Serving others through fitness
In a new series, we profile individuals whose contribution to charity is sustained by their passion for fitness
Staying fit isn’t only for oneself. Often, people do it to be healthy for their families. And sometimes fitness goes beyond one’s circle when it starts to positively influence and impact the community.
Fit people have tremendous power to help. And as such, we have the responsibility to make this world a better place for everyone. Personally, that is my advocacy. So this time, we highlight an individual whose immense contribution to charity is sustained by fitness.
Maria Conceicao is more than a fitness enthusiast. She’s a six-time Guinness World Record holder with numerous sporting achievements. More importantly, she’s an award-winning philanthropist, who is currently taking on five Ironman challenges in five continents to raise funds for The Maria Cristina Foundation (MCF), a nonprofit organisation she founded in 2005 to break the chains of poverty through education and help children in the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
tabloid! spoke to Conceicao to learn how one’s fitness can turn into something much more meaningful.
Tell us about your background before the charity work.
I was working for Emirates Airlines as an air hostess. It was an amazing lifestyle of travel and staying in luxury hotels but on one trip to Dhaka I found myself visiting a hospital and a slum area and felt compelled to help. I grew up poor, I was abandoned when I was two years old and raised by a widowed Angolan refugee who already had six children, but she still made sure that she raised me the best she could. I think she had a huge effect on my life. I was fortunate later in life to get a job with Emirates, but the lifestyle wasn’t really for me and after seeing the poor slum families, I wanted to help them and I really felt that I could make a difference.
How difficult was it raising funds initially, and how did fitness come into play?
When I started the foundation work it was easy to raise funds in Dubai. The story was big news, donations used to come to us without even trying. Emirates Airlines supported us financially as well. But when the [financial downturn] came the funding almost stopped overnight. We tried our best with fundraising events etc, but we just couldn’t raise enough funds and we had to shut down the majority of the projects in Dhaka. The education was something that I couldn’t let go. I myself have suffered for lack of education (I only went to school up to grade five) and it is even worse for these children in Bangladesh — no education means certain poverty.
This is when I started the challenges, first the North Pole, then summiting Everest and then the marathons and ultramarathons. This is what drives me, to ensure that we can continue our work. Education prevents poverty from continuing, but education is a long-term project that’s to be seen through to the end.
What role does fitness have in your life?
First of all, being fit and healthy helps you to succeed in life simply because it gives you drive and stamina to work harder and longer. But also it encourages you to continuously improve yourself and to keep aiming higher. I hope that people see my determination as a sign that I am determined to succeed at everything do, I also hope that the children in Dhaka are inspired by me pushing myself to great heights and that they should too.
What does fitness teach you?
Generally in fitness, you always have to have a goal otherwise it’s very difficult to get better... This goes for anything in life... if you want to achieve something, first set your goal what you want to achieve then make a solid plan to get there. If you just do the same things every day your life will stay the same.