What is Korrika?

Imagine a non-stop relay race throughout all the Basque Country to support the Basque language, hundreds of thousands of runners and several cultural events and celebrations in the whole Basque country as the race takes place. That is the Korrika.

Korrika is the Basque name of a countrywide race organized by AEK, an organization which teaches Basque and Basque literacy to adults. The objective of the event is to enhance awareness of Basque and raise funds to carry out this work on a daily basis in AEK study centers.

The first race took place in 1980 from Oñati (Gipuzkoa) to Bilbao (Bizkaia). Since then, there have been 16 Korrikas held over 24 years.

Who organizes the korrika?

AEK, Coordinator of Literacy and Basque promotion is in charge of organizing the event, with the objective of promoting and restoring the Basque language. To do this, the coordinator works in the field of adult literacy in the Basque language: research, creation of didactic materials, courses for teaching staff, organization of cultural events and creation of awareness campaigns in favor of the Basque language. The first literacy courses for Basque-speaking adults were formed around 1965, the year of the first campaign to promote the recovery of Basque. Since then, AEK has continued in this field conducting many more such courses, but at the same time it has also promoted Basque classes for general public.

Today AEK is one of the Basque Country’s most important organizations in the field of adult literacy and teaching in Basque, with some 100 academies and more than 500 teachers.

http://www.korrika.org/?page_id=161lang=en

For further information, go to www.korrika.org.