What am I doing? 

Over 40 days (Lent), starting on 17th February and finishing on the 4th April (Easter Sunday), I will aim to run/walk 116 Miles while obviously following government guidelines to try and raise money for Meninadança.

Why am I doing this? 

When I was about 12, my grandmother gave me a book called 'Remember me, Rescue me' by Matt Roper, the founder of Meninadança. This book sparked a desire to go to Brazil and help vulnerable girls who are suffering over there. In 2012, I was able to go over for a month to Recife with a team from Latin Link to help a local church run holiday camps for young people and nearly didn't come back (I'm glad I did as I would never have met Derek otherwise :) ).At the end of 2019, I was able to go to the Meninadança conference for Northern Ireland and it reminded me of why I had been touched by the story at the start. 

What is Meninadança? Why 116 miles?

Meninadança is a charity that works to combat child sexual exploitation in communities along the BR-116, Brazil’s ‘exploitation highway (yes, that explains the 116 miles! ). They work with girls aged 10-17 living in extreme poverty, family turmoil, and in situations of social and personal risk, the greatest of which is abuse and sexual exploitation. They use dance and other activities to reach them, raise their self-esteem and help them to lead creative and purposeful lives. They also aim to raise awareness of the situation that these girls face and protect them and other girls from further harm. For more info, please check out their website: https://www.meninadanca.org/

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