Ok all, it is not often I ask something of you but this time I ask you to look inside your heart and help two for the price of one.
I am taking on the Couch to 5km run in 9 weeks challenge. Beginning next week.
I have to follow a strict regime of running 3 times a week with the eventual goal of running 5kms without stopping (by week 9).
As you know I have been an inconsistent exerciser, so for me to complete this will be huge personal victory.
But here is the kicker, along with my personal health I am doing it to raise funds for something very close to my heart.
The Afghan Women’s Writing Project.
Why is this close to my heart?
Because writing is my absolute escape, it frees me , it does so much for me. If I couldn’t write I would not be able to make sense of my world.
Then, I imagine living in Afghanistan, a country where freedom of expression is so restricted.
The AWWP helps women in Afghanistan have a voice, to be heard , to make sense of their world through the powerful tool of writing.
The fabulous gals who started this project are doing some amazing work to ensure that women in Afghanistan can express themselves through the AWWP.
Currently they are working on creating a Women’s Only Internet Cafe in Kabul:
As part of our ongoing effort to support and nurture these voices, our Kabul team is setting up a writing corner for our Afghan writers in the coming days. The site, to open this month, is located in a small, nondescript apartment building in Afghanistan’s capital, unmarked from the outside and in one of Kabul’s safer neighborhoods. A building guard lives on the premises. Here, our writers will be able to gather to send their poems and essays, read books, and partake in community along with chai. This is the prototype of what we hope will eventually be Afghanistan’s first women-only Internet café.
Enormous thanks goes to our Kabul team for their volunteer work, and to Melissa Pritchard’s Ashton Goodman Fund for buying the books that will be used at this writers’ nest, along with Internet connections for our writers in Kabul and elsewhere. It is a major step forward in providing support to our women as security issues grow.
To keep this space up and running, we ask your continued help. No donation is too small. To earmark any donation for this space, note “Writing Corner.”
Today all I am asking from you is your pledge.
Should I get the support I will start next week and update weekly with proof of progress. I will get a button that will allow you to pay directly to the AWWP on completion.
You need only cough up when I have run 5kms without stopping in NINE WEEKS time! (currently can’t do 200 metres)
So what do you pledge?
Grateful for any support
xx Sharnanigans
57 Comments
I will donate $50 if I can do it!to get the ball rolling!
Al turner pledged $25! (via email)
Count me in! Great cause Sharni- get to it!
Hi Heather, if you could pledge an amount that would be terrific, set myself up a task for chasing everyone down for it at the end, it’s all on! THANKYOU!
I’ll match your $50 Sharni.
Wow! Thanks Heather!
Put me down for a $20. You go girl!
Thanks Karls! Ooh scared now, it is real!!
Well done, Sharni! Put me down for $30. Look forward to reading about your progress!
Good on you Deb! Thanks
Sharni!
I don’t have a paypal account, is there any other way to pay? If there is, I can buy a visa or master gift card & will use that to pledge $10!
Thanks Michelle, I will find out for you and let you know OK – :-) !
I’ll throw in $30 for you! Better get your running shoes on Sharni!
THANKS ALEX! Sheeeeeeeeeeeesh scared now BUT determined!!
You can do this Sharn! Way to go – setting a goal is the only way! And all for a good cause. I’m in for $25. xx (PS – I may hit you up for a return pledge in May xx)
Thanks Beggsy, you just hit me up in May y’hear!!
$20 Sharni.
Thanks very much Mike!
Hi Sharni,
Good on you! I’ll throw in $25.
Goodluck!
Ok wah..run u must! I am good for a fitty.
Lovely Sharni..I pledge $20 US dollars…because you AMAZE me. And yes, I blogged about you, so I hope you get more donations!!!! Now GET MOVIN’
http://lessonsfromthemonkimarried.blogspot.com/2010/10/365-lessons-lesson-298-get-off-your.html
I’ll give you $50….from me and mum…
I will pledge $20 – I have done the couch to 5 km and its not as scary as it sounds and am sure you will do it – I did. Best of luck.
Ok Sharni, great cause … I pledge $10
I’ll give ya $20 Sharns
woohoo thanks Gabs!
$25 from me.
PS: It’s much harder to run in summer, when it’s hot, than in winter. you know that right? And it must be heaps hotter in the OHT than here on the coast. You sure deserve every dollar.
Thanks so much Lisa! You are right, I didn’t think this through AT ALL. SOOOOOOOOOOO hot here no doubt will be 40+ degrees when it is time to do this and flies and mossies galore. Lucky i like a challenge!!!
Our Patch have emailed confirming $200 pledge! Woohoo! – $650 pledged so far!
Sorry honey, I’m a doofus! How do I pledge so it goes against your name – it all looked like it went into a big pit when I clicked on your pledge button thingee? Ta! x
Heya lisa, all you need to do is leave the amount you pledge in the comments field here and I will chase you up and explain how to pay it when I have ‘done the deed!”
Jane Kennedy has endorsed the project with a pledge of $100!
Aunty Lyn has pledged $50
thanks so much to both!!
Lisa Schofield $25
Thanks Lisa, giving back girl you! Love your work xx
Thank you SO MUCH each and every one of you. To offer a small glimpse of what the project means to these women, see below. xomasha
What AWWP Means: Our Writers Speak
Today I came from far away to contact the project. 4 hour walk, isn’t it long? Not for my interests of writing, it is not far away, but I need to have a man all the time with me when I come to Kabul. We can’t walk alone here in Logar. It is funny when during the day all people are working with Karzai government and at night all those same people are Talibs. So trust no one. No one knows I am writing except one of my brothers, who encourages me to write whether or not it is good. Thanks for my computer, it works. I am happy. I think I am a mother and the laptop is my child whom I love very much. I do take care of it well. —Tabasom
I took my pen to write and at first I was afraid: what to write? about what? But this was a project to write about everything, and I took the pen; I didn’t write from outside of my heart, I began to write about whatever was in my heart… The writing project gave me a voice, the project gave me courage to appear as a woman, to tell about my life, to share my pains and experiences. I wonder how big the change in my destiny is because of your work and this project. Who would trust an online class, a writing project, to change a destiny and a faith? AWWP gave me the power to feel I am not only a woman; it gave me a title, an Afghan woman “writer.” … I took the pen and I wrote and everything changed. I learned if I stand, everyone will stand, other women in my country will stand. —Roya
Jenny Chiu – $25
Hayven $100
thanks ladies very muchly xx
Katiebo Jewellery and Accessories – $50
Style Magazine – $50
Thanks so much!
Would love to pledge $30 to your running cause! Good luck. I loathe running so am watching your progress in awe :)
Thanks Polly very much! irony is I kinda loathe it too! Appreciate your pledge greatly!
another $70 from Alex since she completed her 5kms, what a legend – thanks Alex!
I pledge $20 Sharni.
May your legs be strong and your breathing be deep! ;-)
Wow! Many thanks Kelly I really appreciate it!!
tara Prowse – $50
Robyn Law- $50
$100 – Michael Johnson
$50 Kellyanaspana!!!
Nicole Lambert – $30
Leanne Elliott $20
$50 Claire Stribbles – thanks Claire x
$50 Rhona
$50 Nicki mudge and daughter
Thanks so much girls xxx
keiren Hemming – $50
Wil Anderson – $100
Sarah Wilson – $100
killer Kopy – $50
col retallick – $100
Melinda Tankard-Reist – $100
Alice Grist – $50
$50 David Masters
Paula Symons $30
Count me in for $50!
$30 Joni Leimgruber
Good on you Sharni! $25 from me and $25 from Livvy, Lily and Issy who love writing and hope it helps these ladies.