Fit for a challenge

What is it that drives Gulf4Good do-gooders to test their limits for a cause? Nina Muslim finds out

Evelyn Broodryk trains five days a week for two hours at her gym.

She alternates between working on her upper-body and lower-body strength.

Occasionally, she combines the two workouts, and she never, never cheats.

She can't. Too many people depend on her — her friends, colleagues and the community in tsunami-stricken Kundawella, Sri Lanka.

Evelyn is training for the Sri Lankan Tsunami Challenge in August, organised by the charitable organisation Gulf4Good.

By signing up, she agrees to raise at least Dh12,000 to contribute to the reconstruction of Kundawella, which was devastated by the December-26 tsunami.

Physical Challenge

"I'm more well-defined now," she says, flexing her arm muscles.

Her triceps and biceps bulge slightly, but are not unsightly. She, however, admits she still had some way to go before being prepared for the mental and physical challenge of helping others.

"I need to build up muscle, strength, my endurance and stamina," Evelyn says, during a workout break.

She does a lot of weightlifting, using the machines and free weights to build up muscle.

To increase her endurance and stamina, Evelyn does cardiovascular exercises every day and devotes one full day to it.

"I spend half an hour on the treadmill and 20 minutes on the bike usually," says Evelyn, who works as a purchase coordinator with a German company.

Her workout regimen may sound gruelling to the average person, but the Dubai-based South African has to do this if she is to last through eight hours a day of intense physical challenge for seven days.

According to Gulf4Good challenge director Brian Wilkie, participants at the Sri Lanka Tsunami Challenge will face a taxing time.

"It's seven days of straight action, hiking to Adam's Peak and 240-km biking," and two days of leisure activities, Wilkie says.

"The Sri Lanka challenge is going to be tough, it's not easy," he adds.

Gulf4Good have long been organising challenges for a cause, where people raise money for the country where they test their physical and mental limits.

Among other challenges they have conducted are the Mount Kilimanjaro Challenge and the Great Wall of China Challenge.

Wilkie says so far not many people have signed up for the challenge even though many had
asked for the information kit.

"The problem is that people always leave everything for the last minute," he complains.

That is not a problem with Evelyn, however. She signed up for the challenge to give herself over three months to get fit, in shape and get the Dh12,000 she needs to participate.

Evelyn says her primary mode of fundraising is her trademark Sushi Night, where she makes sushi and invites her friends over for dinner.

"I used to charge them Dh30 for sushi and drinks, but now I'm charging Dh100 to raise the money," she says.

"My speciality is California rolls," she adds, smiling.

The reasons why

Evelyn says the adventure aspect of the challenge was one of the things that appealed to her.

"I've always led a pretty protected life so the adventure challenge is a huge appeal," she says.

Other than hiking and biking, the challenge will also include white-water rafting, which was something Evelyn said was on her list of things to do in her life.

"I can't wait because we're also doing white-water rafting," she says in between sips of Diet Coke.

Her workout done for the day, she was taking a well-earned break before she had to go to another charity event, Candlelight for Sight.

"And now I'm in a position to cross that off the list," she says, beaming.

Helping others also appeals to her.

"The rewards can't be seen right now, but in the end, being in the area affected by the tsunami will be worthwhile," she adds.

As for Wilkie, he feared the tsunami might be a reason not many were rushing to sign up for the challenge.

"The low response might be due to tsunami fatigue," he says, referring to the large number of events set up to aid the reconstruction efforts in Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.

But Aceh, Indonesia, the hardest-hit area with over 100,000 dead, has barely registered on the fund-raising radar in the UAE.

Wilkie said the organisation had to organise events that would appeal to people in the Gulf.

"It's not a matter of being callous, but there's just no interest in Aceh. We received many calls to help Sri Lanka and Phuket, Thailand, but we didn't receive a single phone call asking, ‘Can we do anything for Aceh?'" he says.

"We can't change the world, we just try to change it a little at a time," he adds.

As for Evelyn, the location held no special meaning for her.

She says she would have done a charity event anywhere.

"Even if it was a Save the Snails event in the Amazon," she says with a laugh.