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Dana’s 24 hour treadmill run 19-20th June

I have taken part in this event ever since I knew it existed. I joined small park BIG RUN (#spBR21) at Meersbrook Park in 2019 (having posted leaflets about the event with GoodGym) and then contributed 3 hours of running last year as part of the DIY lockdown event. I knew this year I wanted to try a solo challenge. As a Palestinian, the charity focus is always close to my heart, but more so now that so many others are speaking up and sharing the truth, there is so much good done already, but it is ever more necessary now.  

My Gazan father was forced out of his home as a child, becoming a refugee and we have family still living in the apartheid state.  Being Palestinian and British means I feel it is my duty to speak up and be proactive. The sense of collective community and kindness shown by Sheffield Palestine Cultural Exchange (SPaCE), Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Sheffield Palestine Women’s Scholarship Fund and the local Meersbrook and Heeley community to help improve the life chances, aspirations, and opportunities for the most marginalised and silenced voices in the world means so much to me. Shukran for all donations, be they solidarity miles or money.

I’m aiming to try to cover no less than 120km, so averaging about 5km an hour.  If I can push towards 150km I will be proud – but the resilience to be on a treadmill, in my Baba’s Garage is going to be one of the more challenging aspects of my run. I am trialling my hourly speed at present, playing around with splitting my hours into fast and slow intervals to keep energised, allow food, and clock up the mileage.  A day of discomfort is nothing compared to the conditions and treatment of Palestinians controlled by illegal occupation since 1948 and the pain of those (like my father) who find themselves interrogated and refused return to see loved ones.

I run to hopefully one day be able to see the village where my family comes from. To see it in more than just photos. #FreeFreePalestine

If anyone has any recommendations for my running playlist – English or Arabic classics (big fan of 90’s arab pop!) send them through.

If you can spare some money to donate to my efforts please visit the link: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/DanaAbdulkarim 

‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’.

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RUN TOGETHER, RESIST TOGETHER!

  • Running for freedom 2019
  • Opening the fun run 2019
  • Setting off in Nablus 2019
  • About to run in Sheffield
  • About to run in Palestine

We cannot sit back and plan this year’s run without mentioning, as a priority, the awful events in Sheikh Jarrah and the storming of Al Aqsa  mosque in Jerusalem and the subsequent bombing of Gaza. We, the organisers of small park BIG RUN feel deeply outraged, angry, and upset.

The daily injustices that are meted out to Palestinians by Israeli authorities have now escalated into yet another attempt to stamp out all resistance.

As you can see in these pictures: these are our friends, people we and you, small park BIG RUN supporters, have run with; people we have talked to over a crackly phone at the end of the Fun Run in previous years.

We want to give context to the media reports many of you will have seen and give you a sense of what you can do to help.

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spbr-the-Sheffield Way

In our second year of going ‘DIY’ we wanted to highlight things we know people are up to , in case you need some inspiration or want to join in and do the same.

Some innovative people from Sheffield Palestine Womens Scholarship Fund are taking on the DIY activity to new heights by adapting The Sheffield Way .

SPBR walkers in 2020

The walkers will be taking with them a Palestinian flag and an olive branch that came from Palestine (and which has been at all of the small park BIG RUN events)

There are 6 legs to this walk and it is 53 miles in total. Leaving from Meersbrook Park at midday on Saturday June 19th, the walkers will return on Sunday June 20th at midday. You can find out more about the route by downloading the maps and you are welcome to make your own pace on any section – or all of them! We will be publishing the expected times of arrival at the checkpoints in case you would like to meet up with the main group.

Dont forget to enter via Eventbrite

You can download the SPBR-The-Sheffield-Way maps from here

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small park BIG RUN 2021 now open for entry!

You can enter the run here.

Like last year it is a DIY run soas to avoid a mass congregation in our local park and keep us all safe. And just like last year we are looking forward to running , skipping , walking, hopping, juggling – or whatever we choose to do – with comrades in Palestine and elsewhere in the world over the same 24 hours.

You can find out more about the theme for this year’s run here. We will be publishing a programme nearer the time

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Qulandya

Thank you Body of Sound, an all women choir based in Sheffield for this lovely song, and recorded it for small park BIG RUN 2020. This tune was written after seeing ‘one wall two prisons’ graffitied at the Qualandya checkpoint.

Body of Sound have sung for small park BIG RUN before, mostly in the wet! This was recorded over zoom. So we missed being with them but at least they were dry this year. They have asked we put this as a prefix to their beautiful song

“Body of Sound is a women’s singing group in Sheffield. We have recorded Qulandya for Small Park Big Run 2020  

Palestinians are severely curtailed in their freedom to move. In the occupied West Bank they cannot travel freely from place to place without going through checkpoints and access to their land is often denied. Movement in and out of Gaza is limited: the border is often closed, denying Palestinians access to hospitals or visiting ill and dying relatives. An issue SPBR focuses on this year is child prisoners. There are currently 194 Palestinian children imprisoned. They are detained by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, and prosecuted in Israeli military courts with little or no legal representation. Palestinians are physically and psychologically imprisoned. Under the lock down we have experienced a loss of freedom to move – Palestinians are experiencing this every day”

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Register for virtual rally Sunday 21st June midday

Run for freedom

Really looking forward to our post event virtual rally this year instead of the rally outside Meersbrook Hall in the park. But just like outside the hall, linking up with Palestine will be emotional and uplifting, we are sure.

You can register for the zoom here.

We have speakers from Never Stop Dreaming, who help run the Children’s Healing Centre, in Gaza; and speakers from the Run for Freedom in Nablus, Ramallah and Aida refugee camp in the West Bank.

The running order for the zoom is here

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Back in the past – spbr 2017

Just to remind ourselves, while we are doing all these activities separately, how wonderful it is when we come together in the park. It is a really great capture of the spirit and purpose of the run.

Film of the first small park BIG RUN. Great to see this again