Marathons sound intimidating. But Milind Soman, with his unique way of promoting awareness through running a marathon has been empowering women to run through his initiative ‘Pinkathon’.
Addressing a press conference, Soman announced that ‘Pinkathon’, an initiative by the United Sisters Foundation will be held on September 4 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the national Capital. Pinkathon will be India’s biggest women’s run with over 10,000 women participating.
The initiative hopes to empower women across India and create awareness about breast cancer. “‘Pinkathon’ is more than a marathon. It is the beginning of a movement that is to be carried forward by a growing community of empowered women acorss India, who share a belief that a healthy family, and a healthy world begins with empowered women.” said Milind Soman.
The panelists who were a part of the conference highlighted the necessity for a better awareness about women’s health. Most panelists spoke of how women are simply relegated to household chores and are constantly stressed out, with little or no time for exercise or even a health check up. “The WHO, World Health Statistics stated that only 1.16% of its GDP was spent on health in India. It is time for everyone to bring health to the forefront and ‘Pinkathon’ will help achieve that,” said Ranjana Kumari, Director, Centre for Social Research and President, Women Power connect.
The primary goal of the marathon is awareness. The campaign aims to encourage healthy lifestyles among women by encouraging them to run. ‘Pinkathon’ is also giving out free medical check ups with the help of their Medical Partner, Apollo, as well as free mammograms to participants above 45 years of age.
‘Pinkathon’ which endeavors to make sure that no stone is left unturned when it comes to achieving social justice, has decided to use the Tsunamika doll as a participatory model. The Tsunamika dolls were made by fisherwomen who lost their livelihoods after the Tsunami of 2004.
Before the main event, the team is also organizing a Cancer Shero Trek, a shero is a cancer survivor. The initiative hopes to felicitate them for their inspiration. In addition to this, over 50 visually challeged woman are expected to participate. All proceeds from the event will be used for expenses incurred in organizing and marketing the event, and by the Women’s Cancer initiative in its fight against breast cancer. Interested participants can register at www.pinkathon.in.