GOAL's Darren Hannify to run New York City Marathon
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GOAL’s Darren Hanniffy may have put away his G.A.A. gear many years ago, but the former All-Ireland-winning hurler will be lining up to take part in a major sporting event again on November 4th. He will be joining thousands of others competing in the New York City Marathon, and is fundraising in aid of GOAL's work in South Sudan.
Darren, a senior manager with GOAL, will be running the event to raise as much money as he can for GOAL’s response to a refugee crisis in South Sudan. It will be his third time running a marathon.
“I am training very hard at the moment, but it’s going to be a big challenge,” said Hanniffy, who won a Celtic Cross with his native county in 1998. “I’m really looking forward to it, however. The New York marathon is famous the world over and hopefully I can raise as much money as I can for our programmes assisting the refugees in South Sudan."
Since joining GOAL, Darren has worked as a GOALie in a number of developing countries, including Honduras, Afghanistan, Uganda, Kenya, Haiti and most recently in South Sudan.
He was appointed Country Director for GOAL in Haiti following the massive earthquake in January 2010, taking charge of organising, planning and co-ordinating GOAL’s emergency response for the following year.
GOAL has been delivering an emergency aid programme for some of the many refugees at camps in Maban County of South Sudan’s Upper Nile State since December 2011.
We are urging the international community to move swiftly to prevent a further deterioration in the humanitarian situation in the region. There is likely to be a renewed influx of refugees at the beginning of November.
GOAL is continuing to scale-up our activities in response to the persisting needs of the refugees, and in response to existing outbreaks, such as Hepatitis E, and potential outbreaks, such as cholera. Seasonal rains have also altered the operating environment, making the delivery of aid much more difficult.
Although GOAL is mainly concentrated at Batil camp, where we provide life-saving health, nutrition, water and sanitation services, we are also responding in Jamam and Doro camps and in Bunj and Bugaya towns. In total, we are operating and supporting five health facilities across Maban.
If you would like to support Darren, please visit his My Charity page at www.mycharity.ie/event/darren_hanniffys_event/.
If you would like to read more about GOAL’s work at the refugee camps in South Sudan, please click here.
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