We are blessed with a dedicated group of supporters at Progressio. Supporters who will turn up to campaign with us, write letters to advocate with us and, on 12 October, lace up to run with us! The Royal Parks Half Marathon is right around the corner, and we would like to introduce you to our runners, including our Chief Executive Mark Lister and Aidan, the supporter who’s going a bit further for Progressio. Almost 30,000 metres further, in fact.
15 dedicated runners will take their place at the starting line of Britain’s most beautiful city run on 12 October. Whether they are ready or not, they’ll be pushing themselves to cover more than 13 miles of London surface in the name of people powered development.
Supporters like these keep Progressio going and enable us to work with poor and marginalised people in the Global South.
Here’s a quick run-down of who is running and how you can support them.
Emma Speed (a good name for this kind of thing), Chris Morley, Alice Chadwick, Sophie Claessens, Jon Heywood and Sasha Langford’s profiles can all be found by clicking on their names. Please support their efforts generously.
Victoria and Peter Schutzer-Weissmann share a page here.
Team El Salvador
Three of our runners were recently on an ICS placement together in El Salvador and have formed a team to raise money for Progressio. To support Lucy Howe, Sam Whalley and Iram Sarwar, head over to their team page here.
Getting 13.1 miles out of the office
Two members of our team are used to working for Progressio in a very different sense. Our C.E.O, Mark Lister, and Communications Officer, Esther Trewinnard, are both taking to the road and completing the half marathon. To support them, click on their names and donate.
Going the extra 28 miles
We’re incredibly proud of every supporter that is running as part of the Royal Parks Half Marathon day on 12 October, but I feel we need to close this acknowledgment with a mention of the person who is going above and beyond the call of duty for people powered development.
Aidan Bruynseels is running the ultra-marathon! He will be pushing himself across 50km of London to earn money and publicity for Progressio. He’ll cover the equivalent of more than 476 football pitches. That’s got to be worth supporting. If you want to donate to Aidan’s run, head to his just giving page here.
Why they are all doing it
The money raised by these runners enables us to keep on supporting people in the Global South. People like Milagros Gomez. Milagros is a community nurse, not because it is a job she will earn anything from, but because “it is a rewarding role and I am committed to helping the most vulnerable”.
“I do not mind that I cannot find salaried work. I’m very happy and satisfied with what I do as a health promoter,” she says. “The communities in the border area are forgotten by all, especially the government, I want to do what I can to support more people, especially families with children.”
Thanks to training from Progressio’s Karina Cuba, Milagros now advises others on food safety, nutritional health and how to grow more and better quality food.
One practical way she does this is through improvements in the quality and variety of crops that people grow in their ‘home gardens’. Milagros is one of 24 women who Karina has trained in sustainable food production and management of their home gardens. Find out more about Milagros here.
To support our work with women like Milagros, donate to any one of our fantastic runners.
