By taking part in a torch relay launched by some of the World’s greatest athletes, your school can help the Aegis Trust to create a peace school in Northern Kenya. Located between the Turkana and the Pokot, it will bring young people from these warring communities together – and help save lives.
Together with World record-breaking athletes Adam Holland and Rob Young (Marathon Man UK), the Aegis Trust will take the relay to schools around the UK through 2016. If you would like your school to be one of them, please email [email protected] or call David Brown at the Aegis Trust on 07921 471985.
Video for use in schools taking part
Video promoting relay in schools taking part
The day should include at least one 100 x 100m relay, involving participation from at least 100 students, but there is scope to run as many as four or five sessions (involving up to 500 or 600 students).
Each participating student needs to raise at least £10 in sponsorship, and will receive a ‘torchbearer’ wristband to recognise their effort. Students who raise £30 or more will also receive torchbearer T-shirts.
Sessions would normally include a brief verbal introduction, a presentation of the five-minute video on this site’s home page, and a short Q&A with the athlete and a member of the team from the Aegis Trust. This will be followed by a sprint relay, where each participating student runs 100 metres carrying the torch or a replica of it (which need not be lit!) before handing it on.
The relay team will be raced by the athlete, who will attempt to beat the team over the total distance.
Video promoting relay in schools taking part
When bringing the Kenya peace torch relay to your school, it will need to be publicized to all students at least a month in advance.
This should include showing all students the two-minute video which you can see here on the left. Leaflets and posters can also be supplied, or downloaded from this website along with sponsorship forms – see here:
The publicity should make clear to students:
- What the relay is about
- When it will be held
- Who they should contact to sign up for it
- Where they can obtain sponsorship forms
- How they can approach their fundraising
On request, a member of the Aegis team may be able to attend your school for a day to support this advance publicity – whether by introducing screenings of the two-minute film, or by running an information point, or both.
Video promoting relay in schools taking part
If you can’t make the relay, don’t worry. There are loads of ways that you can be one of a thousand peacemakers, raising over $250 to build a school for peace in Kenya.
[sharify]
torchbearer
(ˈtɔːtʃˌbɛərə)
n
1. a person that carries a torch
2. a person who leads or inspires
Ataa Nayeche is the ancestral matriarch of the Turkana people. She brought warring communities together by lighting ‘peace fires’. Burning sticks from these fires were used to chase away the bad spirits that were causing violence. She is the inspiration for the Walk for Peace logo.