For our latest adventure, we're swapping our gowns and old books for mosquitoes and tropical downpours to take part in the first ASEAN Rickshaw Run from Jakarta to Bangkok, all in the name of promoting Southeast Asian studies at the University of Oxford and raising funds for Oxfordshire-based charity The Cambodia Trust. Join us for this 2500km journey across half a continent in a vehicle built to get you across town...most of the time.
From 16 to 30 October 2011, 30 teams from the UK, Europe, North America and Australia will travel over land from Jakarta to Bangkok via motorised rickshaw to raise funds for charity in the ASEAN Rickshaw Run. The event is sponsored by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the interests of promoting greater integration among its 10 member countries.
Our team, Team Project Southeast Asia Oxford, comprises three Oxford graduates from Singapore (Chan Xin Hui & PJ Thum) and the Netherlands (Tom Hoogervorst). We are taking part in this event to promote Southeast Asian unity, raise awareness of Project Southeast Asia and most importantly, raise funds for an amazing charity.
Project Southeast Asia is a major initiative to expand Southeast Asian studies in the University of Oxford in recognition of the tremendous potential of the region. Its ultimate aim is the establishment of a Centre of Southeast Asian studies at Oxford – the first in one of the world’s top universities and the first initiated by Southeast Asians. The first step towards achieving this goal is the establishment of a University Lecturership in Southeast Asian History. The University is seeking £3 million to fund this post in perpetuity. This would build on Oxford’s already numerous contributions to Southeast Asia - both within and outside academia - and its unsurpassed track record of excellence in the region, particularly in the field of medicine, where it conducts world-leading research in nearly every Southeast Asian country.
During the adventure, we will make stops at The Cambodia Trust's Jakarta School and the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit in Bangkok, among other places.
For more information on the charities, please see the individual team pages below. Please donate generously!
Thank you very much!
