Things are very much going to plan
for Fifty 50 Challenge. Three Freelanders will leave the Lode Lane factory gates in
Solihull on August 1 to begin what will be a fantastic and ultimately worthwhile
expedition for the Freelanders, for all the team and for the work of UNICEF. On the afternoon of Friday July 31 the team will be at the Solihull
factory’s Lode Lane gate where they will be given a grand farewell from a collection
of Land Rovers provided by owners from the Midland Rover Owners Club. If you want to wave
the Fifty 50 Challenge team off as they depart on their great journey be there. The
fortnightly newsletter will keep you posted of the exact timing.
The Challenge’s relationship with UNICEF, the world’s largest
organisation devoted to children, has been well and truly cemented. UNICEF is active in
over 90% of the countries that the will pass through and the various leg teams will be
helping to publicise UNICEF’s work on their journey. In addition, the funds raised by
the team in support of UNICEF’s "Children in Conflict Campaign" will make a
real difference to the lives of children caught up in the aftermath of war.
A number of visits have been planned into Fifty 50 Challenge’s
hectic travel schedule over the course of the four legs of the event. These will include a
visit to UNICEF’s main distribution centre in Copenhagen. The warehouse holds vital
supplies which can be shipped out at a few hours notice to anywhere in the world in
response to an emergency. The money being raised by Fifty 50 Challenge will go towards a
range of items and aid projects.
It is a shocking fact that 25 children are maimed or killed every day by
landmines. In the former Yugoslavia, an area the Fifty 50 Challenge team will be passing
through, UNICEF has been working hard to educate children about the danger of landmines.
In Bosnia alone it is estimated that there are 3-6 million mines.
