By PSCU
Margaret Kenyatta will on Tuesday relaunch the First Lady’s Half Marathon after a two-year break.
It is one of the key fundraising events for Beyond Zero, a flagship programme aimed at saving the lives of mothers and children by preventing unnecessary maternal and child deaths.
The campaign also aims to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2020, besides scaling up the war against new HIV infections among adolescents.
The inaugural race was held in March 2014 followed by two others in 2015 and 2016 before taking a break.
The half marathon seeks to draw attention of stakeholders to the challenges of maternal and infant health in Kenya, besides raising resources to increase access to healthcare for mothers and their babies.
In 2014, Kenyatta participated in the 42km London Marathon, becoming the first spouse of a Head of State to undertake such a high-profile sporting event.
This was followed by more training sessions in Tokyo and Addis Ababa.
Since it’s launch in 2014, the Beyond Zero campaign has complemented the government efforts in health care provision.
Earlier this year, the First Lady launched the second Beyond Zero Strategic Framework (2018-2022) which expands the initiative’s healthcare programmes to include previously neglected health challenges including obstetric fistula, children living with disabilities and the increased involvement of men in reproductive health.