5K Challenge for Artsakh

April 24th marks 108 years since the Ottoman Empire perpetrated the Armenian Genocide. During this time, millions of Armenian civilians lost their lives or were forced to flee their homeland and rebuild their lives in different countries.

Today, we are tragically at risk of seeing history repeating itself. The indigenous Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh (known to Armenians by its historic name “Artsakh”) are under a new threat of Genocide. The Lachin Corridor and the only road connecting Artsakh’s 120,000 inhabitants to Armenian has been blocked by Azerbaijan since December 2022 (over 100 days).

The 120,000 inhabitants (mostly women and children) have been cut off from food, water, gas, and vital medical supplies. Essentially, the Armenians of Artsakh are under permanent threat of hunger, disease, military aggression, and denied their basic human rights to live in peace and security.

To help prevent a humanitarian disaster, AGBU YP London is asking you to take action and join us in raising awareness about this crisis and to help raise funds to provide essential supplies to the Armenians of Artsakh. We are working with the AGBU Global Relief Fund which is helping Armenians rebuild their lives.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to run, jog or walk 5 kilometres, any day in April and help fundraise by getting your friends, family and colleagues involved as well as raising awareness on an issue that has had very little to no global coverage.

The process is simple:

1. Complete a 5k run, jog, walk (or any other sport, feel free to get creative!).

2. Donate a minimum of £5 to the AGBU Global Relief Fund (add go fund me link here).

3. Post a photo announcing your 5k Challenge participation and tag 5 of your friends to do the same. Don’t forget to tag YP London (@agbu_yp_london) as well!

We know the world has recently been subject to a number of conflicts and natural disasters that have had detrimental effects across all structures of society. But please let’s not let this one go unnoticed like the events of 1915.

Under the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Genocide is defined as:

Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

a. Killing members of the group;

b. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

c. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

d. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

e. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Let’s come together and raise awareness in unity. Good luck!