Top athletes to raise money for the poor

Ethiopian Olympic gold medallists are to help spearhead the country's fight against poverty, the country’s national athletics coach announced on Wednesday. Double gold medal winners Haile Gebreselassie and Derartu Tulu will join other world record holders and 11,000 people in a charity run in Addis Ababa. The six-kilometre run, which will take place on 7 September, aims to raise awareness of the country’s entrenched poverty. National coach Dr Woldemeskel Kostre said the country’s great names could help raise awareness both on the track and in Ethiopia on the plight of the impoverished nation. Speaking on the eve of this month's World Championships in Paris, Dr Woldemeskel said that the running track was where Ethiopia proved it prowess. “Our mission is to compete and to win,” the 61-year-old trainer, who is treated like a hero in Ethiopia, told journalists. “If the people and the government work together then we can fight the poverty in the country.” Kiros Nega, the general secretary of the country’s Athletics Federation, said the course runs through some of the poorest areas of the capital city. It will begin and end in the city’s Meskel Square – the centre of the capital and where hundreds of would-be athletes train each day. Ethiopia is currently reeling from a famine, which has hit 12.6 million people and claimed tens of thousands of lives. It is also one of the poorest countries in the world where over half the population lives on less than US $1 a day. The charity run is being organised by the promoters of Ethiopia’s Live-Aid style concert which was held in May and raised some US $1.5 million towards combating the country’s drought. Organiser Salome Tadesse said they hoped to raise an additional US $20,000 from the run, which will be handed over to the government’s emergency arm, the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC).