Kindly allow me to introduce you to Charity Runner. I started this concept in March 2014 with one goal: help others in need for a medical treatment! Just like the motto ‘Running is not just running anymore’ says, you do not only run for yourself, but also give other people a chance to have a better quality of life!
With a background in technical medicine I started volunteering in a Community Health and Medical Care program in Nepal in October 2012. I chose the non profit charitable volunteer organization Volunteers Initiative Nepal (VIN), since I believe their vision on development aid is correct in every way. They show so much passion towards their work and are always focusing on helping their own people. They do this through enhanced education, health, income generation and basic infrastructure programs. By conducting training and research through mobilizing local and international volunteers to promote equality, economic well-being and basic human rights they hope to empower marginalised communities with a focus on women and children.
During three months of volunteering I was introduced to a girl that was born with a rare congenital disease, called bladder exstrophy in which part of the urinary bladder is present outside the body. This led to unhygienic and poor living conditions due to uncontrolled urinary incontinence in combination with hip dysplasia. The family never knew the child could be helped by means of a surgical treatment, and even so, the lack of money would eventually stopped them from coming into action.
Back in the Netherlands, I had contact with another Dutch volunteer Nicole Schouwenaar, and together with VIN we set up a plan to raise money for the child and to help her get the surgical treatment. I started raising money and ran a half marathon for the girl and eventually collected enough money to give the girl her medical treatment. VIN coordinated all the activities and wrote a medical report containing a comprehensive overview of all subjects related to the the medical treatment. I was very impressed by its transparancy! I decided to use this project as a perfect example for all the others projects that will be planned in the future.
I look forward to working more together with VIN and other organizations or individuals in the future, and help more people in need of a medical treatment, but who cannot afford medical care themselves.
Why should you sponsor a Charity Runner project or become a Charity Runner yourself? Because helping other people is of course something everyone should do when they have the chance to do so. But above all, the projects you will find here are all medical related, and as soon as one project has raised enough money, patient treatments can be performed, and results can be seen after the treatment is completed. These results will be published on the website, and occassionally follow-up after one or two years post-treatment is also performed and published online. You will always receive feedback as to what happened with your donations!
All donations will go to the projects. No charge will be taken into account.