in Addis. Gudisa, despite his daily eight-kilometer round trip walk to school each day and diligent work habits, has few prospects for work in accounting after graduation.
Many Ethiopians cope with the country’s high unemployment by living with relatives indefinitely. For Yared and Gudisa, this is not an option, nor were they willing to beg on the street. Finally, Gudissa found steady work washing dishes at a high-end restaurant catering to foreigners. In return for good performance, he was given a daily portion of leftover rice and injera, the local Ethiopian bread, at the end of his shift. Meat and vegetables were not part of the handout.
Their daily routine and meager resources sustained the two. Yared continued to train; Gudisa joined him, when he wasn’t working. All the while, Alcock and Ash noticed, the two kept smiles on their faces.
Friendship grew between the two Ethiopians and the two visitors. Besides training together, they began to share regular meals. Alcock and Ash, their digestive systems grown weary of the heavy oils used in the local café cuisine, were happy to put their travel funds toward ingredients for the Ethiopian athletes to cook. In addition, Gudisa insisted on laundering their training clothes and keeping their training shoes clean.
HOPE TO REALITY
The March vacation concluded, Ash returned to his studies and Alcock to his job in England. Ash conferred with his friend, Malcolm Anderson, M.A., M.Sc. (Oxford University), who felt similar concern for aspiring runners in Kenya, the site of his own research. The two graduate students each felt a strong desire to help raise the standard of living of impoverished runners in the two countries, making it possible for the Africans to earn a living wage by entering races in Europe and other locations around the world. A companion goal became to host foreign runners in Ethiopia, offering them the chance to train at altitude with the Ethiopian athletes, in exchange for a small amount of monetary support for the program the two hoped to develop.
In the summer of 2008, Ash and Anderson formed Running Across Borders (RAB), a charitable organization which operates under the auspices of the International Humanities Center in Malibu, CA. Last August, RAB leased a small house in Addis Ababa, established a training camp, and began preparing to house Ethiopian athletes and host foreign runners for training visits. With minimal initial funding, living quarters were given to Yared and Gudisa, the two athletes in the project with the greatest financial need. In addition, 15 more athletes train under RAB auspices.
RAB runs efficiently and with low expenses. Yared is employed as the camp chef, working around four hours a day. With the food and shelter he is earning, he is able to train harder, without the need for extensive rest throughout the day. Gudisa maintains his schoolwork while, at the same time, performing vital functions in the camp. He cleans, does laundry, and acts as administrative assistant to Ash, using and improving the accounting skills he has learned at school. As a native speaker, Gudisa plays a vital role in recruiting and managing other athletes in the project.
“As well as the goals we have in running for our athletes, Running Across Borders wants to help them believe they can be equally successful in other area of life,” says Ash.
Ash spent most of the summer of 2008 in Addis Ababa. With the same camaraderie that they initially shared sloshing across the mud courtyard to Yared and Gudisa’s former home, the three shared meals, laughter and celebration together in the new training camp’s small but comfortable living room.
“Sometimes I take the great work these two have been doing for granted,” notes Ash. “I have to step back and remind myself just what great promise is unfolding here through the first efforts of RAB. I am so grateful for the opportunity that exists here for doing good through the sport of running.”
Currently RAB can host two foreign athletes at a time, in addition to the two Ethiopians. By April, 2009, plans are to increase these numbers by six to 10, on both the foreign and Ethiopian sides. As the organization’s reach expands, so does the amount of work required to manage and maintain the camp, increasing the number of jobs available to the Ethiopian runners.
When Ash met Yared and Gudisa in March of 2008, the two were making their way through life on intuition, skills and sheer determination. Now with jobs and hope through RAB, the two look forward to a brighter future.
“We are proud of the progress made in a very short time in establishing Running Across Borders,” concludes Ash. “In just six months, we have found a model that works. With financial aid from supporters and running shoes from the Oxford University Track Club, RAB has converted dim prospects for Yared and Gudisa into a beacon of hope. Now we are eager to expand our reach to other promising young athletes in Ethiopia, with help from individuals and organizations who believe in the work we are doing.”
For further information, contact Garrett Ash or Malcolm Anderson at runningacrossborders.org
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