Two top international rally drivers are hoping to raise $2m for Just a Drop, the global water-aid charity for the travel and tourism industry.
Canadian, Mark Jennings-Bates and the UK’s Mick Xtance are already preparing for the world’s most arduous off-road endurance race in 2011 – the Dakar Rally.
They are planning ‘Rally for Life’, an ambitious means of raising money by participating in the Dakar, helping Just a Drop bring clean water to thousands of children and their families in the third world.
Driver Jennings-Bates and co-driver Xtance will be launching their bid to be the best at Dakar in November at World Travel Market 2009 in London.
They will also unveil to delegates ( South American region of the exhibition), the Bowler off-road vehicle that they will be pinning their hopes on to carry them across some of the planet’s most difficult and dangerous terrain.
“We wanted this to be a race that had real meaning”, said businessman Jennings-Bates, “not only for myself, Mick and the Bowler team, but also for the thousands of children who right now are dying at the rate of every 17 seconds because they simply do not have clean water.
“We can do so much to highlight their plight worldwide and to raise money that will make a real difference to people’s lives.”
“Many amazing people are helping Just a Drop fund water projects but none are more courageous or high profile than this one,” said Fiona Jeffery, founder and chairman of the charity.
“Rally for Life is going to be a race against time in more ways than one, saving the lives of children. It’s also about two people pitting their wits and their experience against an unimaginable, gruelling off-road route that can take them into anything from mud to dunes and rocks, covering distances of up to an exhausting 8-900km a day.”
Jeffery said that launching ‘Rally for Life’ at World Travel Market on Tuesday November 10 is particularly appropriate.
“The Dakar is a major world-class event attracting millions of spectators and sports tourism visitors, uniting in this instance the Canadian, UK and South American markets that will, of course, be out in force doing business at World Travel Market.”
Just a Drop, launched 11 years ago, has helped more than a million people in 28 countries. The charity receives funding from many travel organisations worldwide.