It’s hard to believe that it’s been ten years since Team EMC was being formed for our first NYC Marathon in 2011.
As the Founder of Every Mother Counts, I couldn’t NOT join the team. We were given ten spots, which weren’t difficult to fill. It was almost exactly this time in the summer when I started training. In the summer of 2011, I had just arrived home from Bangladesh where I had traveled with a small group of supporters for the first time since filming No Woman, No Cry two years earlier. While there we spent hours in the car sitting traffic in between site visits outside of Dhaka where we met with communities and stakeholders, all working to address maternal health challenges. On one of those drives I remember talking about marathons and thinking aloud that I would probably never take on a goal like that now that I was a mom of two and had started a non-profit. One week later, we received a call from the NYC Marathon offering EMC the spots. Being in Bangladesh in July was probably an advantage given the temperatures I would be running in those first few months.
The women and families I met in Bangladesh were the ones I carried with me every mile training for that first race and over the finish line. The mothers and providers of care I have met across the U.S., Haiti, Guatemala, Tanzania, Uganda, Indonesia, and India have been with me on every run since. ‘Every Mile, Every Mother, Every Mile, Every Mother, Every Mile Every Mother’ is a constant internal mantra.
As I embark on my training for this year’s NYC Marathon, running those very same streets for a decade, I am filled with awe and pride for what Team EMC has achieved. This Team has inspired so many others to join our efforts to raise awareness and funds in support of achieving equitable access to safe and respectful maternity care around the world. In 7 years I’d run 8 full marathons completing the big six, NYC x2, Chicago x2, London, Boston, Berlin, Tokyo, plus a few dozen half marathons in Tanzania, Haiti, Haiti, NY and San Francisco.
We have had thousands of people run for and with Team EMC and raised more than 5 million dollars
Still, the global estimates for maternal mortality are approximately 300,000 women and girls who die each year all because they cannot access care of any kind, let alone quality care. That’s two mothers every minute. And that’s why I am as committed as ever to fulfill our mission to make pregnancy and childbirth safe for every mother, everywhere.
My goal is to raise $10,000 in celebration of 10 years participating in this race. Because of Coronavirus, I was not able to run my 9th full marathon in 2020, so this is my year to race again in my city, where I ran my first, and I am going to give it my all.
Please consider joining me and Team EMC this year or, you can support me or one of our runners here.
Every Mile, Every Mother, Every Mile, Every Mother, Every Mile, Every Mother…
Christy, Founder, Every Mother Counts
