How far would you walk for water? On June 25, Embrace Relief found out exactly how far – and you exceeded our wildest expectations!
Participants who attended and completed Embrace Relief’s first-annual “H2Ow Far Can You Walk” 5K Walk-A-Thon in-person at Liberty State Park in Jersey City took a combined 625,000+ steps for clean water. And thanks to our partnership with Sweatcoin, this event was a global effort – more than 6,000 people around the world supported our cause through our virtual event that day, walking a total of 20.5 million steps!
The “H2Ow Far Can You Walk” 5K Walk-A-Thon event was held to support Embrace Relief’s efforts in building and rebuilding water wells in Africa. The clean water crisis has left hundreds of millions of people in that part of the world without an accessible, safe source of drinking water.
The Walk-A-Thon itself was designed to draw attention particularly to the plight of young women and girls in Africa, who often take on the role of water-carriers in their families. Because many communities are located long distances from the nearest source of water, they must walk for several miles per day on average – often barefoot, under the heat of a blazing sun, while carrying as much as 80 pounds of water.
Embrace Relief’s well-building campaign aims to reduce or eliminate that burden for as many people as possible. So far, our Clean Water Initiative has already delivered safe, accessible drinking water to more than 500,000 people in the African countries of Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria.
Our newest ongoing project, “Fountains of Hope,” is reconstructing malfunctioning and abandoned water wells and restoring them to full use for their nearby communities.
Embrace Relief has set an ambitious target of 250 more refurbished wells under the “Fountains of Hope” Project by the end of 2022. Thanks to the generosity of the people who walked with us in Jersey City, or who supported our cause through the Sweatcoin app, Embrace Relief is well on our way to our goal.
Embrace Relief’s partnership with Sweatcoin, a free step-tracking app that allows users to convert their steps into a digital currency that can be spent on products or donated to charity, was a major contributor to the 5K Walk-A-Thon’s success.
Throughout the month of June, the “H2Ow Far Can You Walk: A Walk to Bring Water to Africa” campaign was featured on the Sweatcoin app, where more than 568,000 people from 240 countries contributed their steps toward this global cause. Together, we walked more than 30 billion steps for clean water during June!
On the day of the Walk-A-Thon itself, more than 6,000 Sweatcoin users registered and completed their 5K virtually from a variety of locations from around the world. They joined the more than 100 guests who joined Embrace Relief in-person at Liberty State Park and completed the 5K walk along the Hudson River.
All funds raised through the in-person event and the Sweatcoin app for the Walk-A-Thon 5K program will directly support Embrace Relief’s well reconstruction efforts.
