It takes a society to heal. The story behind Joppe’s 100 km

photo by Baptiste Navarro

On October 17th, Joppe Behaeghe runs 100 kilometers through the Westhoek. Not for a medal. For Solentra.

Some people watch the world change and feel powerless. Others, at that exact point, decide to do something.

Joppe Behaeghe belongs to the latter group. Through Run For Your Life, he runs ultra-distances for organizations with social impact. Last year, he ran 100 kilometers for the Suicide Prevention Line. This year, he chose Solentra.

Why Solentra

Joppe explains it himself: he sees how conflicts keep emerging worldwide – conflicts nobody truly wants, yet they start, escalate, and affect ordinary people. Images of destroyed cities and displaced families have become almost commonplace on our screens. That exact feeling, the realization that seeing something too often makes it feel less urgent, is what pushed him to act instead of merely watching.

After some research, he found Solentra: the organization specifically dedicated to trauma treatment for people with a refugee background. His conclusion was simple: this is what he wanted to connect his action to.

Why the Westhoek

The choice of route is no coincidence. A hundred years ago, the Westhoek was the battlefield of the First World War. Nearly a million Belgians had no choice but to flee, toward the Netherlands, France, England.

Today, cyclists and hikers pass through it at ease. But the graves, craters, bunkers, and monuments that still mark the landscape are a reminder that this was once a place where people left everything behind to survive.

On October 17th, Joppe runs 100 kilometers straight through that landscape. As a reminder that war and displacement are closer to us than we sometimes think, and that whoever faces it today is not so far removed from our own history.

Why Solentra exists

Solentra was founded in 2005 out of an observation. A group of psychologists and psychiatrists, active in child psychiatry at UZ Brussel, noticed something that didn’t add up: in the middle of one of Europe’s most diverse cities, their waiting room remained strikingly homogeneous. Children and families with a migration or refugee background weren’t finding their way to the care that existed for them.

That observation became the start of Solentra: a culturally sensitive approach focused on language, culture, and community.

Ten years later, when Europe faced a major refugee movement, Solentra expanded its work. Not just children, but adults too. Not just migration in general, but specifically the consequences of war and displacement.

Today, twenty years after its founding, Solentra has grown into an organization that provides both direct care (Solentra Clinic) and shares knowledge with professionals who work with these families every day (Solentra Academy). Our starting point has always remained the same: the right to mental health is a basic right, not a favor.

Two forms of strength

There’s something striking about the comparison between what Joppe is doing and what the families we support go through.

Ultra running is elite sport. It demands months of training, mental preparation, and the ability to keep going when every muscle says “stop.”

Rebuilding a life after fleeing requires something similar. Not chosen, not trained for – but a form of perseverance and courage that deserves just as much admiration. Learning a new language. Finding work. Building a new network. Finding trust in a place that initially feels foreign.

Joppe’s action places these two forms of strength side by side. Not to equate them – that would not do justice to what fleeing truly means – but to show that perseverance, in whatever form, is something that connects people.

What your support means

Every euro raised through Joppe’s action goes directly to Solentra’s work: professional support for families who have traveled a long road, and training for the professionals who accompany them.

You don’t have to run 100 kilometers

Joppe’s action is big, but the starting point was small: one person who felt something needed to happen, and simply did it.

That could be a quiz. A BBQ at your workplace. A raffle in your neighborhood. A sponsored bike ride with your team. There’s no minimum effort required to make an impact. Just the decision to start.

Want to organize your own action for Solentra?

You’ll find some inspiration and a few questions and answers via the link below.

Would you like to have a chat about it? Get in touch with us. We’re happy to think it through with you.