What most people probably don’t know, is that Trail 43, while launched in 2020, is currently active in multiple countries. These countries consist ofAustralia, the Netherlands, and Mexico. Soon, we’re aiming to expand our coverage even further. We’ll use our growing network of ambassadors, charity organizations, running clubs, and more. We truly believe in Effective Altruism, and we’re trying to be conscious of how our donations can have the biggest impact. This is even more important for smaller organizations such as ours. This way, Trail 43 can become a grassroots organization. We are driven by passion and energy to make this planet a better one, and we’ll do this with the help of running and other endurance activities.
As such we are focusing on one charity and one challenge per quarter! And this time we had a focused mission: run 100 km in a month. For every kilometer we’d run, we’d donate 1 dollar to another grassroots organization. And this time, that organization was Duniya.
Duniya Foundation
The Duniya Foundation is active for more than two decades, in both India and Vietnam, with the main focus on:
- providing education to children with lunch
- Sometimes its the only meal of the day
- Assisting in micro donation, credits, medical (emergency) assistance
Duniya is a small, stable organization with its day-to-day management in the hands of their capable, dedicated local employees.
With COVID-19 and the strict lockdown in India a lot of people can’t work. No work equals no food. With an average of five mouths to feed families run out of food in just a few days. The Duniya foundation is raising money as an emergency fund to supply basic survival packages. These contain rice, lentils, flour, oil, potatoes, onion, tea and sugar, protective face masks, soap, anti-mosquito repellent, paracetamol, vitamin C.
So, as you can see, Duniya is an organization which is close to our heart. It aligns well with the values we’re trying to promote as a sustainable running organization.
The result
And the result of our challenge? Good that you asked! This month, with only 2 active runners, we’ve managed to run a total of more than 200 kilometers (207.4 kilometers to be exact)! You can see in the screenshots below how Runkeeper has tracked our progress.
While a 100 km didn’t seem like a lot to me initially, frankly, I underestimated the consistency you need to get to a 100 km. You can’t skip a day, or slack off on the runs. And to make things even more challenging, I wanted every weekend to do a trailrun, which you can see in our trail overview. For Patrick, things were even more challenging, since a 100 km would be way above his normal running distance. Therefore we elected to have his target lowered to 80 km, to prevent injuries, and also Patrick made it with a whopping 85 kilometers. Well done!
Challenging and fun! And the best news is: we reached our goal! As a result, we’ve donated 208 dollars to Duniya, which will be used to further develop their education system for children in India and Vietnam.
This was the first challenge of many to come. And while you’re here, why not have a look at our new challenge; Steptemper 2020, where we’re trying to raise money for Cerebral Palsy. Check out our fund raiser page, or have a look at our September Challenge blogpost (will be published soon)!
