Running 1,600 km in 32 days in hope of awareness

NAVI MUMBAI: The 1,600-km ultra

marathon

run from Mumbai to Chennai, 2 Million Steps to Hope, ended in Chennai a day before its projected date on February 17.

The run was kicked off from Bharati Vidyapeeth in CBD Belapur on January 15, with the main runners covering around 50km a day.

The event was aimed at empowering and supporting women’s rights and to eradicate abuse and exploitationof children and women. People joined hands along the route with the main runners.

Two Americans and one Indian completed the arduous task in 32 days which was to be accomplished on February 18. City-based NGO,

Heart Foundation

, under its Stree (Smash Tradition, Rehabilitate, Educate and Empower) project and ‘The

Hope Place

’ jointly organized the event, which ran across four states—Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The main runners who completed the gigantic task were

John Moriarty

and Christopher Joseph Smith, both from USA, and Tharun Kumar from Chennai.

“According to statistics, over 50% of human trafficking victims are children. Human trafficking not only involves sex and labour but people are also trafficked for organ harvesting. Although human trafficking is often a hidden crime and accurate statistics are difficult to obtain, researchers estimate that more than 80% of trafficking victims are females. The runners spread awareness on this serious issue along the way,” said Dr Jayakar Ellis, head of Heart Foundation.

Godfrey Fernandez of Hope Place added that the run has enabled them to create heightened awareness among the public and corporate world against child abuse, labour and trafficking.

“It has also created resources to sustain long-term rehabilitation of children through NGOs involved in rescue and rehabilitation,” he said.

On completing the run, Moriarty, the lead runner, said, “It was heartening to run as a part of this novel initiative. We have been able to spread the message along the route and it was encouraging to witness so many people joining forces for such a serious issue along the route.”