Over two dozen Hindustan Motor Ambassador cars will be driven across the Western Ghats mountain range through diverse terrains of Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala during the next 10 days as part of Karma Enduro Charity Challenge Rally 2011 which was flagged off from Colva here at 8.30 a.m. today (November 2, 2011).
UK-based social enterprise Global Enduro, which runs many spectacular adventure fund-raising events across the globe, once again chose only Hindustan Motors’ Ambassador for the arduous rally. The Ambassador Grand (2.0 litre diesel DSZ) with air-conditioning, power steering and other features will be driven across 2000 kms through high mountains, wildlife sanctuaries, tiger reserves, remote tribal areas and hectic urban traffic zones.
Karma Enduro rally will be held in two spells in both of which only the iconic Ambassadors will be used. The first phase, which began from Goa today, will end at Kumarakom in Kerala on November 11. The second phase, sporting the same Ambassadors, will start again from Colva, Goa, on November 23 and culminate at Kumarakom on December 2.
Having started from Goa today, the rally will pass through Karwar, Murdeshwar, Kalasa, Madikeri and Mysore in Karnataka, Masinagudi and Kodai in Tamil Nadu, and Munnar and Kumarakom in Kerala. Karma Enduro rally is not a car rally in the conventional sense of the term. It is not a race and there are no prizes for coming first or last. By signing up for Karma Enduro, participants are able to generate funding for two charities – the Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity, UK, and Adventure Ashram, India. While Rainbow Trust helps families that have a child with life threatening or terminal illness, Adventure Ashram helps the poorest of the poor people, on or near the routes Karma Enduro rally takes through South India, to achieve higher standards of living through better health and education.
This time, the 50+ participants, majority of whom are from the UK with a sprinkling from Italy, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, Philippines and Australia, have so far raised Rs. 2crore to be split largely between the two charities. A similar amount is expected to be raised by November 23 when the second spell of the rally will be launched again from Goa with a new set of foreign participants. Last year, part of the funds raised by the rally participants was donated also to Unicef and Pain & Palliative Care, Kozhikode.
No wonder then that Patrick Head, who owns the renowned Formula One team Williams, participated in the charity rally last year (2010). Another wonder: though the participation fee is 3750 British Pounds per person, one of the participants chose to donate 70,000 (seventy thousand) pounds last year. Charity as fast as cars, indeed!
