Famous sportsmen, clubs and foreign diplomats have joined together in the charitable marathon “24 RAZAM” with the support of VOKA

The 24-hour charitable marathon “24 RAZAM” to aid autistic children will take place on 16-17 August. Anyone living in Belarus can take part in the event. Well-known athletes and people in the arts are preparing to support the project. Our sportsmen living in training camps abroad also intend to help Belarus children suffering from autism. In particular, the handball club SKA-Minsk whose players are at training camp in Slovenia made its contribution to the collection of the charitable marathon and ran a total of 44 hours, while the national women’s field hockey team ran more than 15 hours. Well known domestic and foreign clubs which include Belarus players are also planning to take part.

The Belarus Football Federation announced that it supports the marathon. Within the 18th tour, all teams of the elite division “Belarusbank –Top League,” which go out on the country’s fields on 16 and 17 August, will credit to the marathon their time in play. The FC BATE, FC Isloch, FC Dnyapro, FC Art-Stars and FC Diplomat declared their participation in the 24-hour marathon.

According to the terms of the charitable marathon “24 RAZAM,” Belarus participants must run or swim during 24 hours a grand total of 10,000 hours. When the “24 RAZAM” project is completed, the video service VOKA will give charitable assistance in the amount of 50,000 rubles to the international charitable social organization “Children. Autism. Parents” and to the project “Sports-Inclusion,” which is run by the famous swimmer Alexandra Gerasimenya. The project works to create inclusive sports programs which presuppose the joint preparation of neurologically typical children and children with developmental peculiarities.

“I invite everyone who wants to support autistic children to take part in the charitable marathon “24 RAZAM.” We want to help each child with developmental peculiarities to find his or her place in society, to feel at ease in life and in sports. We call upon the Belarus people to run or swim to help children. Each minute that you run during these 24 hours will be credited to the total sum of our project and will translate into the sum of charitable assistance,” declared Alexandra Gerasimenya, the initiator of the charitable project “24 RAZAM.” On 17 August Alexandra herself will perform her last swim to assist children.

You can help children by running in any place or swimming in any pool. You can record the time of the run or swim with the help of any fitness app and post a screenshot on your page in the social networks using the hashtag #VOKA24.

ОThe following famous athletes and Belarus citizens have said they will take part in the marathon. Alexandra Gerasimenya, Nadezhda Skardino,Yekaterina Vandarieva, Olga Khizhinkova, Darya Domracheva, Anastasiya Veremeyenko, Marina Arzamasova, Alexandra Sasnovich Marina Slutskaya, Dmitri Asanov, Vitaly Rodionov and many others. Representatives of the handball club SKA, the football club BATE, the hockey team Dynamo and other leading clubs of the country will come for the start of the charitable marathon “24 RAZAM.” And everyone who wants to run or swim together with them can register on the project’s website VOKA24.by, receive a chip and become a member of one of the “star” teams. Belarus artists, including the singer Anna Sharkunova and the fashion designer Ivan Aiplatov have confirmed their plans to participate in the marathon “24 RAZAM.”

At present a large number of corporate teams have already registered for the marathon. Mass media groups have enrolled their teams: television channels Belarus-1, Belarus-5, ONT, as well as the internet portals and the newspapers “Komsomolskaya Pravda in Belarus,” “Pressbol” and the news agency “Minsk Novosti.” The biggest “star” team is the team of Darya Domracheva: her participants will run in relay for the period of the entire marathon – 24 hours – without interruption. Others who have registered for the charitable marathon include the team of the USA embassy in Belarus, which became first in numbers of declared participants among all the corporate teams. From among the team of FC Diplomat, diplomatic employees from Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia, Kazakhstan, Venezuela, Slovakia and other countries will take part in the charitable marathon.

The 24-hour running marathon will take place in the stadium of the Republican Center of Olympics preparation in light athletics situated on ul. Kalinovsky (participants will gather on 16 August at 17.30, the start is at 18.00). The 6-hour swim will take place in the swimming pool of SOK Traktor, on ul. Dolgobrodskaya, 37 (start on 17 August at 12.00). The marathon ends on 17 August at 18.00.

Already 70 of the bravest runners have declared their intention to run for the entire 24-hour duration of the marathon. The runners with greatest endurance are those who will cover the greatest number of kilometers during the 24 hours. They will be incentivized by valuable gifts from the video service VOKA, from the company Xiaomi and the prize in a special category offered by television channel ZHIVI!. Within the program of the marathon, a team award will be won by the team with the maximum number of runners. In addition, a store selling Darya Domracheva sports clothing will operate at the marathon.