“When talented, motivated, and highly trained athletes meet for competition the margin between victory and defeat is usually small. When everything else is equal, nutrition can make the difference between winning and losing”

Team Rwanda consists of 11 young men between the ages of 18-30. These inspiring young men live a life of poverty in houses with no electricity or running water. All lived through the genocide of 1994 and most directly witnessed violence and lost family members in the genocide. The athletes of Team Rwanda are limited by low income, high food prices, and a lack of available foods in Rwanda.

I have been working with Team Rwanda for almost a year and have been able to interview the Team members about their daily diets. What I've found is quite astonishing. On average, the riders consume only 1500 calories and about 30 grams of protein per day. To put this in perspective, most athletes in the US consume at least 4000 calories and 150 grams of protein per day. In addition, intakes of vitamins and minerals such as iron, zinc, calcium, and the B Vitamins (riboflavin, niacin, and B12) are very low, which leads to frequent illness such as malaria.

I think that with an adequate diet the members of Team Rwanda could be even more competitive at the international level. Right now they are competing against teams who can't even fathom living without adequate food and water. I aim to level the playing field between riders of developed countries and the riders of Team Rwanda. Our ultimate goal is success at the 2012 Olympic Games.

Our plan for the summer is to hold weekly 3-day training camps where we provide a specially formulated diet sourced from local markets. Additionally, we will provide the riders with daily vitamin/mineral supplements. Every week, I will go home with a different rider so that I can record everything he eats and record the activities he does in order to determine daily energy intake and energy expenditure. This is an important part of the summer plan because it will help us to better plan future nutrition interventions for the Team.

We are currently trying to raise money for this summer training regimen. I estimate that the total cost for an 8-week summer training program will be $2000 to supply the additional food and small stipends for each Team member. A stipend is necessary because the riders are missing out on other livelihood activities by attending the camps.

Any little bit helps.

• $6 buys food for one rider for one day.
• $40 provides a stipend for one rider for one month.
• $144 provides food for all riders for one week.
• $224 sponsors one rider for the entire summer

100% of your contribution will be used to support the Team during their summer training.