Cape Town - Running the Comrades Marathon was about more than just crossing the finish line for American runner and philanthropist Bob Marvel, who raised more than R1.5 million for a community centre to be built in Khayelitsha.
Marvel, founder and president of NGO Beyond our Borders, ran his first Comrades on Sunday. He said he had been thinking about doing the race for three years, so decided to join and help the community of Khayelitsha, where he had never been before.
“In the US everyone has heard of Soweto, but no one has heard about Khayelitsha and when I heard about it, the poverty, crime and sense of hopelessness I wanted to do something to bring light into despair, I wanted to make a difference.
“Since I’ve been wanting to run the Comrades for while, I didn’t want to just run it but to run it with a purpose – so I decided to leverage the race to raise funds for Khayelitsha.”
Marvel finished the 89.9km ultramarathon, run from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, in a time of 10:48:27. He placed 6 580 out of the 22 404 participants.
Donors were able to choose how much they would give and had the option of donating anything from R340 to R6 for every 1.6km to R6 807 or R121 for each 1.6km.
“This programme has the power and potential to reach at-risk youth with truth and loving mentors to bring about change for their lives, families and Khayelitsha at large,” said Marvel.
“Teach One to Lead One can connect schools to a tried and tested solution to the many challenges schools face with drugs, gangsterism and drop out rates.”
Dominique Adonis, national director of Celebrate Life South Africa, an NGO aimed at alleviating human and environmental suffering, helped Marvel during his stay in South Africa ahead of the marathon and will also be assisting in the Khayelitsha Project.
“The initiative in Khayelitsha is two-fold. First the aim is to construct a building that will add value to the community, and second to build the generation of young people to add value to what the community will be in the next five to 10 years.”
Adonis will be heading the rollout of the Teach One to Lead One programme, that will see youth teaching and learning from each other.
She said it would be an “asset to Cape Town at large”.
“They are our next generation of teachers, lawyers, doctors and politicians and community leaders. Bottom line, they will be our future leaders and so we want to invest in them today.”
Adonis said the R1 580 234 raised would be used for a community centre in the township that would house a church, clinic, pre-school and a feeding centre.
Cape Argus