Run to help highlight plight of trafficked kids

NAVI MUMBAI: Residents looking to give to a good cause can run ‘two million steps to hope’ for helping children who are trafficked by participating in the Ultra Marathon Run, being organised from Mumbai to Chennai.
The route will cover more than 1,500 km and pass through the Maharashtra, Goa, and Karnataka.
The run is being flagged off from Navi Mumbai on January 16 and will continue for five weeks until February 18.
The run, being organized by NGOs Hope Place and the Heart Foundation under its STREE (Smash Tradition, Rehabilitate, Educate and Empower) project, will cover an of 50 km per day.
“As per statistics, over 50% of human trafficking victims are children. Human trafficking not only involves sex and labour but people trafficked for organ harvesting,” said Dr Jayakar Ellis from the foundation. He added that although human trafficking is often a hidden crime and accurate statistics are difficult to obtain, researchers estimate that more than 80% of trafficking victims are women
“Although the run will be flagged off from Mumbai, it will officially start on Monday from Bharati Vidyapeeth campus in Belapur,” he said.
In addition to volunteers from various organizations, there will be three professional marathon runners— John Moriarty and Christopher Joseph Smith from USA and Tharun Kumar from India.
Dr Vilasrao Kadam, director of the institute, said with the growing rate of incidences of human trafficking should also be highlighted in schools and colleges.