The Mongol Rally can probably be described by two simple words: charitable adventure.  The task is simple – drive a wholly unsuitable 1.3 litre vehicle from England to Mongolia by any desired route and raise tonnes of cash for charities running projects across the Mongolian steppe.  Teams can go via whichever countries they can get visas for and in previous rallies intrepid adventurers have travelled as far north as the Arctic Circle and as far south as Afghanistan.  Depending on the route taken, the journey is some 8-10 thousand miles – pretty much a third of the way round the planet!

THE CHARITY BIT…..

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early ‘90s, the Mongolian Communist regime gave way to democracy and the transition from a state-run, centralised economy to free enterprise has not been easy. The nomadic way of life that dominates in Mongolia can be extremely tough and with the fast pace of today's modern world entire communities are lacking vital skills and income to support their families.

For this reason, we have decided to support Mercy Corps, a charity that runs a wide range of fantastic projects from building schools to helping women find employment opportunities.  Simply put, it's about giving families the chance to strengthen their livelihoods and expand their business opportunities while protecting their traditions.  Mercy Corps Mongolia's programmes currently boast 640,000 beneficiaries — more than 20 percent of the country's population.  Each team must raise a minimum of £1000 but we’re hoping to do a lot better than that for this fantastic charity.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

Well, obviously we need CASH!  If you are able to help us in this way you have two ways to do it.  Firstly, there’s donating directly to the charity via this website:

http://www.justgiving.com/stopyakkinggetcracking

However, we also need to prepare our vehicle (which we recently purchased) for the trip – this means a full service, numerous spares, improved suspension, a new exhaust… in fact, the list is rather long!  The more of it we can afford to, the more likely it is that we will actually get to Mongolia and the greater the chance the car will be of benefit to a local family. If you or your company would like to help us out in this way in return for advertisement space on the car please contact us atmaxbrear@hotmail.co.uk. Last year’s launch event made the BBC local news and was attended by 5,000 people in Hyde Park. This year's event has over twice as many teams!

THANK YOU!

Neil & Max

Please visit our team site for updates on our preparation and progress during the rally - Stop Yakking Get Cracking