Notes from Amman: Gearing up for the 2017 Camp and Race

The camp leadership team meets in Amman at Sport City to plan for this year's events. (L to R: Bishr Khasawneh, Lilly Frost, Lena Hamvas, Matthew Liston, Ibrahim Abu Asbeh, Batoul Arnaout, and Mohammad Al-Sweity).

By Lena Hamvas

Lena Hamvas is part of this year's leadership team and teaches English in Irbid, Jordan, as a 2016-2017 Fulbright scholar. 

Nina Brekelmans had a mission to improve running infrastructure for girls in Jordan and encourage healthy lifestyles through running, a mission we are determined to follow.

When a fourth grade student of mine heard about the running camp in class, she said, “Yes! I love running. Please, teacher, sign me up!”

When I asked teachers to announce the running camp in class to the girls, they lit up with excitement. One English teacher said, “Wow! That is such a good idea for girls in Jordan. This is wonderful because girls need to learn that they can do sports too, and the community needs more girls doing sports!”

There is a group of girls in Irbid, Jordan (1.5 hours north of Amman) who are taking English classes and heard about the running camp.  From these girls, 9 of 10 girls showed interest in running in the Nina Brekelmans Running Camp.  However, since they are far away from Amman and are not able to come to the camp each week, they have committed to practicing once a week in Irbid as a group with plans to join the girls in Amman for the race.

Fulbright volunteers at the 2016 race

Campers with Batoul Arnaout, founder of BOOST and a favorite speaker and leader for the camp/race

The local community is very excited about the running camp, and we are very excited to help build the infrastructure to make it all happen!

The Nina Brekelmans Running Camp for Girls will have girls from many different neighborhoods. The girls range in age from  8-14 years old. A group of dedicated volunteers from the community at-large will help make the camp happen. The volunteers will be helping the girls with running practice and understanding the lessons given by guest speakers. We will have guest speakers who will speak about healthy lifestyles and about sports in the community and around the world. This year, the girls will have the chance to interact with runners from the United States who knew Nina Brekelmans. This is a good opportunity to exchange cultures through the love of sports.

After four weeks of camp, the girls will run in a race on April 22. This will give them a chance to use what they practiced during the camp and run in a real race. The camp and race will give the girls a chance to meet people in their communities who like to run and do sports. After the camp ends, we hope the girls will be inspired to continue doing sports in their community throughout the rest of the year.

Now Available - Nina Brekelmans Patches!

We are little more than three weeks away from kicking off the 2nd annual Nina Brekelmans Running Camp for Girls on March 25, and cannot wait to welcome this year’s runners to camp!  

We are on track to achieve our goal of doubling the size of the camp. The Fulbright team is recruiting volunteers, and we’re putting together a great lineup of speakers, potentially even including Olympic runners (more on that to come!). Our coaches and host, Sports City, are preparing for another great camp, as are our many Jordanian friends and sponsors.

We also felt now was the perfect time for our supporters to join us keeping Nina’s spirit in our minds and hearts.

We just received a new order of the popular patches that were created for that very purpose. Nina’s friends and family frequently wear these patches while running or doing other activities in her memory. And if you already have one, consider buying one for someone else!

We think this is a powerful way to promote Nina’s vision to empower young women in Jordan. Plus, you can help us meet our goal to raise $1,500 to ensure our team has supplemental resources to provide our camp-goers and race participants with an exceptional experience. These funds will be used to defray camp costs for transportation and snacks as well as t-shirts, race bibs, and medals.

Buy one, or buy a bunch! You can get one for $12, 3 for $35, or 5 for $50. All proceeds from the patches directly support the camp and race.

Year Two Update: Announcing Dates for the Nina Brekelmans Camp and Race for Girls

We are excited to announce the dates for the 2nd annual Nina Brekelmans Running Camp for Girls and Nina Brekelmans Race for Girls in Amman, Jordan!

The camp will be held on four consecutive Saturdays - March 25, April 1, April 8 and April 15 - at Sports City, the area’s premier urban park and athletic facility in Amman. The culminating event - a 3k race - will be held the following weekend at Sports City.

The camp and race were successfully piloted last spring with the support of Nina’s family and friends and the U.S. Fulbright program. Together, we commemorated her vision to promote self-confidence, leadership, and well-being among young women in Jordan through running.

When the camp started, more than half of the girls had never run 3k. Week by week, the girls learned more about running techniques and training, heard from guest speakers, and bonded over lunch and team activities.

In the end, the girls even made history! With widespread participation from across Jordan, more than 70 girls completed the capstone event: a 3k race through Sports City’s pathways that also happened to be the first girls-only footrace in Jordan.

We are proud to again work with our Jordanian friends and sponsors to carry out this vision. In particular, we’re thankful for our coaches, Mohammad Sweity and Ibrahim Abu Asbeh. And once again, we have a fantastic leadership team of U.S. Fulbright students  - Matthew Liston, Lena Hamvas, and Lilly Frost - to help lead planning and logistics and to build upon last year’s success.

Now, as we ramp up preparations for the upcoming camp and race, our goals cover three areas:

• Expansion: The initial camp was strategically small in size to provide an attentive, high-quality experience for all runners. This year we aim to double the size of the camp from nearly 25 girls to 50, while retaining a quality and supportive experience for all.

• New connections: We are piloting a video blogging exchange to connect our young female runners with other female athletes in the US and around the world.

• Fundraising: We are seeking $3,000 in grant funding from the U.S. State Department to cover transportation, food, and material costs for additional runners, and to expand outreach efforts throughout the Amman community. This will help us as we look to accommodate a greater number of girls from a cross-section of Jordanian society, including the refugee community. Organizers are also seeking additional donations from other foundations and private sources.

In the weeks ahead, we’ll provide more details about camp programming and the race. To follow along, sign up here for our mailing list. If you’d like to help contribute to our growth, please consider donating. The Nina Brekelmans Memorial Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit based in Washington, DC. All donations are tax-deductible.

Check out a video recap from the 2016 race for Girls

The Nina Brekelmans Story: Promoting Women’s and Girl’s Empowerment through Running and Cultural Exchange

By 2015-2016 Fulbright U.S. Students to Jordan

Summer Forester, Emily Gallagher, and Jade Graddy

On a bright spring day in April 2014, Nina Brekelmans toed the line to compete in the half marathon at the Dead Sea Ultra race in Amman, Jordan. Although Nina had never competed in this distance before, she won. During a post-race interview, Nina described the race as particularly important to her because it was her last race in Jordan before returning to the United States Tragically, this would be the last race Nina would ever run in Jordan; in June 2015, Nina passed away in a house fire in Washington, DC.

Nina was selected for a Fulbright U.S. Student grant in May 2015 and would have begun her research project in Jordan in August of that year. Nina’s passion for running intersected with and informed her scholarship. As a Fulbright U.S. Student, she planned to research how women’s involvement in elite-level distance running shifts cultural norms about women’s roles in society. Nina hoped to use this research in her lifelong endeavor to promote female participation in athletics. To be sure, Nina was well-suited for this project. During her time in Jordan as a Boren Fellow in 2013-2014, she connected with athletes, coaches, and local running organizations, all of whom embraced Nina as one of their own.

Following Nina’s untimely death, the U.S. Department of State and theBinational Fulbright Commission in Jordan (sponsors and administrators of the Fulbright Program in Jordan) decided to create a community engagement award to honor Nina’s legacy and to help her research continue in Jordan. The prize was $1,000 to fund a project that promoted Nina’s vision of female empowerment through running. This year’s Fulbright U.S. Student group in Jordan worked together to create a proposal.

Nina’s friends and family in the United States gave us the idea to do a camp. They had talked about creating one, but they didn’t have any on-the-ground connections in Jordan to make it a reality. Together, we started laying out the groundwork based on their ideas and the possibilities in Amman.

Planning the camp was easy, largely because Nina was so well respected by everyone she met. Every idea we had was met with a quick solution through people who knew Nina and wanted to support her legacy. We needed a location: one of her friends in Jordan had connections to Sports City where we could host the camp for free; we needed a coach: one of Jordan’s premier marathon runners happened to be her trainer and friend; we needed speakers to talk to the girls about healthy living: Nina had worked with countless people in Jordan towards this end. Nina was there in spirit and helping the camp every step of the way.

The Nina Brekelmans Camp for Girls officially launched on February 27, 2016, and continued for five consecutive Saturdays ending on March 26. Each day started with a 2-4 km run with the fifteen girls, ages 8-14, who participated in the camp. Afterwards, a guest speaker addressed the girls on topics ranging from the health and emotional benefits of running to the importance of strength training and proper nutrition. In the afternoons, we focused on team-building exercises, with a focus on positive self-image and empowerment. Through these sessions, we worked to instill a love of running and foster bonds of friendship and a supportive community.

On April 9, the camp comes to a close with a 3 km race for girls ages 8-14. This race is one of the first of its kind in Jordan, specifically focusing on young female runners. The Dead Sea Ultra race was not Nina’s last because through her vision and community support at least 50 young girls will be running in her namesake at the Nina Brekelmans Race for Girls.

2016 Week 5 Camp Highlights

This Saturday is the last week of camp. The final theme was on “Global Running Culture,” where the campers discussed runners who compete all over the world, such as their coach, Mohammad Sweity. 

The day also included instructions on race-day preparations to teach the girls how to prepare for their final race. Camp concluded with a group discussion about what the runners learned from the camp and about their goals in sports and in life. 

2016 Week 4 Camp Highlights

This week’s theme was strength training. After the morning run, the girls gathered together to listen to personal trainer Jasmine Kadoura explain why strength training should be paired with cardio. Jasmine taught them proper form for push-ups, squats, bicycle kicks, and burpees. All the girls were feeling sore by the end of the lesson and gladly welcomed a breathing exercise. 

The day ended with the girls presenting their homework from last week: to describe a role model. Each girl stood in front of the group and talked about their mom, dad, famous athletes, or even the comedian Mr. Bean. One of the mothers was listening and decided to join the conversation. She told the girls that she chose herself as a role model because it is important to always love yourself. All the girls clapped at the end of each presentation and cheered each other on. 

2016 Week 3 Camp Highlights

This week’s session started with a warm-up 2km lap. Then the girls were timed as they sprinted 25 meters, did 10 sit ups, and sprinted back 25 meters. They were so fast! Some girls asked if they could do it again and again so they could try and improve their times. 

Batoul Arnaout, founder of Better Opportunities and Options for Sports Today (BOOST), spoke to the girls about the power of sports. She had the girls list what they felt when they ran, which ranged from “hot” to “happy”, and encouraged them to think positively about sports. She then showed video clips of people who had handicaps, but still overcame their disabilities to become successful athletes. 

After lunch the girls were given magazine photos of people with different body sizes, ethnicity, and style and told to pick some that they thought were beautiful. They glued photos onto colorful papers and presented why they thought each person was beautiful. One of our campers, Sara, chose a women running with prosthetic legs and said she was beautiful because she was happy and exercising. 

2016 Week 2 Camp Highlights

2016 Fulbright Volunteer Team

The second week of camp started with a lap through the forest trails in Sports City followed by shuttle run relays. The girls had a lot of fun racing against each other and testing how fast they could run. 

Dr. Dania Qaryouti was the speaker this week. Her talk about nutrition and body image was informative and had the girls continuing the conversation about healthy living into lunch. One girl raised her hand and asked Dr. Dania, “what if I don’t like vegetables?” They negotiated back and forth until she came to the realization that she did indeed like broccoli. 

In the afternoon each girl received a “healthy living” notebook. Their homework was to write down all the healthy food they ate that week. The day ended with the girls cheering Nina’s name. 

2016 Week 1 Camp Highlights

At 10 a.m. every morning Coach Mohammad Sweity leads the girls on a run through Sports City. To test the girl’s running ability, the first week began with a 4km run. More than half of the girls had never before run 4km at one time, but they all finished the laps with a sprint! 

Afterwards, Coach Sweity taught the girls the importance of stretching after a run. They formed a circle and counted to 20 in Arabic as they touched their toes, stretched their arms, and loosened their necks and shoulders. 

The General Secretary of the Jordanian Athletics Federation Ibrahim Abu Asbeh and Coach Sweity were both friends of Nina and led the first talk of the camp. They told stories of Nina, and explained why we hold this camp in her honor. 

After having a healthy lunch provided by Sports City, the day ended with name games and team-building activities. The girls all connected hands in a big knot and worked together to un-twist. By the end they were all laughing and becoming friends.