by Sabine Elvy – EM TV Online
This weekend, runners in Chicago will take to the streets to run six kilometres as part of a World Vision campaign to raise money for clean water and sanitation systems in rural Kenya.
Michael Forsberg is part of Team World Vision, a network of endurance athletes who raise money for clean water projects overseas.
“5K is a pretty standard distance for a fun run, but that extra kilometre is significant,” says Forsberg. “It’s the average distance people – usually women and children – in the developing world walk every day to gather the water their families need to survive.”
Forsberg adds that the cost of the event, which is $50 per person, is around the average cost of building and maintaining water and sanitation systems overseas. “So the registration fee will provide clean water for one person for the rest of her life!”
World Vision, the largest non-government provider of clean water in the developing world, estimates that nearly 748 million people globally lack access to clean water. Women and children often walk miles every day to collect water that is often not safe to drink.
