For a lot of runners, participating in a marathon is a problem of a lifetime or, in the event that they’re notably eager, an annual take a look at of endurance. Mina Guli is constructed in a different way: over the previous 12 months, she has been working 4 marathons of 26.2 miles every, each week, the world over, racking up a complete of 200 long-distance runs, elevating consciousness of the worldwide water disaster as a part of her Run Blue marketing campaign.
Mina Guli runs a marathon in Uluru, Australia, for the Run Blue marketing campaign.
The goal of Run Blue is to attract consideration to most of the challenges being tackled on the UN Water Convention, solely the second of its sort, following the inaugural summit, which came about in Argentina in 1977.
46 years on, greater than 800,000 individuals are nonetheless dying annually from illnesses instantly attributed to unsafe water, insufficient sanitation, and poor hygiene practices, and round 4 billion individuals expertise extreme water shortage for a minimum of one month of the 12 months.
On Tuesday, the day earlier than the opening session of the Convention, Ms. Guli reached the ending line of her 200th marathon, arriving at UN Headquarters in New York, and handed over a flag emblazoned with the brand for SDG 6 – Sustainable Development Goal 6, which calls for everybody to have entry to wash and secure water provides – and lined with the signatures of individuals encountered throughout her marketing campaign, to UN dignitaries.
A younger lady in Zimbabwe drinks clear and secure water from a effectively level rehabilitated with the help of the UN.
“I am working 200 marathons in a 12 months as a result of the world nonetheless turns a blind eye to our worsening water crises,” stated Ms. Guli. “I run ridiculous distances as a result of it’s utterly ridiculous that billions of individuals nonetheless lack entry to secure water and sanitation. I run to make sure that water and freshwater ecosystems are on the centre of world debates about meals and vitality safety, local weather adaptation and sustainable improvement – and to encourage actual motion.”
The Australian businesswoman and founding father of the Thirst Basis, a non-profit group targeted on elevating consciousness and driving motion on water, has spoken on the United Nations and plenty of different international boards.
“Working all these marathons is tough however not unimaginable – identical to the steps governments and corporations have to take to unravel the world’s water crises,” continued Ms. Guli. “The UN Water Convention is an unprecedented alternative to rework the world’s failed strategy to water and the rivers, lakes and wetlands that present it. We should all act now.”
Mina Guli runs marathon in Istanbul, Türkiye, throughout the Run Blue marketing campaign.
