Walk with REI!

The REI Walking Challenges are a great opportunity for everyone to “exercise for a cause”.

Being ‘virtual’ it means participants can join online from different areas of the world by going about their regular exercise activities, simply connecting their phone to the event website. The activity involves participants travelling virtually along through a pre-set path in a country significant for REI projects and activities.

Our next challenge from 24 April will take you to the Darien Gap in South America. You can find out what refugees experience when they flee their homes in South America and may face the challenge of crossing the Darien Gap from Colombia to Panama.
Registration will open in early April. The challenge covers Golden Week when you will have lots of time to exercise!

In November 2020, our first walking challenge “Walk to End Dependence” started in Damascus (Syria) and ended in Beirut (Lebanon), walking together with Syrian refugees all the way into Lebanon where REI supports a kindergarten for Syrian refugee children.

In June 2021 the “REImagine Rwanda” challenge started in Kigali (the capital city of Rwanda) and travelled through the country into neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo, following the path many Rwandan refugees may have taken in the ‘90s. 

In November 2021 we followed the route that thousands of Karen people follow as they head to the Friendship Bridge on the border of Thailand.

Our last challenge in March 2022 took us on a Walk on the Wild Side from South Sudan to the safety of Kakuma camp in Kenya.

In all challenges virtual visitors hit a milestone every 10 km as they run, bike or walk along the path. The milestones appear in the form of a notification on the phone app and give information about the history, culture, geographical spots, REI project information and successful beneficiaries stories. 

They are set to help the challengers experience the place they are virtually walking in!