In Spain, over 12,000 participate in races to support Fe y Alegría Chad

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Since 2007, our partner in Africa,  Foi et Joie Tchad has been working towards quality education in the region of Guera, in the southern part of Chad. Fe y Alegría Chad carries out its mission through teacher training and through awareness raising actions for parents to promote education in their communities. Currently, 149 teachers and 25 staff members of Foie et Joie Tchad attend to 10.000 students in 28 centers.

In order to increase the outreach of their work, Entreculturas – Fe y Alegría Spain throughout its ten delegations across the country have organized during the month of February the Fifth edition of the  charity race Run for a Cause, Run for Education” aiming to raise funds to provide access to childhood education for 1,500 boys and girls aged 4 and 5 (54% of them are girls).

The races took place in 8 cities across the country with around 12,500 participants and on Sunday, February 28th, the race in Madrid gathered more than 3,500 people in races of 5 and 10 kms for adults and 1km for children.

The UN Human Development Index places Chad as the fourth poorest country on the African continent, given that 80% of the population lives under the poverty line. Out of the 11,630,000 inhabitants (45% of them are under the age of 15) it is estimated that 3.1 million people are in situations of food insecurity (lack of access to basic food intake) and almost 45,000 people have been forced to leave their homes running away from the violence of the armed group Boko Haram.

Chad is also one of the countries with greatest educational deficiencies. The material conditions of their schools are very tenuous and the academic training of teachers is highly limited. Despite some governmental attempts to strenghten the education sector through reforms, political instability and internal conflicts have strongly affected educational infrastructure and have highly increased problems such as lack of teachers, overcrowded classrooms and the increasing low rate of boys and girls attending school.

To that end and through the different races that are taking place, 26 childhood schools will be equipped with school supplies, training for teachers will be offered so they can increase the quality of their teaching and, in order to promote appropriate care for boys and girls in their communities, some meetings and encounters for parents will be held so they can dialogue about the benefits that education brings to their children and ultimately, the positive consequences towards the development of their communities.

Take a look at the photo albums of the races in the different cities by clicking here