Elissa Ponich is hoping that running ten kilometres in Athabasca will make a difference in the faraway Democratic Republic of Congo.
Ponich and friends will run through Athabasca on Saturday, August 6 (beginning at 8 a.m.) in support of Women For Women International. It’s an organization that helps women in war torn countries by giving them financial aid, job training, rights awareness and leadership education. When they graduate, they receive a small amount of money they can use to start their own business and become self-sufficient.
Helping one woman (and her children) for a year costs $400, and that was the original fundraising goal. But they have already raised $735 and hope to make it an even $800 in order to support two women.
Ponich began doing research on the Congo when she and her husband decided to adopt a child from the country. They are still on the waiting list for adoption, but in the meantime she wanted to familiarize herself with her future child’s home. That’s when she learned that the Congo is, sadly, one of the worst places on Earth to be a woman.
“Approximately 48 women and children are raped every hour (in the Congo),” she said. That’s just one of the alarming stats that Women For Women International has on the country. With war raging in the country since 1998, women have been subjected to murder, torture, forced migration, starvation and other tragic indignities.
Literacy amongst women in the Congo is also precipitously low. The organization reports that only one third of the women that enter their program can read or write more than their name.
“It’s sad that nobody knows. With knowledge comes responsibility, and that’s our reasoning for doing this run,” said Ponich. “We can’t change the world but we can definitely change one (person’s world), and if everyone else did that there wouldn’t be a problem.”
She knows without doubt that the child she adopts from the Congo will have a better life in Canada.
“Not that our lives are super easy, but we are so blessed we have a government that takes care of us,” she said. “We just as easily could have been born there as here.”
The group of runners will start from (and return to) Hees Estates. They’ll take a varied route throughout the town, while wearing special shirts to signify their commitment to helping women in the Congo.
All are welcome to participate in the run, even for a short distance, and donations of all sizes will be gratefully accepted.
“We’ll push ourselves physically just like these women have to push themselves,” she said. “It’s all about raising awareness. When we write to our Congo sisters we want to be able to say, ‘It’s a community that did this. You are not forgotten.’”
For more information on the run or to donate, contact Ponich at 780-675-7941 or fellow runner Sandra Hayward at 780-675-5435.
