The UK organisation Saigon Children’s Charity has opened registration for an online race The Virtual Steps Challenge 2020 to raise fund to help disadvantaged children. — Photo courtesy of saigonchildren

HCM CITY — The UK organisation Saigon Children’s Charity is organising The Virtual Steps Challenge 2020, an online race where people from around the world can track their steps as they run, walk or exercise to compete to raise money for children, and receive real prizes.

All funds raised from this event will go to children from disadvantaged backgrounds in Việt Nam, alleviating physical and mental issues they face from the COVID-19 pandemic so that no child is left behind after this crisis.

The virtual event will take place from May 4-31.

Registration is at irace.vn/races/the-virtual-steps-challenge. The registration fee is VNĐ250,000 (approx. US$10).

Participants will set a goal for themselves, from 50,000 to 300,000 steps, to be completed during the period of the race.

Every physical activity, running, walking, exercising, or even doing housework will be tracked by phone and count toward the goal when participants connect their Google Fit app with their account at iRace.vn, Saigon Children’s technology partner for this event.

At the end of May, once their goal is reached, a real medal along with other prizes will be sent directly to everyone by post. 

According to UNICEF, the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 will be one of its largest consequences and will be felt hardest by the world’s most vulnerable children.

When parents struggle to maintain their livelihoods and income, children not only lack nutritious food to develop properly, but some are also left to fend for themselves by earning money on the streets where they are exposed to many other risks.

Damien Roberts, Saigon Children’s executive director, said: “This is the second time we have organised The Steps Challenge, and based on the success of last year, we hope the virtual version of this year will be a meaningful activity for people during this time, joining hands and helping our underprivileged kids.”

Last year’s event focused on the theme of autism and attracted thousands of people participating online and offline, collecting just under 200 million steps in total, and raising over VNĐ700 million for autism intervention and training. — VNS