And they're off: The Human Race comes to Geneva
Almost 100 UNHCR staffers and supporters sacrificed their lunch on Friday and pounded the streets of Geneva to raise money for refugee children in Chad.
GENEVA, August 29 (UNHCR) - Almost 100 UNHCR staff members and supporters sacrificed their lunch on Friday and pounded the streets of Geneva to raise money for the education of refugee children in Chad.
The UN refugee agency organized a 10-kilometre run and a 5-km walk along Lake Geneva and around the leafy UN quarter of the Swiss city as part of the Nike+ Human Race, a fund-raising event that will gather an estimated 1 million runners in 25 cities around the world on Sunday and raise at least US$500,000 for UNHCR.
With five minutes to go before the scheduled start, the Geneva event looked as though it was doomed to failure with just a handful of people present in their running shorts and UNHCR tee-shirts. But then a flood of amateur athletes of all sizes, ages and colours arrived in front of the UNHCR headquarters for the start.
UNHCR Director of External Relations Nick Van Praag, who will be in London on Sunday to take part in the Human Race, welcomed staff and runners from sister agencies and embassies.
"All the miles that you walk or you run will be registered and will count towards the resources that UNHCR will gain from this effort," Van Praag said. "We've already been guaranteed half-a-million dollars [by Human Race organizer and UNHCR corporate partner, Nike] for our work. The more you walk, the more you do, the more we'll get."
Shortly afterwards, the Geneva race began under a light breeze and clear skies. A keen core of about 20 runners set off at a cracking pace, keen to burn off some calories over their 10-km route, while the rest strolled downhill towards the lake at a leisurely pace. An hour later and they were back in front of UNHCR, a good deed for the day done.
"It was a way to connect Geneva with the main Human Race and the cities where it is being held," said participant Carla Thachuk, a fund-raiser for UNHCR. "Running 10 kilometres is nothing compared to the difficulties that the refugees in Chad face on a daily basis," she added.
Van Praag said the money that the agency receives from the Geneva event and the Human Race proper will be used to equip schools and pay the salaries of more than 500 teachers in camps housing almost 250,000 Sudanese refugees in east Chad. This programme is part of UNHCR's ninemillion.org campaign to provide education and sports opportunities for all refugee children.
UNHCR, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Lance Armstrong Foundation will be the three beneficiaries of funds raised by the Human Race. Nike pledged to give each of the three beneficiaries US$500,000. Runners will specify which of the three organizations they wish to support and extra monies raised will be allocated based on this.
The UN refugee agency will have runners in all corners of the world helping to elevate the cause of refugee children on Sunday. From sole UNHCR staff members running in Dakar, Senegal and Tbilisi, Georgia, to the 3,000 refugees and host community members running in Nepal.
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1 Sep 2005 ... ... workers by UNHCR and implementation partners - NIKE sports programme - Peace education programmes ... can respond to quality standards as set by the Nike-project Beneficiaries Direct: 15 tailors (to be ...... -
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1 Jun 2004 ... ... In partnership with Nike, MOUs were prepared for pilot projects in Kenya, North-west Somalia ('Somaliland') and North-east Somalia ('Puntland') to use sports as a form of leverage to address low ...... -
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2018 ... ... Unit PO Date PO ID Vendor Name Vendor Cntry Item Category Description USD Amount DONIK 23/11/2018 0000000579 Nike European Operations Netherlands B.V NLD FOOTWEAR 136,410 HQSMS 23/11/2018 0000044645 ...... -
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1 Dec 2008 ... ... Business Leaders (Manpower, Merck, Microsoft, Nike, PricewaterhouseCoopers and WPP) by developing ... strengthen its partnership with key foundations such as the UN Foundation and the Nike Foundation. ...... -
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30 Aug 2005 ... ... Stichting Vluchteling 1,932,047 Dutch Postcode Lottery (NPL) 1,801,107 Nike EMEA Netherlands 128,041 Total for Private Donors in Netherlands 3,861,195 Private Donors in the USA USA for UNHCR 1,683,755 ...... -
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Jun 2019 ... ... DONOR DESCRIPTION AMOUNT Nike EMEA Children's footwear for UNHCR operation in Kenya 131,240 ... USA / USA FOR UNHCR Google Kuwait-America Foundation Nike LDS Charities TOMS Shoes LLC The UPS ...... -
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17 Sep 2004 ... ... 172 Lutheran World Relief, USA 941 331 DHL Danzas, Austria 6 520 Hennes & Mauritz, Austria 121 525 Palmers Textil, Austria 47 348 Nike Emea, Belgium 594 215 Ericsson - Sweden 9 766 Merck & Co. Inc. ......