User:Conceicao1978/sandbox
Maria Conceicao | |
|---|---|
| Born | 23 May 1977 |
| Occupation | Humanitarian Work |
| Known for | Founder and chairman of Maria Cristina Foundation (NGO) |
| Parent |
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| Website | http://mariacristinafoundation.org |
Early life[edit]
Conceicao was born in Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal and grew up in Avanca, Portugal. Her mother became sick when Maria was 2 years old and could no longer care for her. An Angolan immigrant, Maria Cristina Matos, who worked as a cleaner, agreed to look after Maria until her mother got better, but she never did get better. Maria Cristina raised Maria along with her other 6 children. Maria credits her adoptive mother as the inspiration to starting her humanitarian work and considers her motto to be the same of that of her adoptive mother: “If you can feed 6, you can feed 7.”
Move to UAE and start of humanitarian work[edit]
Conceicao was offered a job as an airhostess with the Emirates Airlines while she was living in the UK. She moved to Dubai, where she still resides. In 2005, she had a 24-hour layover in Dhaka as a part of her job with the Emirates Airlines. She had the opportunity to visit a hospital in Dhaka, which was in very poor state and decided to help. She returned to Dubai with the aim of soon going back to Dhaka with donations from her friends for the hospital. Back at the hospital once again, her help and donations were refused.
While driving back to her hotel, she asked her driver to follow a group of street children to see if her donations could be useful to them. She was taken to the country’s biggest slum Korail, where she felt her small amount of donations could not do much. The driver then took her to Gawair, where she distributed the donations and in the next few months set up a school. The Dhaka Project was born. This project, which also encompassed a nursery, shops, beauty salon, internet café, library and many other amenities all available for the slum dwellers ran until March 2013 when it was forced to close down due to the global financial crisis and the sponsors having to back out. The Project employed many of the students parents and provided a whole infrastructure for the families. Closing this down was a huge blow to the whole community. Not willing to abandon her mission, Maria Conceicao took it upon herself to raise the funds necessary to keep the children at school.
Summiting Mt Everest[edit]
In 2010 Maria summited Mt Kilimanjaro, but this did not garner the funds or publicity she hoped. In 2011, Conceicao skied the last degree to Nouth Pole. This raised some funds, but it was not enough. Conceicao kept hearing that she needed to transform herself in order to get the attention she needs to raise the funds needed to continue the project in Bangladesh.
She started training to summit Mt Everest and in 2013 became the first Portuguese woman in history to summit the highest mountain on Earth. The Everest climb was a ‘million dollar project’, because a school in Dubai promised scholarships in the value of a million USD if Maria reaches the summit. When she did summit and returned to Dubai, the school had changed their mind for no obvious reason. The fact that she had summited Everest only caught on in her native Portugal a couple of years later and after the success of her biography “A Woman On Top Of The World,” which is an account of Coneicao’s childhood, humanitarian work and how she climbed the Everest.
Woman on Top Of The World[edit]
Conceicao’s biography, co-authored by Alexandra Nunes, was first published in Portugal and later translated into English. The book tells the story of how Maria overcame a number of challenges in her life before joining Emirates Airlines as cabin crew, and then her biggest challenge yet – transforming a slum in Dhaka, building a school, educating 600 children and breaking age-old social norms in a community, which at first saw her as a strange foreigner, but now call her ‘mother’.
English Channel Swim[edit]
Conceicao learned to swim in 2015 and immediately started training to swim the Channel, which is credited as one of the hardest long-distance open water swims in the world. She set off on the 27th of August 2016 to swim 34km from the coast of England to France. Unfortunately the currents on the day were very strong and after 7 hours’ swim she was forced to abort the swim as she was being taken in the wrong direction by the heavy current.
6x6 challenge[edit]
In yet another effort to reinvent herself, to raise funds and awareness for the Maria Cristina Foundation, Maria set a goal that many deemed impossible: 6 Ironmen on 6 continents in less than 3 months. The 6x6 challenge was the most grueling and both physically and mentally hardest challenge Conceicao has attempted to date. The first Ironman kicked off on the 2nd April in South Africa, followed by an Ironman in Texas, USA only 20 days later. Just 8 days later, Maria Conceicao successfully finished an Ironman in Taiwan and a week later she conquered the Ironman in Australia. On 20th May Conceicao set off in Lanzarote, Spain and finished her incredible challenge on the 28th of May in Brazil.
Other challenges[edit]
7 marathons in 7 continents in 11 days (2015) 7 ultra marathons in 7 continents in 6 weeks (2014) 7 ultra marathons in 7 consecutive days (2014) 7 full marathons in 7 consecutive days (2014) 5 full marathons in 5 states in 5 consecutive days (2014) 5 half marathons in 5 states in 5 consecutive days (2014) Summited Mt Elbrus (2012) Summited Mt Aconcagua (2013) 7 marathons in 7 days in 7 emirates (2011)
Guinness World Records[edit]
Maria Conceicao holds 6 Guinness World Records as of November 2017.
Fastest time to complete a marathon on each continent (female), 2015 Fastest aggregate time to run a marathon and ultra marathon on each continent (female), 2015 Fastest time to run a marathon and ultra marathon on each continent (female), 2015 Fastest time to run an ultra marathon on each continent (female), 2014 Fastest aggregate time to run an ultra marathon on each continent (female), 2014 Most consecutive days running an ultra marathon (female), 2014
Public Speaking[edit]
Maria Conceicao talks with great passion and humility of her journey to break the cycle of poverty in the slums of Bangladesh and of building her mental and physical stamina to complete her extreme physical challenges. Maria shares her experience in the challenging and often misunderstood world of charities and offers her audience practical advice on what it takes to turn dreams into reality, how to stop your mind from playing tricks on you, how to overcome fear and how to get things done.
Awards and recognition[edit]
- The Barbie Award, 2017
- GC Woman of the year award, 2016
- Cosmopolitan female role model, 2015
- Louvor Nobre Casa de Cidadania, 2014
- Humanitarian Women of the Year by Inpiring Women Belgium, runner up, 2014
- Inspiring Change award (International Gulf Organisation), 2014
- Sustainable Leadership award, 2013
- The Special Mention for Child Welfare by Petrochem, 2012
- Most Insipiring Women of GCC by Kraft, 2010
- Ahlan Hot 100 Entrepreneurs in UAE, 2010
- Emirates Humanitarian Woman of the Year, 2009
- Emirates Woman of the Year, 2009
- Most Exceptional and Innovative European Women of the Year, 2007