Organizers of Hope Run for Children with Special Needs (from left to right) headed by Kids Hope Foundation founder Aileen Ang (third from left) and race director Joel Juarez (fourth from left) along with fellow organizers pose during the official launching last Wednesday at Kidzoona in Robinsons Galleria Cebu.
CDN PHOTO CHRISTIAN MANINGO
KIDS Hope Foundation will bring its highly successful fund-raising running event dubbed Hope: Run For Children With Special Needs to Cebu on December 10 starting at the Cebu Business Park.
The Kids Hope Foundation is a non-profit organization committed to providing assistance to indigent families with children with special needs aged three to eight years old.
Aileen Ang, the founder of Kids Hope Foundation based in Manila, aims to raise funds to extend their reach to Cebu.
“We want to expand our foundation in Cebu as well as in Davao, and one way of doing it is to have this running event,” said Ang in the launching of the run last Wednesday at Kidzoona in Robinsons Galleria Cebu. “We’ve noticed that for the past six years, the number of children with special needs have increased in the country. One of 82 children have special needs and many parents of these children are minimum wage earners or belong to the middle class. Therapies usually cost more than a hundred thousand pesos annually. That’s why we were encouraged to establish this foundation to provide free therapy.”
The running event will feature 1.5-kilometer, 3k, 5k, 10k and 21k distances.
In their inaugural race last year in Manila, the group was able to draw around 6,000 runners and were able to help around a hundred children with special needs out of that race.
The running event is non-competitive but organizers will recognize the top runners in each distance.
Registration fee is going on at Toby’s Sports and Runnr in Ayala Center Cebu and at all Cebu outlets of Kidzoona playhouses.
For more information about the running event, one can visit its official website hopemarathon.ph.