EL PROBLEMA, TESTIMONIO DEL PUEBLO SAHARAUI Trailer

As part of our Run the Sahara 2012 launch event, the award-winning documentary 'El Problema' will be screening at Riverside Studios (Hammersmith, London) this Saturday 1st October at 3pm. Buy your tickets here.

Press release: Jon Snow lends support to charity-run launch for refugees from Western Sahara

Jon Snow lends support to charity-run launch for refugees from Western Sahara

When: Saturday October 1^st, 3pm –5:50pm. (3-4:40pm is the El Problema screening and talk)

Where: Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, London W6 9RL

Contact: sandblastarts@yahoo.co.uk or call 07838463310

In a recent statement made to London-based Sandblast charity, journalist Jon Snow highlights the serious lack of media attention given to the conflict in Western Sahara and supports and supports the efforts of its “Run the Sahara 2012” campaign to raise awareness about the plight of a largely forgotten refugee community in the Sahara.

Launching on October 1st at Riverside Studios, Run the Sahara 2012 aims to get people involved in running in long distance races in the Algerian Sahara near Tindouf. Close to 200,000 Saharawis have been displaced there from Western Sahara for over 35 years and live in four large refugee camps. Funds raised through sponsorship will help support Sandblast's Studio-Live project, a music empowerment initiative being set up in the refugee camps to give artists opportunities to develop professionally and reach international audiences through music to express their culture and struggle more widely.

Historia Del Sáhara Occidental Y Los Derechos Humanos En Los Territorios...

Invitation

Our much anticipated Run the Sahara 2012 launch event is happening this Saturday:-

ONLY 5 DAYS LEFT!
 
Sandblast invites you to a multi-media event
celebrating the launch of
 
Run the Sahara 2012

in support of music empowerment initiative Studio-Live

Saturday October 1^st
3pm –5.50pm
Riverside Studios
Hammersmith, London W6 9RL

RSVP by: Sept 29, 2011 to team@sandblast-arts.org

Featuring: a screening of the award-winning documentary 'El Problema,' readings by acclaimed playwright and poet Inua Ellams; a sneak preview of The Runner, the upcoming documentary about world-class Saharawi athlete Salah Ameidan; former Run the Sahara participants share their personal experiences and of course there will be the opportunity to sign up on the day to register for Run the Sahara 2012!

The entire event will take place in the Cinema venue with a short break for refreshments. We will carry on with the registration for Run the Sahara in the bar downstairs until 6.30pm.

Spread the word! We look forward to seeing you,
Sandblast Team

My Marathon in the Sahara, by Nick Horsfall

Here's something to inspire you... 

Starting out 

I've always been a sporty type, football being my main interest, but I got into long-distance running a couple of years ago. I'd always wanted to run a marathon and had watched the London Marathon on TV ever since I was a kid, wondering if I could do it.

In Nov '09 I was lucky enough to get a place on the New York marathon. The day was amazing. I achieved a time of 3:36 hours which, for my first marathon, I was really happy with. Not long afterwards I was offered a place through my work to run the London Marathon the following April ’10. Having enjoyed the New York so much I jumped at the chance and managed to achieve a time around London of 3:24 which I was thrilled at. Suddenly I was hooked! The buzz from crossing the finish line is something that is difficult to put into words.

I found myself surfing the internet looking for what other marathons there were around the world. Before I knew it I'd set myself a personal challenge to run a marathon on every continent. Having ran on two continents already, I started to look at possible marathons for the remaining 5 (including Australasia)...

Western Sahara Map

After a short time on google I came across www.marathonguide.com which led me to www.SaharaMarathon.org. My first thoughts were, "running a marathon through the Sahara Desert?!?!? How amazing would that be!!!" -Quickly followed by, "will I be able to do this? Will it be too hot?? What if I get kidnapped??? What it I get lost!.."

The adventurer in me won over and I started to look into the race. Reading through the website and peoples comments about their experiences of the SaharaMarathon and that increased my confidence enough to enter. I found the UK facilitators to be the Sandblast Charity group and so it began.

Run the Sahara 2012

For the Fighters & Lovers

A poem by Inua Ellams - 'Fighters and Lovers' calls to mind the plight of the Saharawi, and urges that we must hope. That there will be a future which doesn't conform to the present situation in the Western Sahara. That this future is destiny. 

When dawn breaks

like a stretched sonata silence brown handling

the fantastic blue, when dust litters this new quite

like the substance of prophecies before its period

of bloom, when life lulls the living back to its true paths

Our change will come.

It will come after a tumultus multitude of fighters

have expired for a reason not worth the breath

it is uttered with. It will come after the structures

of global lies fall, sparking the Exodus, movement

of the people with their minds in tow, it will come.

Then those born by the river will gather around

camp fires and finally stop running. The metronomic

yet melodious humming of tired mothers will reach

a crescendo and pause -  sailors will let up their oars

and let the current take them there

the powers of imagination will be fully revealed

to men, they will exactly who they are

and who they can be.

This will set us free falling towards a second of sensory

sovereignty as our senses go insane. That moment

will taste, like a teaspoon full of forbidden fruit shake.

Mixed with Lotus water and lugubriously ladled onto

a parched tongue till the whole mouths is rendered

rhapsodic reeling with intent wonder and hope.

It will smell like fresh pharaohs of the new sun, ancient

and young, like old wisdom riding a BMX between

freight trains in a freezing rain stained

with child’s play and laughter.

After, it will sound like a cello made of rosewood

exhaling soft poetry over a brown village at night

in the quite after the tempest goes making

the atmosphere finally feel good.

and it will feel like a hug

from God.

Finished

with a squeeze

saying “your time has come”.

And then our time will come.

Our suffering will be the greatest stories ever told.

Symbols of our heartache will be treasured in sacred

places as constant reminders that Love never fails,

never folds. Our tears will be recognized as rain clouds

and they will be danced beneath, this will be a reflex,

uncharted, untold, and our silences will be reincarnated

as light, after years of just being golden.

This is not fantasy; this is reality

with a dream complex.

I have seen it written in old books, it is the subject

of Negro spirituals, it has been spoken of by those

who trespassed in paradise and returned whole.

This is our destiny, we are destined to reach that goal.

Though weeping may endure for the night, joy comes

in the morning and as we suffer, we gain

the passage right. So grasp your tempest,

never let go, hold on, stay strong,

hold tight.

Malainin Aomar, soldier of the Polisario Front watching the Moroccan wall near Auserd. Photo by Andrew Mcconnell.

Inua Ellams is a 'word and graphic artist'. Born in Nigeria in 1984, he has been creating word and visual art with his own distinct style, described as "influenced by Classic literature as it is by hip hop, by Keats as it is by MosDef." He began is creative path by working with a pencil, which inspired him and drew him into the visual world. His current work is in graphic design, visual art and word art, both online and in print. If you'd like to know more about Inua, his website can be found at http://phaze05.com/blog/.