This year, the charity organization Cargo Human Care (CHC) celebrates its tenth Office City Run. The event will be kicked off next Thursday (29AUG) at Hahnstraße in Frankfurt Niederrad, Germany. The net proceeds will be used to finance CHC projects in Kenya, in collaboration with the local Anglican Church. There, the organization houses orphans, and offers education and vocational training for children and teenagers. CargoFowarder Global (CFG) spoke with CHC President, Fokko Doyen (FD) about the upcoming anniversary.

CFG: Next Thursday (29AUG24), the Frankfurt Office City Run will start in support of Cargo Human Care for the tenth time. Is there anything special planned for the anniversary event?
FD: It is indeed an anniversary: the tenth run and organized as a ‘hybrid’ event for the third time – live in Frankfurt and virtually, worldwide. We are delighted to be back this year with the two runs over distances of 5 and 10 km, which will take place at the well-known sports facility on Hahnstraße in Frankfurt Niederrad. All in all, everything should be very similar to last year – although we hope for better weather than in 2023, when we had to cancel the 10 km race at very short notice due to a severe thunderstorm.
CFG: How many participants are you expecting this year?
FD: We hope to break the 2,000 mark and are well on the way to doing so. We currently have more than 1,800 registrations for the various disciplines. 70 participants alone want to become superheroes, i.e. run 5 and 10 km and cycle 30 and 50 km. Registrations for the virtual run are still possible in the next few days and candidates can also register for the live event on August 29 in Frankfurt.
CFG: Which major project in Kenya is to be financed by the net proceeds of the event?
FD: This year, we intend to build a large Vocational Training Center in Nairobi for our school leavers. So far, we have already been organizing small training workshops for tailoring and leather processing, carried out under the responsibility of two former residents of our Mothers’ Mercy Home, who we employed as coaches. Now we want to broaden our base and offer even more young people solid vocational training in other professions. The main reason for this is the exploding cost of all types of vocational training in Kenya, not to mention the lack of quality. So, with our initiative we want to give young people a solid foundation for self-responsibility and an independent life.

CFG: As an initiator of the Office City Run, did you expect ten years ago that the event would turn out to become such a success?
FD: The success is amazing, measured by participants and sponsors. Christopher Biaesch, Uwe Schnier and I would never have dreamed that this event would one day be so rewarding. At the outbreak of Covid 19, the entire show was at stake due to the lockdowns. That’s when we came up with the idea of carrying out the Office City Run as a virtual event. The ‘hybrid’ solution was kind of a life saver. The photos we receive from so many places, evidences the enthusiasm of runners, cyclists, and spectators. At the end of the day, the combination of joy and personally doing something to support orphans and other young people in need in Kenya, is extremely rewarding and keeps us going.
That said, I would like to emphasize that Cargo Human Care ensures that all donations actually reach people in need in Kenya. In 2023, our administrative costs were 0.3%. We expect a similar figure this year.
CFG: How much money and which important projects have been raised through the running donations so far, and which have been initiated in the meantime?
FD: In total, we raised more than 600,000 euros through entry fees and sponsorship money in the first nine years. Each year, the proceeds have been used to initiate or completely finance a unique project. These include the construction of the Happy Child School in Nairobi, located in the Kabiria slum; the construction of our John Kaheni Residence for vocational training; the financing of the operational costs of our Mothers’ Mercy Home for 120 children, and our own Medical Center. Further to this, we set up a desalination plant in Bubisa/Northern Kenya; constructed and expanded our Wings Academy school in Karare/Northern Kenya; and, in 2023, the funds obtained though the Office City Run were used to finance a secondary school for girls, also located in Karare. The facility was built in record time and is now in operation, enabling 53 female students to get a sound education. Formal education and vocational training are two sides of the same coin of our humanitarian aims, supplemented by medical care for the community surrounding our facilities, who are unable to pay a doctor when in need of treatment. Just to illustrate our support with data from our Medical Center: In 2023, our doctors and local staff carried out 41,000+ treatments on 13,000 patients, at an average cost of €17 per patient/year. This is something we can really be proud of, and increases our acceptance among the local people.
CFG: Are CEO Ashwin Bhat and his fellow board members, Frank Bauer and Dietmar Focke, actively involved in the Office City Run? And have they ever been to Nairobi to get a personal impression of CHC’s activities there?
FD: All Cargo board members fully support the commitment of CHC, not only the current ones, but also their predecessors of the past years. They have always taken part in the run, either as active runners or simply by giving the starting signal. This year, Ashwin Bhat and Frank Bauer will also be running. All three have announced a visit to Nairobi, and we will be very happy to introduce our projects to them. Incidentally, many of the board members have also taken the opportunity to visit the homes and schools in person in the past – most recently Dorothea von Boxberg in JAN23.
CFG: Many Lufthansa Cargo employees working abroad are taking part in the Office City Run, be they in the Americas, the Far East or Africa, thereby promoting the goals of CHC. Which branches stand out?
FD: That’s right. The virtual version of the Office City Run has become a very popular team event for Cargo employees and their customers at various destinations. Whether in Chicago, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong or Singapore, large groups have taken to the course for a good cause in recent years. Last week, Florian Pfaff, VP Asia Pacific, probably set the provisional record in Singapore with 225 participants. Really amazing! Lufthansa Cargo customers are also increasingly getting involved by organizing their own events. Courier Network’s (CNW) President & Founder, Elazar Grinstein, for example, has motivated his employees worldwide to take part. This year, over 300 CNW runners from 23 nations are taking part. We already have registrations from 32 countries standing on our list – another new record.
That said, another event stands out this year: Zlatko Zlatic, the station manager of Lufthansa Cargo in Nairobi, and his team have organized their own sports event for the 120 children at our Mothers’ Mercy Home. Pure enthusiasm for the kids, the fastest receives a medal and everyone gets a certificate. This is exactly the group of children and young people who will benefit from the proceeds of the Office City Run.
CFG: Running and cycling. Will there be additional participation categories in future? For example, a kind of “Ironman” CHC variant or a balcony run, where participants cover 5 or 10 km by running forth and back at home?
FD: We have, in fact, already thought about expanding the event. Swimming would certainly be a logical addition to the offering. However, adding disciplines to the existing ones ups the complexity, which poses major challenges for the organizational team. Even running and cycling already demands an enormous amount of time and administrative and physical effort from the responsible team members. That’s why we are sticking to running and cycling for the time being.
CFG: Fokko, thank you for your insights and congratulations on CHC’s Office City Run anniversary.
Nota bene:
Before retiring in 2021, Fokko was fleet commander of Lufthansa Cargo’s MD-11 freighters, which regularly took him to Nairobi. In view of the poverty many children and young people were exposed to, he decided to incept Cargo Human Care (CHC) in 2007. Today, the organization is known worldwide for the voluntary commitment of many, thousands of sponsorships benefitting orphans and the support of medical staff to improve the health situation of children and residents living in the vicinity of CHC facilities, who cannot afford to pay a doctor due to lack of money. The Frankfurt Office City Run helps to fund many projects.