DUBAI // Two months ago, Dilip Aidasani's exercise regime was nonexistent.
Yesterday, the 34-year-old Indian financier celebrated running his 259th kilometre at a local gym, and he has pledged to keep on running.
Mr Aidasani found the motivation to get moving through a running campaign that aims to raise funds for the Manzil Centre for Challenged Individuals in Sharjah.
"I have to tell you, I was not into this kind of fitness programme before," said Mr Aidasani, who is participating in "Run The World in 80 Days", a campaign set up by his employers at Zurich Financial Services. The company is encouraging individuals to run or walk a minimum of 10km within three days at branches of Fitness First.
Everyone who takes part should be sponsored at least Dh10 per kilometre, and all money raised is to be donated to the Manzil centre.
Participants can run their 10km in three slots if they can't face doing it all at once. Everyone who registers receives three free passes to any Dubai branch of Fitness First. The gym's staff monitor the distance covered and add it to the total.
Having run every other day for two months, Mr Aidasani not only has raised Dh2,650 for the five-year-old charity, but also has lost 9kg and gained a hobby.
"It just clicked," he said. "I had joined Fitness First three weeks earlier with a mind to start a fitness regime. This was the only chance I had to do something for charity that involved fitness."
During his first treadmill session, Mr Aidasani notched up 4.5km. The process was slow and painful but 50 sessions later, he said, his time and stamina have improved dramatically and he now runs 10km every other day.
"With the sponsorship I had from people, I felt I had a purpose and found the commitment I needed to change my lifestyle," he said.
"I actually started to enjoy it when I found I was doing well with it. I knew I had to run 250km to fulfil my pledge to those who had sponsored me, but I didn't know how to approach it, so I asked the trainers for advice and they suggested I run on an alternate [day] basis."
The "Run The World in 80 Days" campaign was launched on June 1 and aims to notch up 50,000km in 80 days. With only seven days to go until the campaign ends, more than 4,000km have been logged and Dh50,000 has been raised.
Now organiser Harry Hanscomb is urging all Dubai residents to get up and get active before it's too late.
"At this point, if people want to come and run and give a donation, that's fine," said Mr Hanscomb. "Anyone can take part - individuals or companies. We have a long way to go but we will certainly try to get there in the next few days. It's the final push and we want people to join us."
Every fil raised goes towards the day-to-day running costs of the centre, which provides heavily subsidised educational support and vocational training to children and adults who live with a range of conditions, including autism and Down's syndrome.
"At the moment, we need [the money raised] to breathe, to survive," said Ayesha Saeed, the director of Manzil. "Usually, when money is raised we have a project to fund with it, but at the moment we don't have that luxury."
The global economic downturn, Ms Saeed said, had affected donations to the organisation.
"When people have to cut costs, the first thing they cut down on are the frills, and corporate social responsibility went out of the window for most companies as a first step," she said.
"We call people like Harry our lifeline here because they are helping us survive. We are in survival mode, which is true for most charities, I'm sure."
loatway@thenational.ae
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
Background: Chemical Weapons
The specs: 2018 Volkswagen Teramont
Price, base / as tested Dh137,000 / Dh189,950
Engine 3.6-litre V6
Gearbox Eight-speed automatic
Power 280hp @ 6,200rpm
Torque 360Nm @ 2,750rpm
Fuel economy, combined 11.7L / 100km
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
The Old Slave and the Mastiff
Patrick Chamoiseau
Translated from the French and Creole by Linda Coverdale
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RedCrow Intelligence Company Profile
Started: 2016
Founders: Hussein Nasser Eddin, Laila Akel, Tayeb Akel
Based: Ramallah, Palestine
Sector: Technology, Security
# of staff: 13
Investment: $745,000
Investors: Palestine’s Ibtikar Fund, Abu Dhabi’s Gothams and angel investors
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
