Africa-Press – Tanzania. CLEFT Sports are in final preparations to stage 21km Half Marathon in Arusha early next month.
The event is a charity race that aims to raise funds for cleft lipped children.
The third edition of the Same Quality Foundation Marathon will be staged on September 5th 2021, and the organizers here said the initiative served a total of 165 children who have been surgically treated to correct the mouth defects.
It is christened ‘Running for Children with Cleft’ , the race will start at Sheikh Amri Abeid Stadium, involving 970 participants, of these, 900 will race in the Marathon and 70 to ride in a cycling which is also part of the events.
The main SQF Cleft Marathon event is 21km race, followed by 10 kilometers event, the 5km fun race and 2.5 kilometers for children. As for cycling, the riders will cover 60 kilometers and 40 kilometers.
Peter Mabula, the Director of SQF, said the outreach programme for free surgeries has already been conducted in Manyara, Tabora, Kahama and Mwanza.
This year, the surgical services have so far taken place in Singida, Dodoma, Tabora, Kagera, Bunda, Kahama again and Kilimanjaro.
The forthcoming SQF Cleft Marathon, with added support from the National Bank of Commerce (NBC) Bank for additional 30 children, more surgeries will be conducted in Tabora, Kilimanjaro and Shinyanga regions and at this pace, the problem may be totally eliminated in the country.
Other initiative supporters include the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) as well as Bonite Bottlers of Moshi.
Between September 2021 and September 2022, the Same Quality Foundation will be treating 400 children at various special health camps to be erected across the country in the next 12 months.
Arusha City Medical Officer, Dr Maduhu Nindwa said for many years, there has been societal stigma against children suffering from cleft lips such that they even get affected psychologically. He lauded SQF for the initiative which aims to totally eliminate the problem in Tanzania.
John Bayo is the Deputy President for the Tanzania Athletics Association Federation and was on view that sports when used for positive courses help to build trust and cohesion in society and that he appealed to all Tanzanians to participate.
