Meet Eddie, a personal trainer, 25 years old, lives in Tanzania, trains 47 people, he is a very inspiring man!
Back in January, when everyone was feeling a little sluggish post the festive binge, we come across Eddie Mbwedo Bwizo Beiby, he was uploading videos of his workouts. You can see him working hard, and you can see that he is training other Tanzania locals with very VERY poor quality kit. We'd just finished an install of a premiership footballers house, and the delivery of a top home gym for two England rugby players. Then there was Eddie, bench pressing with one 21kg metal wheel on one side and one 18kg wheel on the other side. He was grafting away. We felt inspired. The workout that day was a little better for it, if Eddie can do it, we certainly can!
One week later, we see Eddie online again, this time, he is training a group of youngsters. We had to speak to him, we had to understand his story.
In short, he lives in an underdeveloped part of the world, and he really cares about health and fitness, not only his own, but of his village. The exercise he does provides him with focus, it helps his body and his mind, and he wants to share that passion and gift with others. He trains 47 people each week. He organises fitness events. He's recently created a marathon for the women of Kibaha. He is making a positive impact each and every day. Really inspiring stuff.
Having felt inspired and seeing that Eddie is creating a positive impact. We felt that we wanted to have an equally positive impact, and to reward Eddie for the good that he is doing.
We arranged an urgent team board meeting and brain stormed ideas on how we could help Eddie.
There were two things that were important to us.
1.) Getting people active (aligning to our mission of creating a healthier and fitter nation)
2.) Ensuring Eddie has some gym equipment he can be proud of.
So we created the #calories4eddie campaign. Recharge are donating over £1000 of gym equipment to super PT Eddie. And we are encouraging people to burn calories, tag us on social media, and challenge others to do the same.
The new equipment will mean that Eddie can continue to train his village but in style; no more cut hands from the sharp edges, no more unbalanced deadlifting risking injury. Plenty more inspiration coming from Eddie.
Whilst we are providing all the gym kit, we are fundraising the carriage of the goods. Which isn't cheap; the goods are heavy and, well, Tanzania isn't just down the road.
Fancy getting involved?
We've been asking the public to burn #calories4eddie and they certainly have. It's all about getting people active in the UK, just like Eddie is doing in Tanzania. People have been burning calories and they have been donating.
You can still burn calories, tag us, and challenge others, and you can still donate here:
We are planning to send Eddies kit off next week, so one final push on the fundraising and one final push at burning calories!
We can't wait to see Eddie and his village united with his new kit!
Thank you to everyone who has taken part so far.