Photograph by David Körzdörfer.
Choose your Cause
By running and fundraising with us, you help expand access to healthcare and education for communities in need.
Your Commitments
Running for a cause you believe in turns a marathon into something bigger than the finish line.
We felt this firsthand in 2023, when four Aid Pioneers team members completed a half Ironman for frontline hospitals in Ukraine, raising €46,000 which enabled us to deliver close to €1M worth of medical supplies!
We’d love for you to choose a project you care about so that you can fundraise with purpose, knowing your effort translates into real support on the ground.
Below is an overview of projects you can run for.
Important note: The funding figures reflect the full budget needed to deliver each project, not what you’re expected to raise alone.
Once you choose, we’ll connect you with other runners supporting the same cause so you can reach the goal together!
01
Local visionaries across the globe
Pibor County Hospital, South Sudan
Credit: Our partner ForAfrika
Run for Aid Pioneers as a whole if you want your fundraising to strengthen locally led initiatives across our programs. We allocate the funds you raise to the projects where they can achieve the greatest impact or deploy them quickly in time of emergencies.
In 2024, we spent €735,000 on our projects in six countries and had a project volume of €8,015,000 – meaning that we had an 11-fold leverage on every Euro across all programs.
Location: Worldwide.
Fundraising target: No fixed amount.
02
Solar installations
- unlocking health and education
Al Dar International School, Lebanon
Credit: Our partner Al Manhaj
Those seeking long-term impact should consider running for our solar projects.
Your fundraising helps replace costly diesel generators with reliable solar energy for schools and hospitals, enabling safer care, better learning conditions, and lower emissions for decades to come.
With our partners Enpal and Flexport, we can size, procure, ship and install solar systems for our partners at a fraction of market prices (usually, our solar systems are 70% cheaper than those of commercial vendors!).
Location: Primarily Africa & the Middle East
Fundraising target: No fixed amount (project-dependent).
03
Medical shipments to crisis regions
Pibor County Hospital, South Sudan
Credit: Our partner ForAfrika
Fundraise for medical shipments to help deliver essential supplies where hospitals are under pressure. With our extensive global reach, we can deliver essential equipment to any location. One 40-ft container costs roughly €20,000 to ship and can carry around €400,000 worth of medical supplies, multiplying the value of what you raise many times over.
Our focus regions include Ukraine, Syria, and Ethiopia, but the supplies might also be send to countries such as South Sudan, Chad, Mozambique or Sierra Leone, for which we often receive less funding.
Location: Worldwide
Typical target: ~€20,000 per container
04
Support Healthcare facilities in Ethiopia
Karat Primary Hospital, Ethiopia
Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most populated country (132 million people), carries the scars of its recent past, this is especially evident in health and energy sectors.
In the Northern Tigray region alone, an estimated 75% of healthcare facilities were damaged or destroyed in the 2020–2022 war, leaving communities exposed and medical proffesionals grappling with unimaginable obstacles.
Your support enable us to ship medical containers of hand-picked medical supplies to hospitals in Ethiopia, mainly in Tigray. This goes hand-in-hand with the installation of solar systems.
the national grid is so fragile that during our December 2024 visit we repeatedly found ourselves in meeting rooms, restaurants, and hotels without light. In hospitals, outages have severe consequences. They limit diagnostics and treatment, disrupt vaccine cooling, and can halt surgery.
We heard repeated accounts of power failing mid-operation, oftentimes costing patients' lives.
Location: Ethiopia (primarily Tigray).
Typical target: Medical shipment: ~€30,000; Solar: Depends on system size
05
Ukrainians withstanding the Russian aggression
Kramatorsk, Ukraine
Credit: David Körzdörfer
As we approach the fourth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the need for medical support on the front lines remains as urgent as it was in the war’s first days.
Daily Russian artillery and drone strikes continue to cause military and civilian casualties across the country. The medical containers you can run for deliver critical consumables, often the difference between life and death for those affected by this horrific war.
Our partners ensures that the supplies shipped are tailored to the actual needs and then distributed through our network of 400+ hospitals across the country, from Kyiv to Kherson and Odesa.
Watch this 4-minute video to see how our medical projects work.
Location: Ukraine
Fundraising target: €20,000 per container
06
Rebuilding Syria’s Healthcare
Ibn Al-Walid Hospital,Homs, Syria
Credit: Mohammed Alloush / HiHFAD
Even after the collapse of the Assad government in late 2024, Syria’s humanitarian emergency is far from over. Today, 16.5 million Syrians still need urgent assistance, and 40% of health facilities operate at reduced capacity or remain non-functional. For millions who have lived through years of conflict, political change alone cannot repair damage embedded in the country’s infrastructure and social fabric—especially as health services must now reach newly accessible areas while still coping with displacement and scarce resources.
Since the devastating earthquake in February 2023, Aid Pioneers has been among the few organisations able to support inside Syria. Through our partnerships with Hand in Hand and SAMS, we have supplied medical aid to more than 40 healthcare institutions. Many hospitals in cities such as Aleppo, Homs, and Damascus still face severe electricity shortages, alongside an urgent lack of essential supplies. That’s why we combine medical shipments with solar energy systems, helping facilities keep equipment running, power incubators and intensive care units, refrigerate vaccines, and maintain critical services.
By running for our work in Syria, you help people take concrete steps toward recovery, creating safer conditions for families to return and rebuild their lives.
Location: Syria.
Fundraising target: Medical shipment: ~€40,000; Solar: Depends on system size
07
Run for what moves you
34 Military Hospital , Freetown, Sierra Leone
The logic of both our medical and solar energy projects are completely scalable to other regions of the world as well.
In case you are passionate about supporting a hospital or school of your choice by shipping medical equipment or a solar system there feel free to pitch it to our team. This would mean that you’d be solely responsible for fundraising for the project, but we’d take care of the rest. Solar energy will help your chosen organisation to not only reach energy autonomy, but also to have access to affordable, reliable and clean electricity. Alternatively, with €20,000 we can fill up and send one container of medical supplies worth approx. €400,000 to a hospital of your choice.
Location: Worldwide
Required funding amount: Medical shipment: €20,000; Solar: Depends on system size
Any questions?
Reach out to our marathon coordinator Lilly anytime by sending an email.
We appreciate your interest in our mission, and we're here to answer any questions you may have.