Right To Play

In February 2009 a good friend of mine, Tom Healy, introduced me to Right To Play. Tom explained Right To Play's committment to improving the lives of children around the world through sport and play. My 2005 bike trip from Cairo to Cape Town had shown me the power of play and I wanted to give some thing back. In 2010, Martin started his "Quests for Kids" initiative. Over the next five years he completed 10 "Quests". These included running 250 marathons in one year, setting five Guinness World Records and submitting Mount Kilimanjaro in 21 hours. At the end of 2014 over $1.3m had been raised for the humanitarian organization Right To Play and 27,000 children had been given the gift of hope.

Right To Play

Right To Play is a global organisation that uses the transformative power of play to educate and empower children facing adversity. Through playing sports and games, Right To Play helps one million children weekly in more than 20 countries to build essential life skills and better futures, while driving lasting social change. Founded in 2000 by four-time Olympic gold medallist and social entrepreneur Johann Olav Koss, Right To Play is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has national offices in Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and regional offices in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. Our programmes are facilitated by more than 600 international staff and 13,500 volunteer Coaches.

 

Free to Run

Free to Run uses adventure sports to support women and girls living in areas of conflict to build their physical, emotion and social well-being; developing them into community leaders so they can bring people together across cultural, ethnic and religious lines. We provide them with the tools to succeed and support them to transfer those successes to their everyday lives because they can and will be a force for positive change. Conflicts can have a devastating impact on societies, causing suffering on a widespread scale for both men and women. However, women and girls are disproportionately affected by conflict, and the ways in which their rights are restricted are often overlooked. They are often sidelined, and yet they have so much to contribute. Their invisibility from society is as much of a symptom of discrimination as it is a cause. We believe that there will never be a solution to conflict without the free and full participation of women as equals in society. Finding ways for women and girls to safely and boldly engage in outdoor activity allows them to regain public space and changes views about the roles that women can - and should - play in society. We work to engender understanding and buy-in for women through adventure sports, life skills development, and community service. We work to empower women to be part of the solution. We are steadfast yet respectful in our approach.