Ngorongoro Half Marathon partners SOS Children Villages

10Oct 2023
The Guardian Reporter
Sport
The Guardian
Ngorongoro Half Marathon partners SOS Children Villages

THE annual Ngorongoro Half Marathon, which has always been an on-and-off thing, is finally on again and is this time set to be held in Arusha in November.

 

There have also been a few changes as, this year, the showdown which is organized by the Meta Sports Promotions has taken aboard a new partner in the SOS Children Villages.

As usual, the Ngorongoro Half Marathon will be staged in Karatu District, with the showdown being flagged off from the Loduare Gate Station, the main entrance to both the Ngorongoro Conservation and Serengeti National Park from Arusha.

The event is expected to take place on November 26. The Ngorongoro Half Marathon which used to be held in April, shifted dates to August and later September and now it is coming up in November.

According to the half marathon's organizer Meta Petro, a veteran athlete, the race features the main event- half marathon, as well as the 10 kilometers and 5 kilometers categories.

Participating athletes will run from Ngorongoro Gate to the Rhotia Hill hamlet before turning back and finishing the race at the Mazingira Bora grounds in Karatu Township.

Petro noted: “All top runners in the country such as Failuna Abdi, Gabriel Geay, and Magdalena Shauri and others were all products of the previous installments of the Ngorongoro Half Marathon."

The theme of this year’s Ngorongoro Half Marathon is ‘No child should be left alone,’ and focuses on assisting young children and youths.

Previously, the Ngorongoro Half Marathon carried out other missions such as fighting against wildlife poaching and illegal harvesting of natural resources.

Race coordinator, Emmanual Sanga from SOS, said they expect more than 2,000 runners to participate in the 2023 Ngorongoro Half Marathon.

Noah Joram Mwakyalabwe, the Program Manager for the SOS Children Village in Tanzania, said the organization has decided to partner up with Meta Sports for the event because they also have a project in Karatu.

“We are working to raise funds for outreach missions that are targeting to rescue children who live under difficult and dangerous environments as well as homeless youth,” Joram disclosed.

The race targets to raise more than 160 million/- to support such programs.

SOS Villages, which entered Tanzania over 30 years ago, runs humanitarian projects in Arusha, Mwanza, Iringa, and Dar es Salaam as well as Unguja and Pemba.

Top Stories