Supporting womens education and children's health and play in Palestine
Our fiend and supporter Judy walked for 50 hours over 24 days to cover one kilometre for every year of her life.
She had 150+ encounters with individuals, couples, families, friends and dogs and toiled up the hill to complete my 73rd kilometre lap where she was duly presented with a certificate by the Mayor.
You can read her final instalment here
Many people do their small park BIG RUN DIY activities in groups, with some amazingly creative and impressive efforts recorded. Since the beginning five years ago Good Gym Sheffield has put together 24 hour teams who have performed some extraordinary and inspiring efforts. Here Good Gym Sheffield member Andrew tells us what they did for #spBR21.
“Good Gym Sheffield joined Small Park Big Run on what has become an annual fixture for us. We had 18 runners – and between us we covered the whole 24 hours – often with more than one runner out at any given time.
“There were some truly amazing efforts – Dana ran for the whole 24 hours, running over 100 miles on a treadmill and raising over £1,500 for the SPBR charities; Rachel ran a mile each hour for the whole 24 hours; Celine ran the Limestone Way [46 miles]; and Katy ran the Round Sheffield Run – twice [30 miles]!
“The mere mortals in the team hit the trails in the parks, woods and streets around Sheffield and the Peak – with one or two unable to resist the lure of the Meersbrook Hill.
“At midday on Sunday a number of us joined the event in Meersbrook Park – and the weather was kind enough to let us sit out for a picnic and enjoy the singing and music. We’ll definitely be back next year – supporting the event once more – and “looking forward” to 24 hours on the hill.
“Until then our thoughts are with those in Palestine.”
From all at #spBR21 thank you Good Gym! Find out more about Good Gym Sheffield here
Every year after small park BIG RUN we link up with our partners in Palestine. It is a wonderful event; and this year it also an opportunity to learn from and show solidarity with Palestinian people.
This year was no exception – it proved to be a wonderful and important moment of solidarity and friendship.
At the start we had a very moving tribute to Fatima Al Ajarma, who died this year at the age of 100, after a lifetime of resistance demanding her right to return to her land in Ajjur.
You can watch the tribute from her granddaughter, Kholoud, read by Sheffield PSC activist Annie O’Gara:
You can also read the tribute here.
As our overall theme this year was health and health inequalities in Palestine we had two speakers that gave us insights into different aspects of health care.
We heard about the impact of Covid-19 on healthcare in Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem from Dr Mohammed Abu Sroar. Listen to the audio here
And from Dr Osama Freina, Director of Gaza Community Mental Health Programme in the Southern Part of the Gaza Strip, we heard about the describe terrible impact of violence on children. Listen to the audio of Musheir Al Farra interviewing and then translating here
As in past years we had a link up with our partners at the Never Stop Dreaming Charity Association (http://bit.ly/neverstopdrreaming) – one of the organisations that we have worked with for many years and will benefit directly from your fundraising efforts. You can watch a moving and heart-warming video of the children singing here:
This year at small park BIG RUN we chose the theme of health because that has been such a prominent public discussion in Britain and across the world.
We have put together some posters describing some of the gross inequalities faced by Palestinians in their daily lives, things we often take for granted. Health is yet another realm of life where Israeli apartheid holds sway.
The first poster is here and then follow the links
The work of the children’s centres we support has not stopped during the recent bombardment of Gaza. In fact they are more needed than ever. You can read more in the latest newsletter about the children’s projects to find out how the money you raise will be spent.
Last year Judy, a local supporter of Palestine Solidarity and of the small park BIG RUN, carried the flag around Meersbrook for 72km and talked to loads of people about why she did this. She is doing the same this year. Say hello if you see her. This is her blog
Hello. I’m Judy and I’ve lived in Meersbrook, Sheffield for 14 years.
As a teenager in the 60s I did the ‘hitchhiking across North Africa’ thing and the ‘kibbutz’ thing and i was blissfully ignorant of the reality and the history until relatively recently.
I am the same age as the State of Israel and I credit the small park BIG RUN with focussing my awareness on the Nakba – ‘the Catastrophe’ – that resulted for Palestinian people.
So last year, as we could not gather together in the park as we usually do, my activity was to walk a kilometre for every year of my life, every year that Palestinians have been enduring injustice.
I wrote a diary about that highly rewarding experience; in fact it was so rewarding that I am doing it again, this year. 73k with my Palestinian flag.
You can read about Judy’s adventures here
