New event Sport for Others raises more than € 250,000 for child slaves in Haiti
On Saturday 22 September, 161 participants of Sport for Others climbed the Mont Ventoux in the South of France, by bicycle, running or walking. This new sporting event of Woord en Daad foundation raised € 252,329. This amount will be used for the liberation of child slaves in Haiti. All participants reached the summit; some of them even defied the wind, the high gradients and the many kilometers three times.
The event Sport for Others was organized for the first time this year by Woord en Daad in collaboration with Vakanz, as a successor of ‘Fiets voor een Huis’ (cycle for a house). The revenues go to Haiti where child slavery is a broadly accepted phenomenon. Parents in the countryside often lack the income to feed their children or to have them go to school. They decide to give away one or more of their children, or to sell them to a richer family in the city. Such a child is called a ‘Restavek’ (‘rester avec’ means ‘stay with’). In practice, these children are often treated as slaves, exploited and abused, and cannot go to school.
Participants of Sport for Others were well prepared to climb the 1,917 meters high bald mountain. Each of them brought at least € 1,000 with them to the top; an amount for which one child gets a safe home, good care, a year of education and psychosocial support. However, not only the child receives good care. One third of the amount is spent on awareness raising, prevention and training of parents, so that the child can grow up in a safe environment.
‘It is a great accomplishment of all participants!’ says Rina Molenaar, board member of Woord en Daad. ‘The shared physical effort ensures a strong solidarity between each other and with the children far away, for whom we do it. When I think of those children in Haiti whom I have seen through the years, and who had to work so hard whereas they wanted to go to school; it makes the climb even more beautiful. Now they can build their own future!’
Next year, the event Sport for Others will take place for the second time. The intended date is D.V. 21 September, 2019
