Sasmira Alumni Foundation (SAF) recently hosted Texathon, a heritage run for the textile fraternity in Mumbai. Some 2,000 odd runners from across the city, 50 cotton growing farmers from Vidarbha and Maharashtra, alumni of the Sasmira Institute of Textiles, family members of forgotten textile workers, star runners and more came together for it.

The run was organised for the cause No Naked Child, an initiative which aims to provide clothing to under privileged children across the country.

Texathon was run at distances of 10k, 5k and 3.5k. The run traversed through scenic parts of Mumbai. It commenced and ended at one of the heritage mills of Mumbai, Indu Mills Compound.

"It’s a proud moment for us, since, we, the textile fraternity could curate this beautiful thought of Texathon. The team over the last few months has been working religiously towards Garment Collection Drive and has managed to raise a sizeable amount of clothing and still counting. Also the farmer community support has been a boon to us all and most importantly the heritage venue of Indu Mills by NTCC has been the icing on the cake. We look forward to many more seasons and years to come," said Sharad Tandon, president, SAF.

The event also saw participation of 50 Cotton growing farmers from Marathwada and Vidarbha areas of Maharashtra. The whole idea was that the entire value chain right from producers (farmers) to manufacturers (textile industry) to end users (community) participated in the run. The event thereafter saw the farmers being exposed to latest trends in technology serving the growing textile industry. SAF facilitated the visit of this farmer community to the Government of India designated, 'Centre of Excellence for agro-textile' at the Sasmira campus in Worli.

Manish Daga of SAF and coveted as Cotton Guru said, "First time ever in history of any race of any size, Cottonguru is able to initiate and mobilise 50 genuine and progressive cotton farmers to participate without any complaint and demand with the sole intention of getting them accepted as an integral part of the cotton textile supply chain."

SAF has reached out to many helping hands to give their surplus clothing to the No Naked Child cause, the contributions of which will be given to Goonj, a national NGO founded by Anshu Gupta.