Lady Khama Charitable Trust, beneficiary of Colour Run

The highly anticipated 5 kilometre Colour Run Botswana slated for September 26th recently disclosed that their local charity partner Lady Khama Charitable Trust. The paint race that celebrates health, happiness and individuality aims to partner with local charities to help shine a light on their work within the society and highlight the causes they stand for.

 
“Our charity beneficiary this year is the Lady Khama Charitable Trust. We chose them because they are an umbrellla charity organisation supporting many other charity trusts around the country. Our aim, however, is to donate to a specific project they are undertaking depending on the amount of funds  raised at the fun run. Our donation will be based on the outcome of the event and we believe our event will sell out soon due to the hype  and positive response we are receiving,” said Botswana Colour Run Marketing Manager, Fredrick Mpebe.

 
Coordinator of  Lady Khama Charitable Trust, Rebecca Binns, acknowledged the partnership between her organization and Colour Run adding that, “We understand we will be receiving 10% of the event’s proceeds. After receiving the funds we will determine which project to invest it in but it will definitely go towards women and children or the pool funding which involves other charitable projects.”

 
The Lady Khama Charitable Trust was founded in 2002 in honour of Lady Ruth Khama. In establishing the Trust, her eldest son and current patron, Ian Khama, continued community development work that Lady Khama was pursuing. The Trust focuses on vulnerable women and children as highlighted by Lady Khama’s involvement with the Botswana Red Cross, Botswana Council for Women, and SOS Children’s Villages. The Trust allocates its funds to projects in Botswana through a grant application system. Submissions are reviewed at the quarterly Board of Trustees meetings and those that meet the grant application guidelines then receive support from the Trust.

 
Moreover, Mpebe said they will soon announce their platinum and gold sponsors. Commenting on the progress of ticket sales, Mpebe said their website went down temporarily due to the traffic of people registering to participate. “This has since been sorted out. We want everyone in Botswana to come and attend this event so we are selling our tickets in advance. Botswana Colour Run team  has organised corporate packages as well and team building games on the day. It is going to be a spectacular and colourful day. We have runners from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia who have already registered and locally we have people from  Francistown, Maun and Kasane among others. We are definitely going to boost local and international tourism with this event. We are still finalising our Dj line up to entertain everyone on the day also followed by the Neon after party,” explained Mpebe.