The Sussex Newspaper - Great news for a great county!

....to run the Brighton Marathon in support of women farmers in Africa

GardenAfrica is looking for a few more women runners to join our team in the 2012 Brighton Marathon.

GardenAfrica is a Sussex based charity that funds sustainable horticultural training to enable gardeners and smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa to maximise production from even the most drought-prone land.

Raise money to support GardenAfrica's training in sub-Saharan Africa - including Zimbabwe which has the world's lowest life expectancy for women. In Zimbabwe the average life expectancy for women is 34 – with one in seven people thought to have contracted HIV, and one in four children have lost one or both parents.

Women and girls, to whom vital oral knowledge about natural agricultural systems has been passed, often must resort to commercial sex work, exposing them to HIV infection and gender-based violence. Mass migration to cities and neighbouring countries has further depleted agricultural knowledge and reduced the labour available to feed the remaining family members. This has forced many households to barter assets such as livestock and agricultural implements for food increasing vulnerability even further.

Training through GardenAfrica helps increase crop diversity and yields, without amassing debt on expensive fertlisers & pesticides, enables these women farmers to grow a nutritious range of food for their families, as well as servicing demand for organic produce in the capital, Harare, where they are realising 3 times the price they would ordinarily achieve.  Some of the associations have already increased their income by between 300-500% - meaning they can pay for their children to attend school.

Previous running experience is not required. If you want to get fit in 2012 and make a difference to families in Africa - get in touch as soon as possible. GardenAfrica will help runners with training  programmes, clothing advice and access to training runs.

To sign up or find out more  http://www.gardenafrica.org.uk/news_events1.htm#here or contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .