In Rio last summer, they ran away with our hearts. We're talking about the Refugee Olympic team - a team of athletes, each one of whom defied all of the odds to compete in the XXXI Olympiad. A year later and under the patronage of Tegla Loroupe and the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation, these athletes and several more are keeping the dream alive. 43 refugee youth live together and train together at a camp in Nairobi. Forget what you think you know about an Olympic training camp. These athletes walk several kilometers back and forth to the track where they train, and they don't have any fancy equipment. In fact, they're missing some really basic items. And so, starting on Day 231, we wanted to help these world-class athletes get some simple things that will help them make their dreams come true. One of the things that helps you be at the top of your game each day - whoever you are - is a good night's sleep. So when we learned that some of these athletes were sleeping two to a … [Read more...] about The Refugee Olympians
Archives for September 2017
Oruchinga’s Got Talent
The last couple of days, we've been with our team in Oruchinga - a tiny team that submitted hundreds of ideas to ARC's staff idea contest, The Changemakers Award. This last two days they've made a couple of their ideas happen (see Young Scientists and Getting Off The Ground). Before we move along, the Oruchinga team had one more idea all about the youth. Oruchinga settlement is small - only 6,000 people - but there are so many young people who live there. They don't have a way to share their talents with the world, no venues or opportunities to show off what they can do. Our team thought they could do something about that, so they organized an Oruchinga Talent Show on Day 230 and invited everyone who lives and works in the settlement. The show began about 2:30pm with a prayer and the Ugandan national anthem. And then the fun began. The room was packed, hundreds of camp residents had turned out to see what this was all about. 5 groups performed. There were singers, … [Read more...] about Oruchinga’s Got Talent