Minilympics

Story: Farhan Ahmed & Afrah Al-Kheili.

Young people aged 14-16 ran for fun in the EIS (English Institute of Sport) on the 9th of May.

Co-organisers Mohammed Ahmed, a local resident, and the Burngreave Young Advisors, Farhan Ahmed and Afrah Al-Kheili, believe sport truly unites people.

This event, from publicity to licensing was entirely done by these three and shows other young people can do it too.

“It was enough to see the smile on their face and didn’t want to go home, to show it was a successful event.” Afrah

On the day there was a series of running events for all to take part in and for entertainment, break dancing, Shrek, Nintendo Wii, Music and other sporting activities.

Farhan adds, “We advertised throughout Sheffield bringing together different communities, to show that the Burngreave area has a lot to give and our young people are as capable as any other area.”

Participants ran against one another in teams. The aim of the event was not for competition but to promote unity by overcoming cultural, religious, and class barriers, giving young people an opportunity to demonstrate their talents. Everyone was awarded a gold medal with a personal certificate indicating their lap timings.

Mohammed says other young people could do the same, “all you need to do is get hold of a form from an appropriate funding organisation, fill it in and send it off”

Imran Ali from Activity Sheffield was amazed by the success

“We do events like this and publicise it all over Sheffield but still don’t get many people participating. Running is something that many youths move away from and would rather go for activities like football.”

On the day young people came from various schools around Sheffield including Firvale, Parkwood, King Edwards, Meadowhead and High Storrs. Youths from the football session ran by Omar Mohammed and Imran Ali every Thurday at the Firvale centre attended. Others were brought from the Burngreave Streetworx Project.

Martin from Xoolon a sports & fitness academy worked with us to organise and structure the running of each running event on the day. Timings of laps were recorded and are available online (www.xoolon.com) for each participant, certificates were printed as well.

Funding was received by Unltd that support social enterprises, Ahmed from YFS limited a project management company supported us by providing us with the basic grass roots for us to work on so that we could do the event by our selves. Anggakara founder of the social enterprise Breakin Point supported the event on the day and with planning also.