Two brothers will walk 24 hours straight for charity on Dec. 20 to benefit the Fistula Foundation, a nonprofit focused on fighting obstetric fistula.
Obstetric fistula is a hole between the birth canal and bladder or rectum caused by prolonged, obstructed labor without access to timely, high-quality medical treatment.
The goal of the organization is to fund procedures that will fix obstetric fistula in countries that don’t have adequate medical resources.
Durango residents Charlie and Ben Rogers will journey around neighborhoods in their hometown of Elmhurst, Illinois. The goal is to raise awareness more so than money. However, they will take donations and advertise a link where donations can be made during their walk.
This will be the third such walk for the brothers, who both work for the Boys and Girls Club of La Plata County and with the local chapter of One for the World, which tries to raise awareness about extreme world poverty.
Charlie is a senior exercise physiology major at Fort Lewis College and is the president of FLC’s One for the World chapter. Ben is an artist who often teaches art at the Durango Boys and Girls Club.
The brothers became inspired to enter the charity event after reading Peter Singer’s “The Life You Can Save.”
“My friend Jake Litchy, who started the One for the World chapter at Fort Lewis, introduced me to the idea of effective altruism,” Charlie said. “I was extremely interested in their approach to effective giving and inspired by the opportunity to make a tangible difference with our continual donations to researched charities.”
The brothers said Singer’s book made them realize how people are born into different situations where proper medical care isn’t always accessible and what those with means can do to help.
“I think a lot of people view it as if you put in enough hard work, then you will have these comforts in life,” Charlie said. “But some need to realize that a lot of people are just born into a situation where they don’t have the same opportunities because of where they live.”
According to the Fistula Foundation website, the average cost of a fistula operation is $598 per surgery.
The brothers are both avid runners, which might make it seem like walking 24 hours straight would be an easy task, but they said it is a drain mentally.
For their training, they try to run every day, normally using the trails at Horse Gulch to prepare. But what helps them get through the 24-hour period are friends and food.
Their mother usually provides them with enough food, including hot tea, electrolytes, bananas, chickpea noodle soup, veggie sandwiches, peanut butter-filled dates and vegan chocolate cake.
Their hometown friends will also join for portions of the walk to show support and help entertain the brothers.
“It definitely helps that we spend a lot of time up on our feet and in the mountains and then we go back to low elevation, and we’re just walking around pretty flat paved roads,” Ben said. “But the difficulty takes us by surprise every year.”
Ben said walking all night is the most difficult part of the walk because it’s when the mental fatigue sets in. That is also when fewer people walk with the group and the task becomes mind-numbing.
However, enduring the 24-hour walk is worth it to help the cause.
“The people that you’re donating to will use that money in a way better way than we could,” Charlie said. “For us it’s a difference between going and getting a cup of coffee a week versus avoiding malaria.”
Donations to the cause can be given by visiting www.fistulafoundation.org/donations/24hourwalk-2022/.
tbrown@durangoherald.com
