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Thursday 4, September 2008
Warsaw, September 4 (UNHCR) – Last Sunday, as far as the eye could see, men, women and children of all ages, including babies pushed by their mothers and fathers in special prams, filled the streets of Warsaw’s central district, sparing no effort to walk or run ten kilometres in a special charity event.
The runners and walkers were part of the Nike+ Human Race, a global sports and fund-raising event that involved an estimated one million runners world-wide, including 15,000 in Warsaw, raising funds for UNHCR and the education of refugee children.
The runners were literally helping refugees with every step they took: the money they raised went to UNHCR’s 9million.org fund that provides education and sports opportunities to the world’s neediest refugee children. Prior to the event, it was decided by UNHCR to dedicate the funds raised to helping the education of Sudanese refugee children in Chad.
Globally the race had two other beneficiaries: the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. All the runners registering for the race world wide were asked to specify which of the organizations they wished to support with their registration fees. In addition, Nike pledged to give each agency a donation of 500,000 dollars. In a local arrangement, the funds collected in Poland will go to UNHCR, the Lance Armstrong Foundation and TVN, a local foundation that supports social, health and educational projects.
Thanks to Nike’s donation and the hundreds of thousands of runners that selected UNHCR’s 9million.org fund as their beneficiary, UNHCR will now be able to provide for the salaries of 500 teachers in Eastern Chad’s three largest refugee camps. Through this, the education of more than 20,000 refugee girls and boys can now be secured throughout the coming school year.
In addition, the money will also be used to renovate some of the school buildings and buy new equipment.
UNHCR had runners in all corners of the world helping the cause of refugee children on Sunday. UNHCR staff members were running in Geneva, Warsaw, Dakar, Senegal and Tbilisi, in addition to 3,000 refugees and local residents that ran in Nepal. The UNHCR running team in Warsaw was headed by Hiromitsu Mori, UNHCR’s Representative based in the Polish capital, and Lloyd Dakin, the Regional Representative for Central Europe who came from Budapest to participate in the event.
The race was one of the most exciting moments of Hiromitsu Mori’s refugee career: “Wow, I have never seen such a huge wave of people in my life! Endless and endless waves of people running! It is so exciting to imagine that many of them supported the refugee cause by joining this race!” – he described Sunday’s special atmosphere.
For UNHCR, the race was an outstanding opportunity to sensitize potential local supporters or donors about the refugee cause. In Warsaw, like in many other cities, UNHCR had a tent near the race course. The tent provided interested visitors with information materials, maps and posters, and an exhibition on UNHCR’s history was also on display. Hundreds of runners passed by the tent with their family members, taking the opportunity to find out about UNHCR and refugees. Perhaps the most enthusiastic visitors, however, were young children who could get a UNHCR rucksack that they can start using in the new school year.
Having participated in the running competition himself, Lloyd Dakin was very pleased to see thousands upon thousands of individuals showing their personal commitment to helping refugees in Warsaw last Sunday. “UNHCR is grateful to them and Nike for the generosity and we hope that refugees will continue to benefit from similar events in the future.” – he said.
A. Szobolits in Budapest, Hungary and in Warsaw, Poland
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