Rickshaw Run' from Shillong to Goa for AIDS awareness

[Guest guest]

Duo to race for a cause

16 Feb 2009, 0151 hrs IST, Chitra Nair, TNN

PUNE: They're on a mission, and they're having some very serious fun

trying to meet their goal. Meet US-based social worker McCready

and

UK-based student Tim Lloyd, who, apart from going about their daily

professional lives, are learning to drive an auto rickshaw these

days.

The duo, under the team name of Pune Rebels', will be embarking on

the 3,500-kilometre-long Rickshaw Run' from Shillong to Goa, to raise

funds for their favourite Indian AIDS charities. The team will cover

this distance in an autorickshaw in 15 days starting April 11 in

Shillong.

The Rickshaw Run is an event held by an organisation called The

Adventurists and started in December 2006 with an aim to mix

adventure with fund-raising. All participating teams raise funds for

their favourite charities through this drive.

McCready and Lloyd will spread awareness on HIV/ AIDS and raise funds

for Deep Groha Society in Pune and the Water Projects in Andhra

Pradesh.

" In partnership with Wake Up Pune, which is a coalition of NGOs

working to raise awareness about HIV in Pune, we will be designing an

HIV-positive' rickshaw (the mobile will be covered with information

on HIV/AIDS in Hindi). It will also have messages about promoting

love and support for those living with the disease, " says McCready.

The duo will also hand out educational material in Hindi along their

route.

While for McCready, who has been working in the field of HIV/AIDS for

almost five years now, her work is a result of her education in South

Africa where she volunteered with an AIDS orphanage and AIDS

hospice, for Lloyd, it was his arrival in India and introduction to

Wake Up Pune that got him started.

" I am currently an undergraduate student of Technical

Entrepreneurship at the University of Surrey, UK. I came to India six

months back for an internship with a software development company in

Pune, as a part of my university degree, " he says, adding that the

duo are learning to drive an auto rickshaw.

The Rickshaw Run is a perfect way to realising my dream of exploring

India and raising money, Lloyd feels. To date the duo has raised Rs

63,000 for their chosen charities and hope to raise much more in the

days to come.

" We are excited about raising money for charity, but our motive

behind undertaking this adventure is to raise awareness about AIDS,

promote HIV education and combat the stigma and discrimination HIV-

positive people face in India, " McCready says.

Interestingly, McCready has undertaken similar adventure runs in the

past for raising funds for AIDS charities. Some of these include a 60-

mile-long hike on the Great Wall of China to raise funds for the

American Foundation for AIDS Research in 2004 and riding her bike 560

miles across the state of New York in the summer of 2007 to raise

money for New York-based AIDS service and research organisations.

" Many people have questioned us about why are we doing something so

crazy just to raise money. The reason is that today AIDS has become

something that many people don't talk about, either because they

don't think it affects them personally or because they are

uncomfortable talking about it, " says McCready.

This run, she adds, is an unusual way in which they can get people to

talk about the disease more openly. " We want to try and break

people's misconceptions about HIV and open their hearts to love and

support those living with the disease in their communities, " Lloyd

says.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Pune/Duo_to_race_for_a_cause/articl

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