Inspiration
Australian marathoner to run 4000 kms for Indian education.
Come August, Australian marathoner Samantha Gash will run from Jaisalmer to Meghalaya for raising funds for Indian education based initiatives.
It is heart warming and indeed heroic to see an individual take a super human effort to do something in the public domain. We are talking about Australian marathoner Samantha Gash who will embark on a 76-day-long-run from Jaisalmer to Meghalaya in August for raising funds for education-focused initiatives in India.
Samantha, a corporate lawyer by profession, who is now an athlete, said “my mind and heart is determined to finish the physical and mental challenge that is ‘Run India’. It will definitely be one day at a time and remember that I need to be highly adaptable in order to do so.”
She said she was driven to undertake the humungous challenge of running the almost 4,000 km-stretch covering several Indian cities from West to East to raise funds which would go towards funding education-focussed initiatives through World Vision’s programmes in India.
“My hope is also that I can shed some light on the complexities Indians face when it comes to accessing education and that a grassroots and holistic approach to development can be a life or game changer,” the 31-year-old said.
Samantha has run through some of the most extreme and inhospitable locations from deserts in Chile, China, Egypt and Antarctica, to mountains of Nepal, New Zealand, South Africa and India.
Her Indian challenge would include not a direct run from West to East India but would also include other parts to visit World Vision development programmes in Pauri and Darjeeling.
Samantha said that she was fascinated with India after her 2011 trip when she ran nonstop for 222 km in Leh.
“I found the running community in India so supportive and passionate. The landscape and terrain is incredibly diverse from desert to urban centres, mountains, tea estates, jungles and forests,” she said.
What Samantha is planning to do is breathtaking and will definitely bring Indian education-based initiatives in the spotlight across the globe. We salute Samantha’s spirit of generosity to undertake this mind boggling feat to promote education in India. We hope to see many such journeys being undertaken by natives too.