Pinoy runners raise P366K for sick Pinoys in UAE
JERRIE ABELLA, GMA News
03/04/2011 After running for a cause in a race in the United Arab Emirates in January, a Filipina nurse and her teammates turned over 31,000 Dirhams (Dh, approximately P366,000) they raised in their project, for the benefit of compatriots in distress.
Christina Deloy, 33, and teammates from Filipino Runners-UAE ran at the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon 2011 last Jan. 21 to raise money for distressed compatriots there, including two who were battling cancer.
Dubbed Takbo Para kay Kabayan (Run for my Countrymen), 39 members of the group had vowed to run a total of 800 kilometers.
"They were my inspiration - it's more of desperation. I felt I needed to do something but I did not know how, so I thought of running for them," she said in an interview posted Thursday on news site Gulf News.
Gulf News said the amount raised in the project was handed over to advocacy group Migrante UAE on February 25.
Migrante UAE chairperson Yuri Cipriano also ran the 10-kilometer race.
Deloy, a mother of one, defied a leg injury and was among the 25 members who completed the marathon.
She had asked her social network friends to sponsor Dh50 for every kilometer covered by each member of Filipino Runners-UAE.
At least 200 people donated to the cause, the Gulf News report said.
On the other hand, the amount raised had fallen "short" of the target of raising Dh40,000 (P472,203).
One of the intended beneficiaries, 37-year-old Arthur Lareza, a husband of Deloy's colleague at Rashid Hospital, needs up to Dh300,000 (P3.541 million) for a bone marrow transplant.
The money helped buy five air tickets for housemaids at a shelter run by the Philippine Consulate in the UAE.
"Instead of simply beating our personal records, we thought it was a good idea to run for a cause," noted the runners' coach, Euca Bolingot.
The group started with just three runners, but according to Bolingot, the group’s membership has now grown to almost 50 in just a few months.
The group was initially called Zabeel Night Striders until the members decided to adopt the name Filipino Runners. – VVP, GMA News
Christina Deloy, 33, and teammates from Filipino Runners-UAE ran at the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon 2011 last Jan. 21 to raise money for distressed compatriots there, including two who were battling cancer.
Dubbed Takbo Para kay Kabayan (Run for my Countrymen), 39 members of the group had vowed to run a total of 800 kilometers.
"They were my inspiration - it's more of desperation. I felt I needed to do something but I did not know how, so I thought of running for them," she said in an interview posted Thursday on news site Gulf News.
Gulf News said the amount raised in the project was handed over to advocacy group Migrante UAE on February 25.
Migrante UAE chairperson Yuri Cipriano also ran the 10-kilometer race.
Deloy, a mother of one, defied a leg injury and was among the 25 members who completed the marathon.
She had asked her social network friends to sponsor Dh50 for every kilometer covered by each member of Filipino Runners-UAE.
At least 200 people donated to the cause, the Gulf News report said.
On the other hand, the amount raised had fallen "short" of the target of raising Dh40,000 (P472,203).
One of the intended beneficiaries, 37-year-old Arthur Lareza, a husband of Deloy's colleague at Rashid Hospital, needs up to Dh300,000 (P3.541 million) for a bone marrow transplant.
The money helped buy five air tickets for housemaids at a shelter run by the Philippine Consulate in the UAE.
"Instead of simply beating our personal records, we thought it was a good idea to run for a cause," noted the runners' coach, Euca Bolingot.
The group started with just three runners, but according to Bolingot, the group’s membership has now grown to almost 50 in just a few months.
The group was initially called Zabeel Night Striders until the members decided to adopt the name Filipino Runners. – VVP, GMA News
No comments:
Post a Comment