Sunday July 5, 2009
Amazing grace in action
By CHIN MUI YOON
What would you do if, one day, you suddenly woke up blind? Run in marathons and inspire people around the world? That’s what one man is doing, and here’s his inspirational story.
BLIND Kenyan runner Henry Wanyoike is thundering down the track in the final sprint of the 5,000m race. But his able-bodied guide can no longer keep up with him. The sight of Wanyoike dragging, pushing, and pulling his guide for 50m is a defining moment in the 2000 Sydney Paralympics.
Wanyoike won the gold medal in that race and, with a time of 15:46:29, was just three seconds short of breaking the world record.
Five years later, he did break a world record (in the sight impaired category) with a time of 2:32:51 when he ran the London marathon – one of the World Marathon Majors, which are run over the traditional distance of 42.195km; the others are the Boston, Chicago, New York, and Berlin marathons.
A week later, in Hamburg, he beat his own time over the same distance by clocking 2:31:31.
Blind runner Henry Wanyoike (front) trains and runs with his sighted childhood friend, Joseph Kibunja. – ART CHEN / The Star To the world, he’s a champion on the tracks – but to his countrymen, Wanyoike is also a superstar off the tracks. He inspires them with his courage in overcoming a disability that would have broken the will of many people and with his tireless efforts to lift up the poor in Kenya by giving back most of what he earns in prize money and from sponsors.
The 35-year-old runner attributes his success on the track to his childhood buddy, Joseph Kibunja, who became his running partner and guide after the Sydney Paralympics.
“We do everything together,” says Wanyoike when we meet them in Kuala Lumpur recently.
The pair was in Kuala Lumpur last weekend to run in the Kuala Lumpur International Marathon as ambassadors of Standard Chartered’s Seeing is Believing campaign (see Visionary campaign on SM5). The two also spent some time coaching children from the Setapak Secondary School for the Blind.
“Joseph and I start a race together and we finish it together,” Wanyoike continues. “He is my eyes. He uses his elbows to signal to me, he checks the time and competitors for me, gets me water when I need it. I am grateful for everything he does for me.”
He shows us the 30cm (about 1 foot) long loop twined around both their wrists that Kibunja uses to tug in different directions to signal Wanyoike.
Together, this formidable pair has run into record books all over the world.
Despair and determination
Wanyoike grew up in the Shauri Yako slums of Kikuyu near Nairobi, and lived with his mother and elder sister in a tiny, two-room mud hut, along with their goats and chickens. There was no piped water or electricity. Schools were located 5km away, so children of the village often had to run to avoid being late for class!
When he was 19, Wanyoike was stricken by a stroke and became legally blind when his optic nerves were irreversibly damaged.
“I went to sleep on April 30, 1995, as a sighted person, and I woke up blind the next day,” Wanyoike recalls quietly.
“It was very painful, frustrating, and depressing. I had been training to become a marathon runner since I was 12. At that time, I had only learnt shoemaking. So I knew I might end up being a beggar on the street.
“When I realised I would never see again, I wanted to give up. I just stayed home all the time, I had no appetite, I worried constantly over what would become of me, and I just wanted to be alone.
“My mother is a single mother, she was so sad to see me like that. My case was the first in my village. Many friends left me, which really hurt because it was when I needed them most.
“It took me three years to get back on my feet. I was very blessed that my family is so supportive and loved me a lot.”
Wanyoike’s mother took him to the Kikuyu Eye Clinic (www.pceakikuyuhospital.org), a hospital supported by the international charity, Christian Blind Mission (cbm.org). In 1999, aged 23, Wanyoike went to the Machakos Institute for the Blind to learn independent living skills and Braille.
Dr Petra Verweyen, who taught Wanyoike at the hospital, recalls in henry4gold.com: “He was so helpless and sad when he came. He could see a little; he could recognise something that is a metre away from him with difficulty. We taught him the basics of sewing and using utensils to read newspaper headlines. But two years later, Henry lost his sight completely.
“It has taken extraordinary courage and determination for him to become the champion runner that he is today.”
Wanyoike says meeting others who are like him helped him to accept himself then: “Many blind people kept themselves busy and useful through knitting, sewing, and other works. I thought, if they can do this, what about me? So I learnt knitting.”
But to be sitting still in a chair for most of the day instead of running like the wind was hard to take, and Wanyoike wasn’t much happier.
A turning point came when Dr Verweyen told Wanyoike, “You can still run if you really want to”. And the way to do that was to train with a sighted guide giving his instructions through a tether in a way that wouldn’t make Wanyoike break his stride. The institute’s director, Francis Saya, was Wanyoike’s first running guide.
Wanyoike began running again with new-found hope. He fell countless times in those early days, and still bears scars from those injuries.
“I didn’t stop because I wanted to become a champion,” he says. “I have lost my sight but I have never lost my vision.”
It was around then that he heard about the Sydney Paralympics. He went to try out for the Kenyan Paralympics Team at Nyayo Stadium feeling sure he wasn’t good enough. Although he made it, fear followed him to Sydney.
“I was terrified when the announcer mentioned the medals my competitors had! I was the only first-timer. But then he added that I was from a nation of great runners. That gave me courage.”
He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother
After Sydney, Wanyoike sought out childhood friend Kibunja to be his guide; Kibunja was working as a carpenter at a construction site at the time.
Tall, quiet and reflective, Kibunja is the opposite of the lively, confident Wanyoike.
Kibunja says softly, “He came to me and asked for help. I was very nervous because I didn’t know how to run in marathons. I trained for two years before I was able to keep up with his pace.”
With his own timing and speed, wouldn’t Kibunja be able to seek out his own sporting glory?
“But my dream is to see Henry achieving his goals. By helping him to do that, I am able to help many other people, too,” Kibunja replies.
“We’ve been friends since we were 10. We threw stones together and we played football with a ball made of plastic scraps glued together! My life has changed so much for the better. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for Henry.”
The two train daily, morning and evening, working on their own and gleaning tips from other runners. The roads are bumpy and uneven where they train near their childhood village of Kikuyu; muddy and slippery during rainy seasons, and dusty on sunny days. Wanyoike and Kibunja have fallen together many times.
Nowadays, Kibunja says with a laugh, many people follow them around during their runs!
Wanyoike is reigning African paralympic champion in the 1,500m event since the 2003 All Africa Games.
His performance at the inaugural 2003 Nairobi Marathon impressed the Standard Chartered Bank so much that he was adopted as its Goodwill Ambassador; the bank sponsors his participation in marathons around the world.
And every step along the way, Kibunja has been running alongside him.
“The most challenging race was in 2006 in Brunei because there were seven hills to climb!” Kibunja recalls. “Well, we do like challenges. The happiest moment we share is every time we cross the finish line!”
A people’s champion
The story of the blind marathon runner and his guide is known throughout Kenya, which has produced more champion marathon runners than any other country.
And, as we mentioned earlier, he gives back much of his earnings and prize money to the poor and the blind.
So it’s not surprising that there are babies named after Wanyoike, who was himself named after his grandfather, a Kikuyu tribal warrior.
In 2003, he used his Sydney Paralympics prize money to register and seed the Henry Wanyoike Foundation (which is also supported by former tennis great Boris Becker).
The foundation organises projects to help the poor and the disabled, buys knitting machines for them, and sponsors eye surgeries.
Wanyoike is enthusiastic about one recently-launched project: Cows4Kenya. It has given 43 cows to impoverished families to date.
The runner makes time to visit and counsel the newly blind in hospitals, and sponsors daily meals for 50 children from the Kikuyu slums where he grew up.
He also funds feeding programmes organised by local churches in Kenya, gives motivational talks to students – and continues knitting pullovers for orphans in his spare time.
California Governor Arnold “the Terminator” Schwarzeneggar personally congratulated him at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics.
“He asked me what I wanted and I told him that I’d like to have eight knitting machines for my people. He agreed immediately, and sent them, later!” Wanyoike recalls happily.
(It seems that Wanyoike cheekily said “Hasta la vista, baby” to the runners he passed in a race in Vienna after this Terminator encounter! That’s the famous phrase, meaning “see you later”, uttered by Schwarzeneggar’s character in Terminator 2.)
“I feel good when I am running,” says Wanyoike. “I am doing exactly what I was supposed to do when I could see. But now, I am also running for others. I want to set a good example for other people, especially for those without sight, to show them that they, too, can be champions.
“Today people accept it when their children cannot see. They no longer hide them at home. Sometimes, people doubt our abilities. But we just want opportunities, not sympathy.”
Most runners specialise in one or two events, rarely three. Wanyoike and Kibunja excel in the marathon, half marathon, 10,000m, 5,000m, and 1,500m events.
How far could Wanyoike have gone if he hadn’t lost his sight during his prime?
But he harbours no bitterness: “I have learnt that my loss of sight is a blessing. It has taught me to see with my heart instead,” Wanyoike says.
“Without my blindness, I might not have seen the need to help so many other people in my community. I am not ashamed to be without sight. I want to help more people through my condition. I want to tell everyone that you can become stronger through your challenges. This takes effort, determination, discipline and courage.
“People have called me from around the world and through Facebook (facebook.com/henry.wanyoike), they tell me, ‘you are an inspiration to us’.
“That has kept me very encouraged. They organise many activities on May 1, to commemorate the day I became blind, and also my birthday on the 10th. May is a month of hope for me!”
Still the same
Despite their fame, Wanyoike and Kibunja remain humble and sincere. They love chicken and rice. Even when their hosts take them out for a lavish meal at Shangri-La Hotel Kuala Lumpur’s Shang Palace, they politely ask only for the Hainanese Chicken Rice on the menu.
“I’ve been working with them for four years and they are exactly the same as when I first met them!” says Winnie Tan, Standard Chartered’s Shanghai-based sustainability and brand head. Wanyoike still lives in Kikuyu in a home in the country where he rears chickens and cows.
He and his wife have three children – and Wanyoike adds that he also has four pet cows and eight cats and loves music. Kibunja is also married and has two children.
“If God gave me only a day to see again, I would want to see all the good we have done, the people we have helped. I want to see my wife and my (youngest) son. I was running in Canada when he was born,” says Wanyoike.
“I’d like to coach one day but I want to keep running for another 20 years because I know that I am not running for myself any more but those who are weaker.”
For information on Henry Wanyoike and Joseph Kibunja, visit henrywanyoikefoundation.com or henry4gold.com; they are also on Facebook (facebook.com/pages/Henry-Wanyoike-Joseph-Kibunja/31300297922).
Related Stories:
Running around the world
Visionary campaign
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