A crowd-funding innovation through sport: Run for Anantapur

The power of many working for a unified cause makes anything possible. This belief is being realised through the power of sport in a unique fund raiser to support the food security of those most in need in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh.

Fundacion Vicente Ferrer (FVF) was established in 1995 to aid the Rural Development Trust (RDT) in its work in India. Due to RDT having strong roots back in Spain, FVF has been working to strengthen RDT’s role in India through their full-time fund raising workers (mostly volunteers) from Spain.

Apart from large foundations and organisations, FVF benefits tremendously from the support of individual donors that contribute to the organisation through the hard work of their many fund raising workers. One such worker is Carmen Corpas, based out of Grenada, Spain, who initially began 6 years ago as an independent fund raising worker. However, due to certain legal constraints in Spain, Carmen decided to set up an organisation two years ago which resulted in the founding of Corazones Solidarios En Acción (CSEA), which literally translates to Hearts Solidarity In Action.

The organisation is supported by over 300 volunteers, who have enabled CSEA to actively support FVF and RDT in their work in Anantapur, India from its inception. It primarily supports them in raising funds which are strictly focussed towards food security for marginalised individuals. Carmen strongly believes that poor nutrition contributes to many issues that persist in India and other countries where poverty remains prevalent.

CSEA is of the belief that institutional funding is not as effective as it could be, which is why they are doing things differently. They believe in crowd funding, whereby they gather a small sum from a large number of people. This was the idea behind the “Run For Anantapur” (RFA), where CSEA would collect funds as little as 10 euros per child who participated in the run. The idea is that every individual sponsor would contribute for each child and the funds collected would then be provided to FVF and RDT to fund the nutritional needs of a specific marginalised group.

This year the RFA, which saw 2,000 children participate in the run, was dedicated towards the nutrition of HIV positive individuals that are under the care of RDT in Anantapur. Last year, CSEA took up the RFA to collect funds for the nutrition of communities located in the forest areas of Anantapur, with whom RDT had recently started working with. The plan for next year would be to “Run for Anantapur” for the disabled.

This innovative methodology of crowd funding, through sporting activity at the grassroots, is something that CSEA, FVF and RDT are championing to help better the lives of the underprivileged by providing food security.

Video of this year's event