HCMC – Saigon Children’s Charity (saigonchildren) has opened registration for The Virtual Steps Challenge 2020, an online race where participants can track their steps as they run, walk or exercise to raise money for underprivileged children and can receive real prizes.
All funds raised from this event will go to saigonchildren to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds in Vietnam, alleviating the physical and mental issues they face from the Covid-19 pandemic so that no child is left behind after this crisis.
This virtual event will take place from May 4 to 31, 2020. Registration has begun at irace.vn/races/the-virtual-steps-challenge. The registration fee is VND250,000.
Participants will set a goal for themselves, from 50,000 to 300,000 steps, to be completed during the race period. All physical activity, including running, walking, exercising or even doing housework, will be tracked by the participants’ phones and will count toward their goal when they connect their Google Fit app to their account at iRace.vn, saigonchildren’s technology partner for this event.
At the end of May, once their goal is reached, a real medal along with other prizes will be sent directly to everyone by post.
All proceeds from this event will go toward saigonchildren’s various programs supporting disadvantaged children in Vietnam, helping them to overcome the challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic as well as ensure they can return to school when the crisis abates.
According to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, the socioeconomic impact of Covid-19 will be one of its most severe consequences and will be felt hardest by the world’s most vulnerable children.
When parents struggle to maintain their livelihoods and income, children not only lack the nutritious food they need to develop properly, but some are also left to fend for themselves by earning money on the streets where they are exposed to many other risks.
“As an organization working in education in Vietnam for 28 years, we have never experienced such exceptional circumstances. We think it is now more important than ever to lend a helping hand to children in need by providing food, shelter, clean water, learning materials or counselling to help them overcome this difficult time,” said Damien Roberts, saigonchildren’s executive director.
“This is the second time we have organized The Steps Challenge, and based on the success seen last year, we hope the virtual version held this year will be a meaningful activity for people at this time (to cooperate in) helping our underprivileged kids.”
The Steps Challenge is an annual event organized by saigonchildren. Last year’s event focused on the theme of autism and attracted thousands of people to participate online and offline, collecting nearly 200 million steps in total and raising over VND700 million for autism intervention and training.
