„We Run for Kids“ is an initiative of ten scientists from the Chair of Sustainable Engineering at Technical University of Berlin which aims at supporting the great work of the non-profit registered organization „Acute support for children and adolescents in Lebanon“ (ASCAL). Therefore, the Team TU Berlin will participate at the company run b2run on the 10th September. The ten members offer to change their identity from scientists to comic-characters, under the condition that 10,000 € are donated. Besides donating, you can support this initiative actively. Simply found your own team and collect some money yourself. This initiative shows how much we can achieve, if we work together for children fleeing the wars in their home countries.

For whom do we run?
Since the outbreak of the civil war in Syria, more than one million people have fled into the small neighboring country Lebanon. More than half of the refugees are below 18 years old – among them children suffering from serious illness. The national structures in Lebanon cannot provide medical treatment for seriously ill refugees. International organizations, such as Doctors without Borders and the International Committee of the Red Cross cover a broad range of medical care of ill or injured refugees in Lebanon. However, complex diseases such as cancer or renal insufficiency cannot be treated because of too high treatment costs. Even the United Nations do not have the financial means for this special medical care. By means of financial and organizational support, we want to enable medical treatment for these children.

Who is „Acute support for children and adolescents in Lebanon“?
This non-profit association organizes and (co-)finances the medical treatment of seriously ill children in Lebanon who otherwise wouldn’t have access to medical care. The association was founded in 2012 and cooperates locally with doctors, hospitals as well as national and international aid agencies. At least one member is present in Lebanon at any time. Moreover, there are four reasons why we want to support this association:

1. All members of the association work in unsalaried honorary capacity
2. Donations are entirely used for medical treatment
3. Costs associated with the organization’s work (travelling, etc.) are covered by the members of the association privately
4. Administrative costs are kept as low as possible (only 1.64 % in 2014 for transfer fees)

A small association with big impact which efficiently supports children with serious illness in need.