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School students in 13 countries race to break Patrick Makau’s world record marathon time and call for more live-saving health workers

On Wednesday 5 October thousands of children from more than a dozen countries across the globe, from Canada to China, took part in Save the Children‘s EVERY ONE World Marathon Challenge, to raise awareness for the demand of more health workers for the world’s poorest communities.

In the largest event of its kind ever attempted, teams of 31 children ran the 26.2 mile marathon in 200 metre relays. Each team was aiming to beat the marathon world record time of 2 hrs 3 minutes and 38 seconds, set only last week by Kenya’s Patrick Makau.

Eight teams from four different countries have beaten Makau’s record time with the team from Kenya on top of the table. See the latest results here: http://www.sportshall.org/VTL/wmc.aspx

Patrick Makau’s supporting statement here: http://everyone.org/1299/message-from-patrick-makau-marathon-world-record-holder/

Times for each team were shared online to allow children to know how they were performing against their competitors in other countries around the world. Almost 400,000 people also followed the #worldmarathon hashtag on twitter.

Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie, who is a supporter of Save the Children’s EVERY ONE campaign and previously held the record for three years says: “I lost my mother at a young age when she died in childbirth. And in my home village far too many children still die young. It’s so important that mothers and children get access to trained health workers and the right medicine”.

The event comes just two weeks after world leaders met at the UN General Assembly to discuss how to save mothers and children’s lives and address the global gap of 3.5 million health workers – doctors, nurses, midwives and community health workers – in the poorest countries.

“Health workers are everyday heroes – they save lives. Without them, no child receives vaccines, no life-saving drugs are prescribed and no woman can be given the care she needs during childbirth,” says Ben Phillips of Save the Children, “But to address the shortfall we needs concrete action from governments, both in the developed and the developing world.”

While in Norway the child mortality rate is one of the lowest in the world, in Mali nearly 1 in 5 children die before their fifth birthday.
“Though they might be separated by thousands of kilometers, children in Norway and Mali, New Zealand and Kenya, are all racing for the same goal,” continues Ben Phillips of Save the Children. “They are telling world leaders that every child deserves a chance.”