WHAT'S GOING ON?

I'm going to be cycling from Hanoi to my fave Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) in the lovely tropical April heat in the name of charity and fun times.

That means: 2000 km+ total in 27 days. With a few days of rests stops, that'll be ~100km/day. This may not sound like much to some of my cycle enthusiast friends, but please sympathise for my inexperienced legs and the HEAT.

This initiative started in 2009 and has continued annually, adding up an impressive $250,000 of donations for the charity partners.

WHY I'M DOING IT.

I've been living here for only 9 months but it's been truly wonderful already. One thing that's had a big impact on me has been people's generosity and kindness. Without that, I wouldn't have been able to feel welcome and like I'm in my 'home away from home'.... 

... So although I endeavour to make everyone here feel appreciated and return their kindness in my everyday life, it's also nice to be able to hopefully give something back to the community through this bike ride!

THE CHARITY PARTNERS:

The ride will support 5 charities (more info below) that focus on helping disadvantaged children in Vietnam break out of a cycle of poverty. They do this by:

* organising scholarships

* providing practical vocational training and English classes

* supporting the recovery of victims of human trafficking and slavery. Reuninting families.

* building schools / libraries

+ more!

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

You can sponsor me via this Just Giving page!

H2H is run by volunteers so 100% of donations goes directly to charity. All expenses are covered by riders, sponsors and UK gift aid.

Although this is clearly an excellent opportunity for me to soak in Vietnam's beauty and practice my awful language skills (and get some rock hard legs); I'm also slightly terrified at the prospect of cycling up and down mountains all day long in the blistering summer sunshine. So please help keep me super motivated by supporting the charities!

OUR CHARITY PARTNER DETAILS:

- SAIGON CHILDREN'S CHARITY: this organisation is our principle charity partner. SCC helps disadvantaged children receive an education through building schools, giving scholarships and vocational training. Read more about SCC here: http://www.saigonchildren.com/what-we-do.aspx

- BLUE DRAGON is an organisation that supports the most vulnerable children in Vietnam. It aims to help children living in extreme poverty and those who are the victims of human trafficking and slavery, reunite them with their families where possible and provide services to help the children recover and grow. Read more about Blue Dragon here: https://www.bluedragon.org/what-we-do/

- KOTO stands for "Know One, Teach One". It seeks to empower at-risk youths to break out of the cycle of poverty through practial and meaningful training programmes in hospitality. Read more about KOTO here: http://www.koto.com.au

- LIVE AND GIVE: a charity based in Belgium that also aims to assist disadvantaged children in Vietnam by building schools and kindergartens. You can check out its terrific accomplishments here:

- ILA COMMUNITY NETWORK (ILACN) is the charitable arm of the company I work for in Vietnam. It is a non-profit organisation that co-ordinates fund-raising activities to support disadvantaged children in Vietnam. Its volunteers provide English language lessons at orphanages. You can read more about the ILACN here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/ILA.CommunityNetwork/about/?ref=page_internal

KEEP UP TO DATE:

We'll be blogging every day on the trip. Here's the link: www.h2hrfvc.blogspot.com

And here's the website: http://h2hride.wixsite.com/vietnam

Thanks all!

Rhiannon (Na)