The Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) officially broke three Guinness World Records when it held its charity walk event that over 1.5 million members participated at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila on Sunday, May 6.
The event, named “Worldwide walk to fight poverty,” broke the records for largest human sentence, largest charity walk at a single venue and largest human mosaic, according to Adam Brown, official adjudicator and representative of Guinness World Records.
A total of 23, 235 participants lined up to form the sentence “Proud to be a member of Iglesia ni Cristo” for the first record, beating India’s previous record which had 16,550 participants that formed the sentence “You can you will” in 2016.
The participants gathered as early as 12 a.m., and started to walk at 6 a.m. along the 1.6-kilometer stretch of Roxas Boulevard from the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Pasay City to Rizal Park in Manila.
The walk was concurrently held in 300 sites across 18 time zones by INC members.
INC’s charity event also broke the record for largest charity walk in a single venue with 238,171 participants, beating its previous record of 175,509 participants from its first Worldwide Walk to Fight Poverty held on February 15, 2014
The event also broke the world record for largest human mosaic formed by 9,000 members forming the INC flag, which was previously set by Abeer medical group from Saudi Arabia with 4,500 participants in observance of World Diabetes Day on November 14, 2017.
According to Brown, they were still verifying two possible world records for the event – largest charity walk at multiple venues and the most nationalities in a charity walk. The number of participants from the other 300 sites will be verified as well as he passports of those who participated in the event.
Edwil Zabala, INC spokesman, said only those whose wristbands have been deposited in the drop boxes at the end of the finish line were counted for the world record.
“Some might have not finished the walk or kept the wristband as a souvenir. So only those who surrendered their wristbands were counted,” he said.
Sunday’s charity walk was for for the benefit of the less fortunate in selected communities, especially in Africa where poverty is the principal cause of hunger.
“Poverty is the principal cause of hunger in Africa and elsewhere. The Church recently established an eco-farming project in Ladybrand, South Africa aimed at helping address the pressing concerns of hunger and malnutrition in that area,” the INC said.
“Proceeds of the second Worldwide Walk will be used to continue providing food and medical assistance for those in immediate need in impoverished communities,” the church added.
