Sun, 11 September, 2016

Project BRA

Hundreds of runners joined Claire McFarlane on Saturday 10 September to run 16km along the coast of Port Moresby from Harbourside to Koki Markets and the Royal Papuan Yacht Club. Others joined in and showed their support by walking and running a range of distances from 2km-10km.

Claire is the powerhouse behind Project BRA: Beach Running for Awareness. She is running 16km of beaches in 184 coastal countries over the next 3 years to draw awareness to and remove the stigma of talking openly about rape. This young woman from South Africa and Australia survived a brutal rape at the age of 21 on the streets of Paris, a stereotypically romantic European city where, shockingly, only 2% of rape cases go through the courts. 

Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea was stop number five for Claire's Project BRA, after running barefoot (where possible) on beaches in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. The 16km distance represents the 16 years that it took for Claire to get justice for her rape in France. Her next stop will be the Solomon Islands.

So what is Claire's motivation?

"I can use my story to help others around the world, not just in one country, and there just seems to be so much need. Statistics are so high. Rape doesn't have any preference. It crosses borders, it crosses cultures, it crosses belief systems, ages.

"I'm passionate about sport and running, and beach running helped me a lot in my healing process. I was having very difficult moments and I would go out and run on the beach and feel a lot better. I thought, the power of sport to help heal is so important. And it's such a diffferent idea using adventure and sport to touch a lot more people to talk about such a difficult issue."

Support the project by buying a t-shirt here.

For more information visit ProjectBRA online or follow the project on Facebook or Twitter. 

Photos ©stellamag.com
Photos 1-4 Claire and the beach runners at Ela Beach and the Sea Wall.
Photo 5 Cutting oranges for the runners.
Photos 6-10 Claire and the beach runners at the Harbourside finishing line.
 

STOCKISTS | CONTACT US | SHARE ON FACEBOOK