The more our journey develops the more we come across ‘lights’ all around the world that selflessly help us spread the word about The Unogwaja Challenge and by doing so, are allowing others to realize their dreams and follow their hearts.

Today, we’d like to share with you a blog post written by our Nutreats ladies, Feige & Zissy Lewin, who have been supporting us for the last 2 years, as well as a letter, written by 2015 Red Love Train member Arni Holder, who wanted to share a special experience and realization.

How the Unogwaja Challenge is Spreading it’s Light The 2014 Comrades Marathon saw the inaugural running of the Red Love Train. Launched as an extension of the Unogwaja Challenge, the Red Love Train gave every Comrades runner a chance to be a part of the fundraising initiative and join the 12 Unogwaja’s on the final day of their journey. Read more >>

It’s all about the “WHY” Good day dear friends I wish to share my experience I had on today’s training run with you all. As we set out for our run  this afternoon I immediately noticed the beauty around us.

My running time is normally my thinking and introspection time, but today I had a very special and emotional WOW experience.

Clear blue sky with a few clouds in the distance, reflecting the setting sun’s rainbow of colours in the sky. Everything around us were clean and refreshed after the past week’s rain and it was wonderful to see the new green life of the grass fields emerging around us.

While running I was thinking of this exciting journey we are busy with and the wonder of the how and why of this whole Unogwaja journey we are on; and which we became part of so unexpectedly.

Over the past month  and a half; after announcing that I will be attempting to do the Comrades as part of the Red Love train I received many different responses from different people. One of the first was a response of silence….and by the look on the person’s face, I believe was one of of….”I don’t really think you will succeed”, other responses I received was that of WHY on earth would you want to attempt the Comrades? I know this is a HUGE personal challenge and commitment for me, as I have never even completed a full marathon in my life…yes, maybe I have to admit, I can understand the comments of “you are crazy” a little bit.

Back to my run this afternoon….about 3 km’s from home I was thinking…why am I doing this? Why do people keep on asking me why am I doing this? My response up until today was one of, it is not about the WHY, but just as I thought this again, I suddenly started thinking about our children at Lebone Village, and the little faces and smiles I saw today flashed in front of me. Not only did I see today’s faces but I saw the faces of those little ones who weren’t as lucky, those empty graves we stood next to…., Mpho,  Motlatsi, Gomolemo, Sipho…..and suddenly I realised, IT IS ALL ABOUT THE WHY!! This is why Avril gave the last 14 years of her life to shine the Lebone light. This is why I put on my red socks every Friday, this is why I rush home every afternoon to make sure there’s enough day light left to get our training run in, this is why Steven had to become part of our Lebone family, this is why he had to be so crazy to apply to become a member of the Unogwaja team, this is why John is sacrificing his life to touch the lives of thousands more across the world, this is why there are not only darkness in this world, this is why we will continue to shine the LIGHT!

As we finished our last km for todays run…I couldn’t keep it in any more….the emotions was just too overwhelming and the tears started to flow. From today on my answer to the question will be…….. IT IS ALL ABOUT THE WHY!!!!

Thank you to each one of you who are part of the WHY! Tomorrow morning I will put on my red socks and I will know why!

Love from Bloemfontein