Marathon for Midwives in South Sudan

Hi Friends, Family & Colleagues !

This year, I am running a full 42km marathon (1st November 2015) for the first time in my life to support a very worthy cause - raising $10,000 NZD to fund two scholarships to train midwives for the Tonj community in South Sudan. To date, just under $6000 has already been raised, but they are still well short of this target. To help support this initiative, I've set a personal goal of $4000.

This is to support the fundraising efforts of our friends Jono & Destinee Macleod - two wonderful, young kiwi doctors, who've travelled half-way across the globe with their two young kids, to work in the distant community of Tonj in South Sudan and improve the level of health care in this local community. Working in this region is far from safe and easy, but we continue to be humbled and amazed by the level of impact they have already made in this community.

We are touched by how they work hard to bring medical care to a community that has been ravaged by war and conflict, and how they do as best they can to practically act out what it means to be Christ's hands and feet to those in need around them.

Their work and daily life stories (beat mine any day!) include grandmothers receiving sight and seeing her grandkids for the first time after cataract surgery, or seeing mothers walking with their kids a whole day on foot, just to get to the nearest clinic and get medical help.

While we also try to support Jono & Destinee financially in their work @ Tonj, we wanted to help and support them in other ways also. This year, we thought a great way to help was to run the Auckland 42km Marathon, and fundraise for their latest cause - raising sufficient funds to provide scholarships to support two women to study and become midwives for the community.

South Sudan is known as having one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world (mothers dying in 1/50 live births [1])! This is a sad statistic that we would very much like to change by supporting better maternal health care in this community.

As to the 42km task at hand for myself... I have never done a full marathon.. Up to this point, I've completed three 21km Half Marathons (did not complete 1st half marathon in 2007 due to an embarrassing collapse 600m from the finish-line!). This time however, I intend to make it to the finish line! If these kids in South Sudan can walk the equivalent of a marathon distance to see the doctor, I can sure do them the justice of running it to completion!

Please consider supporting me in my 42km adventure and in this most worthy cause !

To give to this cause, just click "DONATE NOW".

Thanks All !

Dave

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For more details on the training of midwives in South Sudan, visit Jono & Destinee's Givealittle page: https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/midwivesforsouthsudan

For an awesome video on what Jono & Destinee are doing in South Sudan, you can check out: https://vimeo.com/128450858

P.S. Will keep this website updated as I train for this momentous 42km, and also if there are any updates from the fundraising cause itself!

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Reference:

[1] Maternal mortality rate (MMR) of 2,054/100,000 live births in a 2006 survey in South Sudan, which is equivalent to 1/50 live births. Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2223rank.html