Sanctuary Runners won the top award at the world’s leading international sport and social impact awards ceremony in Copenhagen, Denmark last night – October 29th. The organisation was named as the world’s best Community sport’s initiative for the integration of refugees. Graham Clifford, Head of International Development for the movement, was in Copenhagen to accept
Sanctuary Runners won the top award at the world’s leading international sport and social impact awards ceremony in Copenhagen, Denmark last night – October 29th.
The organisation was named as the world’s best Community sport’s initiative for the integration of refugees.
Graham Clifford, Head of International Development for the movement, was in Copenhagen to accept the award on behalf of Sanctuary Runners which has welcomed over 40,000 people to one of its activities over the last seven-years in Ireland alone.
After a global entry call, Sanctuary Runners was named as a finalist alongside the Cheza sports organisation from Uganda and Fédération Sportive et Gymnique du Travail, a French organisation working with children in Palestine’s West Bank.
The awards ceremony organised by the International Sport and Culture Association (ISCA) is part of the global organisation’s annual Move Congress which brings stakeholders from around the world together to discuss how sport and physical activity can be harnessed for more social good.
Collecting the award, made from Lego by local Danish school children, Graham Clifford paid tribute to all those who have run, jogged or walked with the Sanctuary Runners over the years and told the 800 attendees that the model conceived, crafted and grown in Ireland can work in cities and countries across the world.
He said: “We started small back in 2018 and thought if we could get a team of 200 people made up of locals and people who have moved to Ireland from other countries in that year’s Cork City Marathon it would be mission accomplished – little did we know the appetite for our model. Today we have 40 active groups across Ireland, a thriving group in Brighton, England with charity status secured in the UK and plans well in place to establish groups across Britain, plus a Global Solidarity Run project which earlier this month saw people running in Sanctuary Runner blue in 100 countries worldwide. At a time of growing populism, division and reckless talk, in Ireland and across the world, I think Sanctuary Runners is needed more than ever. We will drive on to create more groups, work with more communities worldwide and show a better way is both possible and sensible.”
Sanctuary Runners also received a prize of €3,000 for winning the award.
