{"id":664,"date":"2011-11-05T16:04:36","date_gmt":"2011-11-05T15:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/?p=664"},"modified":"2011-11-08T15:27:04","modified_gmt":"2011-11-08T14:27:04","slug":"seeking-pledges-for-namibia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/?p=664","title":{"rendered":"Seeking Pledges for Namibia"},"content":{"rendered":"

This November 19, I will be participating in the event, “Namibia Runs for Charity.<\/a>” \u00a0From 9 am to 4 pm, I will have the opportunity to run as many laps as possible for Namibian charities. \u00a0And I could use your help!<\/p>\n

Now, it would be good to be able to post here exactly WHICH charity will benefit from your pledges and my running, but this will be decided on the day of the event. \u00a0Confused? \u00a0Well, I didn’t come up with the scheme, but here’s how it’s supposed to work: \u00a0people go to the Namibia Runs for Charity Facebook Page<\/a>\u00a0and nominate a charity. \u00a0Then other people “like” the best ones. \u00a0The top 10 are offered up to the participants on the day of the event.\u00a0\u00a0The one thing I’m not clear on is whether it’s “winner take all” or whether multiple charities can benefit.<\/del>\u00a0 The organizers have explained to me that on the day of the event, I can contribute to any or all of the 10 most “liked” charities.\u00a0 This means if you would like to sponsor me, and have your donation go to a particular charity (of the top 10), you can specify that!<\/span><\/p>\n

In any case, they are all good charities so far. \u00a0Consider this point: \u00a0the UN released their annual Human Development Report<\/a>\u00a0just the other day. \u00a0And although in many areas, Namibia does OK, especially for a sub-Saharan African country, there is one statistic in which it is a clear standout: \u00a0income inequality. \u00a0When you take the average income of the richest 20% and divide it by the poorest 20%, you come up with the number 52. \u00a0So the richest fifth earns, on average, 52 times as much as the poorest fifth. \u00a0For perspective, consider that the closest country to that is Honduras, with about 30. \u00a0Then there’s a 25 and a whole bunch of “teens.” \u00a0The US’s richest fifth earns about 8 times as much as its poorest fifth.<\/p>\n

So there are a whole lot of poor Namibians out there that can use some help. \u00a0They are the most vulnerable in society – orphans, people with HIV (13.1%), disabled, and don’t forget – Apartheid ended for Namibia in 1990.<\/p>\n

So if you want to help, I can definitely use your support in terms of pledges. \u00a0They ask for a minimum of 1 Namibian dollar per lap – hat’s 12.5 US cents. \u00a0How many laps can I run? \u00a0Well, not as many as you might think. \u00a0I haven’t run more than about 6 miles in one go since July (24 laps). \u00a0And I haven’t worn a traditional running shoe since July 2010. \u00a0So I’ll be running either barefoot or in “barefoot shoes”<\/a>, depending on the condition of the track, located in Katutura, Windhoek’s township. \u00a0If you would like to support me on this, send me a note at tom@tazmpictures.com<\/a>. \u00a0We can work out the details after the run.<\/p>\n

Don’t want to pledge money? \u00a0Well, you can also help “my” charity get chosen by “liking” it on NamibiaRunsforCharity’s Facebook page<\/a>. \u00a0The charity I’d like to support is the International Women’s Association Namibia (IWAN), which my wife, and sometimes my kids and I, volunteer for. \u00a0This will help spread support to multiple needy charities, along with “womanpower” provided by the women, which helps stretch the funding further, and also spreads goodwill to some of Namibia’s neediest, usually kids. \u00a0Here’s a short writeup:<\/p>\n

The International Women\u2019s Association Namibia (IWAN) is an organization which prides itself in the sisterhood of women of all nationalities and ethnicities. IWAN is made up of women from all over the world, including its host country, Namibia. This sisterhood embraces both \u00a0its members and the vulnerable women and children in the communities of sunny Namibia. IWAN support a number of charities, but their main focus is on a group of nine Namibian organizations ranging from orphanages, hearing impaired pre-schools, hospital cancer wards, old age homes, after-school resource centres to soup kitchens. IWAN\u2019s ongoing efforts of support and resources is much appreciated by these organizations \u2013 all of which provide crucial services for the neediest segments of the Namibian population.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And some photos from a recent event:<\/p>\n

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This November 19, I will be participating in the event, “Namibia Runs for Charity.” \u00a0From 9 am to 4 pm, I will have the opportunity to run as many laps as possible for Namibian charities. \u00a0And I could use your help! Now, it would be good to be able to post here exactly WHICH charity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[253],"tags":[200,405,1794,404],"class_list":["post-664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-causes","tag-charity","tag-donation","tag-namibia","tag-run"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=664"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":675,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664\/revisions\/675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}