Gesine Freund

Meet Gesine Freund, an avid runner and WUSC employee who combines her passion for running, and organizing events and fundraisers to support charitable causes.

In the last year, Gesine has been organizing awareness and fundraiser campaigns in support of the Student Refugee Program (SRP) – a unique, peer-to-peer sponsorship program that enables young refugees to continue their higher education in Canada.

Last year, runners from Ottawa, across Canada and around the world, joined Gesine for a 50 Km run in support of the program. In June and July this year, right in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gesine ran “10 half marathons in 10 days” twice, while creating awareness about the program on social media.

On October 2-3 this year, Gesine will run 200 km solo and nonstop, all the way from Montreal to Ottawa! She will be sharing her challenge – and SRP success stories along the way and you can follow along via her GesineRuns Facebook page.

Gesine chooses to run for refugee education because, “now more than ever, we need to continue encouraging young displaced people, to motivate them to continue their studies and stay focused, active, engaged and positive,” she says.

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