Paul Tergat’s speech at G8 youth summit

Canadians don’t know how lucky they are to have Paul Tergat in town. As we mentioned yesterday, the five-time world cross-country champion and former marathon world record holder delivered a keynote address to the youth delegates at the G8 summit in Muskoka, Ont., on Wednesday, and then went for a 5K fun run with the youth group the next morning.

We were sad to see that there was no media coverage of Tergat’s visit. In the text of his speech below, you can see why he makes such a good ambassador for the World Food Program, and also why he’s a great champion of the sport of distance running.

Help from food program ‘dramatic turning point’ in life of world-class marathoner

By Paul Tergat

Distinguished Delegates

Ladies and Gentlemen

Allow me to convey very warm greetings from my Country of Kenya, a land of immense natural beauty, friendly people and terribly tempting weather all the year round.

But most importantly, I am deeply honoured to stand before you this evening and share a little piece of my life experience as well as benefit from yours at the end of our conference.

To the organizers, please accept my appreciation for inviting me to this very significant conference that brings together the most vibrant segment of our society – the youth.

Indeed, no one can deny that amongst us are potential future leaders of industry, the corporate, academic, and political worlds or even UN eaders

Honourable Delegates

Standing before you is an individual, who 40 years plus ago was born into a polygamous family of 17 children in a remote part of Kenya. That must be a bit strange to you!

Add to that the fact that this family had very few means to feed itself, partly due to the dry, unproductive nature of the land as well as the prevailing poverty within and beyond the home, and you get a picture of near misery.

By the time I was of age to attend school, the most immediate daily need was not getting to class, but looking for that single meal to complement what my parents could scrape together to feed us all.

Day-in, day-out, in our humble abode, the dominant struggle was to find something to eat –  just a single critical meal for the day. It was not about a choice of what to eat. Rather, what mattered was whether we could eat anything at all.

But in what would later turn out to be the most dramatic turning point in my life, the World Food Programme, WFP, started distributing meals in my area and my school through its school feeding programme in 1977.

At that time, for me and my age mates, this was a huge attraction and going to school became not only regular but something to look forward to. The school meals kept us in school; nourished our bodies and substantially improved our concentration in class because our stomachs were full.

In due course, I was able to get through my 8 years of primary education and did well enough to proceed to the next level and, later, after High School, begun the career for which I am now known – in athletics.

All this was made possible by that single intervention – the WFP school meals programme.

Now you understand why I have such a passion for advocating for WFP’s school meals programme, and I have now been a WFP Ambassador against Hunger for almost 10 years.

Ladies and Gentlemen

Just like your country of Canada, Kenya is renowned for its sports and, more specifically, athletic prowess on the world stage.

I know that you have a very rich sporting history here in Canada and exceptional performances in such sports as skiing, hockey, golf, athletics and swimming.

Your son, Donovan Bailey is legendary and a household name for his conquering exploits in the sprints on the track at major world championships and Olympics – and he is just one among hundreds of world beaters.

I am an athlete by profession and I have gone through different running experiences ranging from cross-country to the track, as well as road racing.

My arrival on the world stage early in the 1990s was marked by the reward of 5 straight wins in the world cross country championships between 1995 and 1999, a feat that only Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia surpassed recently.

In between these, I participated in track competitions during various IAAF Permit meetings, world championships and the Olympics (Atlanta, Sydney and Athens in 2004 for the marathon).

I am sure you must have heard or watched my duels with another Ethiopian friend of mine, Haile Gebrselassie in the 10,000m, most memorable being the Sydney Olympics in 1996 when he snatched the Gold medal from me by a fraction of a second!

But the pinnacle of my running career was the 2003 Berlin marathon, when I broke the world record in September that year (2:04:55).

I was able to bring the record under 2 hrs and 5 min for the first time in the history of marathon running, taking 55 seconds off the previous record.

None of my achievements in athletics came easy. There were a lot of disappointments and failures in between, which had the potential to make me give up.

But why am I giving you this preview? I do so so that you can appreciate the role of a simple action such as WFP’s school meals in changing the history of an individual and even a whole society.

It is not far-fetched to conclude that I would not have realised my full potential if it was not for the school meals I received at an early age in my life, which gave me a well-nourished body ready to do great things later in my life.

That is why it is extremely important for our world leaders and policy makers that as they consider urgent global issues, the nutrition of children and their mothers must rank high.

The right maternal and child nutrition is fundamental and a core pillar of  other developmental goals across the world. To build economically strong societies and nations in the future depends on the level of nutritional care given to the most vulnerable.

Indeed, it is now widely established that a well-nourished child tends to be more productive than a malnourished one. So it makes great economic sense to invest in children in their early years.

Distinguished Delegates

I am very gratified to learn that our host nation, Canada, has taken a leadership role in the fight against malnutrition. For example, their support proved critical to WFP assistance to the children affected by the recent devastating earthquake in Haiti, among other needy places globally.

Moreover, Canada is not only one of the most generous donors to WFP, but is also a leader in the promotion of food security and nutrition, especially for women and children. Canada is also a pioneer nation in the Micronutrient Initiative.

This is highly commendable and my appeal is to urge the world’s community of nations, particularly the leaders of the G-8 countries attending the forthcoming G8 Summit, to focus closely on reducing child mortality by addressing basic health solutions, clean water and combating hunger.

There should be a firm undertaking to invest in the nutrition of the world’s poorest children in their early years so that they can later reach their full mental and physical potential. Such a measure will undoubtedly boost the fight against poverty.

Canada’s support of school feeding programmes such as the Ghana Home Grown School Feeding Programme initiative has seen children, especially girls stay in school.

We must, therefore, do all we can to make food available to the hungry because it encourages social and political stability, especially in conflict-prone places.

In a nutshell, a nutritious start in life leads to stronger, brighter and more productive adults – a very critical component required for the realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

This is our message as the youth to our world leaders: – address the basic issues for a stronger and secure world for all of us.

Investing in a child’s nutrition at the early age is perhaps the single most important window of opportunity where global investment can pay dividends for decades to come.

We strongly believe that you owe us as a generation such an inheritance of healthy mothers and children, a clean and sustainable environment as well as a robust world economy in a peaceful world.

As a marathon runner, I know that some of these objectives are not achieved in an instant, but we must start somewhere and run the full course. The upcoming Summit provide a perfect opportunity to make sure we are all in the race.

Thank you and may God bless you.