Okay Yaya
Last November I was fortunate to travel to Ethiopia for a wedding and The Great Ethiopian Run and whilst I was there I spent time at the Yaya village.
Yaya Village, an athletes’ village and training camp is located just outside Addis Ababa at 2700m. It has been built and designed for runners who want to improve their fitness and volume of red blood cells!
Apologies that it has taken me such a long time to post this blog. I meant to do it as soon as I came home but here it is now. I want to talk about a unique group of inspirational runners that are based there and one, in particular, Banchayeu (pictured). Yaya Village is home to the Yaya Girls. Back in 'November there were four of them but it was expected that there would be more inductees before the end of the year. The Yaya Girls have been given the opportunity to live, run and study at Yaya towards their dream of becoming world class and building a future for themselves.
A programme has been put together that uses running as the vehicle to deliver five strands: Athletics, English, vocational skill training, health & nutrition and empowerment. I was particularly interested to hear about the empowerment objectives. Ethiopia is a long way away from equality for women and it is fair to say that women are disadvantaged in many ways including education and career opportunities. The programme respects the Ethiopian culture and also human rights and so the programme aims to develop the girls to be independent thinkers and decision makers so that they can make their own choices in life without feeling that they need to do as somebody else tells them.
Banchayeu’s story
Banchayeu or Banchi, as she is known, arrived at the Yaya Village at the age of 23. She is a runner and had a job at the Yaya Village when the programme started. The programme’s creator, Joseph Kibur, was so impressed by her work ethic and genuine interest in learning that she was the first recruit. Joseph offered her the opportunity to lead the programme as the ‘House Mum’ and daily co-ordinator, living with the girls and providing them with support. This is her story:
I am from Bahardar, which is 560 km out of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. My family are farmers. I have four older brothers and two older sisters. I am the youngest. When I was seven I was sent to live with my aunt in Addis [Ababa] and I started running at school. I love running. Running makes me feel happy and, if I can’t run, I don’t feel good. My aunt died when I was 12 years old and so I was sent back home to my family. My parents didn’t want me to run and didn’t understand why I wanted to be a runner. There are no famous runners from Bahardar and they thought that running was crazy. Worse than that, it made them very angry and I had many fights with them. They wanted me to finish college and then get married but I wanted to run. I still had two more years of college but I ran away from home to Addis Ababa and started working as a waitress. I rented a room in the city and ran on my own. I also got a job in a supermarket and then my friend told me of some Ferengi [Amharic for foreigner] who had a small child and needed a servant and so I went to work for them. The hours were very long from six o’ clock in the morning until eight o’ clock at night and there was no time for running. When I finished work I wanted to sleep.
When I first arrived with the family, I don’t think they trusted me. They had had some bad experiences with formers servants but I was hard working and honest and soon I became very good friends with my employers. Unfortunately they eventually needed to move back home but they were very helpful to me because they contacted Joseph Kibur and asked if he had any vacancies at Yaya. I went to work for him and he had the idea of creating the Yaya Girls Programme. He offered me the chance to be the programme facilitator. I was very happy and accepted. It has enabled me to improve my physical and mental strength. I am learning English and my confidence is good. Now I am helping the second intake of girls and I deliver all of the sessions of the GOAL programme to help these girls increase their confidence, to see themselves as equal to men and just as capable of working and earning the same money. I am also very happy that my parents now understand what I am trying to achieve. I will be 24 next month. I hope to stay at Yaya for another year, get better at speaking English and then go back to college to finish my studies and learn to use a computer. I also hope to achieve my long-time dream of becoming a famous runner. Watch out for me!
Opportunities to invest in the Yaya Girls
The Yaya Girls Programme, that is in its infancy, has a long term aim to become sustainable. If you feel you can help by sponsoring one of the girls or in any other way please visit the website here or get in touch by emailing yaya.girls.program@gmail.com