Hi Everyone!
Well, I'm sure your all wondering what the mile is and not many of you would have heard about Sport Relief before as it's really only done in the U.K. So I thought I would tell you all a little bit about it, what it does and hopefully make you understand a little more about it.
Sport Relief is a charity run by the BBC, and is in association with BBC sport. The aims of Sport Relief are to raise money for charity, raise awarness, get the public more active in the world of sport and of course, to have fun! This is done thoughout TV, radio, schools and the Sainsbury's Sport Relief Mile.
As of 2002 Comic Relief (a program to raise money to fight poverty) teamed up with the BBC Sport team to create Sport Relief, a time of sport and entertainment rolled into one. The show is aired on BBC One. In 2004's Sport Relief the first Mile was introduced, it consisted of 81,000
participents including 253 celebrities such as Keira Knightly, David and Victoria Beckham and Prince William and Harry.
In 2002 Sport Relief raised 14 million pounds, and in 2004 16 milllion pounds (around 26
million dollars). This year is no different as millions are participating all around the U.K
to run their mile and in total are aiming to run 16 million miles, which is
all the public's 'mile runs' put together.
This can be done in school, around the neighborhood or as a big city/town event. The 15th of July was when the show was aired and when most of the public ran, but many are continuing
their sponsored mile thoughout the month.
This year Sport Relief 'Goes all out for India' to raise money and destroy poverty. As of 1999 3.7 million people were recorded to have AIDS and 310,000 were recored to die of the cause. People like these need to be helped in India which is exactly where Sport Relief's money is going.
In a 3 part show on BBC One, 13 celebrities went to India to play cricket and witness first hand what the poverty was like. I watched the show and was devastated by the footage shown. It was emotional and shocking to see a 14 year old boy, barefoot, walking around a dump, picking up plastic from the filth that could be recycled, and what did they get for it? Nothing. An even younger boy, on all fours sweeping the floors of a train night and day, sleeping on the streets and living off the food that he could find, and yet he got nothing. Most people get food on their tables and clothes and CDs on their birthday. I'm pretty sure that this boy gets nothing, he might
not know when his birthday is. This kind of stuff is shown so that the public can be aware of the problems that people in LEDC's (less economically developed countries) face and hopefully help put something into the community to help.
So the point of this article, is not to only inform you of charities like Sport Relief, but to also encourage you to do something about it, and then maybe people in places like India and Africa in the future will live like you.
This is XWhyDivaX going to run my mile!
Author's note: Information from: www.bbc.co.uk and www.alloutforindia.net
