As part of Restart’s 10th birthday celebrations in October 2022, as a team we got thinking about causes or charities important to us. We want to do something that will make a tangible difference beyond our four-walls and typical local community.

I recently came across a video titled ‘Zombies of Nairobi’ (click here to view), a 19-minute documentary detailing the plight of homeless men, women and children living in Nairobi, Kenya. An epidemic of homelessness stems from a lack or loss of support at home, lack of education and access to schooling, and addiction to easily-accessible drugs as seen in the video. The young men interviewed are in constant danger, sleeping rough and trying to survive amongst adults under the influence of drugs themselves.

Introducing Amani for Africa

After watching what is quite a disturbing and upsetting video, it’s positive to see that an organisation is on the ground not only in Nairobi, but throughout sub-Saharan Africa to help those in desperate need. Amani for Africa provide hot meals twice per week for those doing it most tough out on the streets. Amani don’t stop there however – they also provide shelter, clothing, education opportunities, and a second chance for homeless children.

Amani are an Italian organisation based in Milan – to learn more on how they support young people and children living alone in the streets and suburbs of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest cities, click here (click on the EN symbol in the top right of the website to change the language to English).

How are we planning to help?

Having reached out to Amani to discuss how we at Restart could realistically help them in their mission to improve the lives of those in need throughout this part of the world, they replied by saying that “any donations help to bring back to school the children we meet in the streets of Nairobi and support their growth in the best way possible”. We also discussed how money raised can help to provide clothing for these children, knowing that most of them likely only have the clothes on their backs.

Seeing their plight as I sat comfortably in my home, with food in my fridge, a roof over my head and a bed to sleep in, a supportive network of friends and family around me, and a business whereby I get to live my passion each day, made me realise how capable I am of doing something to help.

The fundraiser we have created at Restart is to cover the distance from Brisbane to Nairobi, Kenya in 60 80 days, between the dates of October 20th to December 20th 2022.

As you can see this is a hefty distance – 12,500 kilometres to be exact. Therefore, the five of us at Restart are going to need some help!

What can you do to help?

If watching Zombies of Nairobi struck a chord with you like it did for me, and you’d like to help in our mission to raise donation dollars for Amani, join us as we walk/jog/run/cycle/row/swim our way across Australia, across the Indian Ocean and into the heart of Nairobi.

Is this a realistic and achievable goal in 60 80 days? I honestly don’t know! However the more of our community we can get involved, the greater contributions each of us can make towards this massive tally of kilometres to achieve our goal in time for Christmas.

If you would like to participate, we ask that you ‘buy in’ or donate to this meaningful cause. This can be any amount that you see fit – I am confident that our dollars can go a long way towards changing the life of a young boy or girl, man or woman doing it extremely tough!

The steps to get involved are as follows:

Step #1
Download the Strava app (if you have a smart phone), or visit https://www.strava.com/ . Set up your profile, and search to follow Nicola, Tom, Ben, Lomé or myself (click this link to see our full names for searching purposes). We will then send you an invite to join our challenge named ‘Restart’s Journey to Nairobi’ (if you have any difficulty with this speak to your Exercise Physiologist). Strava is where you can track your activity distances and have them contributed towards our ambitious tally. As a new Strava user you should be able to join one group challenge without having to take out a paid subscription.

Step #2
Our fundraising platform of choice is RallyUp, which accommodates raising dollars for international charities. To ‘buy-in’ and pledge your hard-earned, click here. Simply register as a participant and follow the prompts to donate.

The donation platform is based in EURO currency as we are raising $ for a European-based non-profit. To better understand the current EURO –> AUSD conversion rate, check out a currency convertor here.

Step #3
Keep an eye on Restart’s Facebook page as we intend on doing group activities to help rack up the kilometres. Depending on numbers, this may be in the form of a Saturday morning Park Run, a weekend hike, or a gym-based challenge to boost our tally towards the lofty target! I will also update everyone on how our donations are tracking when we hit a notable milestone.

Step #4
Feel your fitness levels improve as your daily activity levels increase – the challenge provides a great motivation to move as every kilometre will help.

We look forward to having you on board over the next 10 weeks as we embark on our Journey To Nairobi!

Luke