MOTIONFOURJUSTICE & their mission to save 476 children.

On August 1, Chels, Griff, Flin and Nate started running across Australia. Not a relay, and not 6,000 kilometres divided neatly between four people. Each of them is attempting the journey from the northernmost point of the country to the southernmost, averaging around 75 kilometres a day for 80 consecutive days. Together they are Motion Four Justice, and behind an undertaking that already sounds almost impossible is an even bigger goal: raising $1 million for Destiny Rescue, an organisation working to rescue children from sexual exploitation and human trafficking. That target, they hope, could help 476 children reach freedom.

There are causes you care about, and then there are some that stay with you differently. This is one of those for me. I have travelled through Thailand and Laos and seen a level of disparity and vulnerability that is difficult to forget once you return to the comfort of your own life. I don't say that as though I witnessed the realities Destiny Rescue encounters firsthand, because I didn't. What I did see was how vastly different the circumstances of childhood can be, often through no choice of the child. It also becomes far too convenient to think of exploitation as a problem belonging to poorer countries somewhere else. It doesn't. Australia isn't removed from child exploitation simply because many of us are fortunate enough not to encounter it in our everyday lives. The fact that these crimes are hidden can make them easier to push out of mind.

That is what struck me about Motion Four Justice. They are taking something most people would rather not think or talk about and making it considerably harder to ignore. For 80 days, four people will move down the length of this country, putting their bodies through something extraordinary for children they will probably never meet. The reason behind their run is confronting, but what they have chosen to do with that reality is deeply hopeful. Faced with a problem so large that it would be easy to feel powerless, they decided to move.

Supporting causes that affect children isn't new for me, but this one sits particularly close to what I have been trying to put into words through Chunky Munky for years. Keeping Childhood Colourful began with clothing because clothing is what I make. Colour, stripes, stars, denim, playgrounds, scraped knees, favourite tees and pants worn again and again, and all the completely ordinary chaos that comes with being little. I get to spend my days designing for that version of childhood, and the families who find Chunky are usually living some version of it too. Motion Four Justice is a confronting reminder that before a child gets the privilege of an ordinary childhood, they first need to be safe.

I chose to donate $1,000 to the Motion Four Justice campaign. I mention the amount because I think there is value in being open about giving if it encourages somebody else to participate. A million-dollar target was never going to be reached by one person or one business. It depends on enough people deciding that whatever they can contribute is worth contributing.

The numbers are enormous: 6,000 kilometres, 80 days, $1 million and 476 children, yet each relies on something much smaller - another kilometre covered, another person following the run, another conversation started or another donation made. Nobody reading this needs to run across Australia... Chels, Griff, Flin and Nate have generously taken care of that part. The rest of us have a considerably easier job.

Most of us who find our way to Chunky Munky are here because there is a little person somewhere in our lives. We worry about whether they ate their lunch, where they left their hat, why they suddenly hate the shoes they loved yesterday or whether they really need us to watch the same living-room performance for the seventh time. None of those frustrations become insignificant because another child is facing something worse; they are the wonderfully ordinary concerns that childhood should be allowed to contain. A child should get to worry about who has the blue cup, what they’re going to play next and whether Mum is actually watching this time. Being safe enough for the little things to feel enormous is its own kind of privilege.

And then there are children being sexually exploited by adults.

It is an ugly sentence to put in the middle of a colourful children’s clothing website, and it should be. No child should know what it feels like to be bought, sold, coerced or used by an adult, nor should they have to understand survival before they have had the chance to simply be little. Those words are difficult to read because the reality behind them should be difficult to confront, but discomfort is not a good enough reason to look away. Behind words like “trafficking” and “exploitation” is an actual child.

That is where Motion Four Justice and Chunky Munky meet for me. Keeping Childhood Colourful is the philosophy underneath what I make, and when something genuinely intersects with that belief, I want to use what I have. I can't solve a problem of this scale through a children's clothing brand, nor would I pretend to, but I can contribute and use the platform I do have to put the work of people doing something extraordinary in front of somebody who may not have heard about it yesterday.

For the next 6,000 kilometres, Chels, Griff, Flin and Nate will keep moving. If this is the first time you've heard their names, follow their run, tell somebody what they're attempting or donate if you are in a position to. There is no amount too unimpressive to belong to a million-dollar goal, and attention matters too. None of us needs to do something extraordinary alone, four incredible Aussie legends are already taking care of that part. They just need enough of us that are willing to move with them.

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