RANDGOLD’S BRISTOW ON HOME STRETCH OF EPIC MOTORBIKE SAFARI FOR AFRICA’S POOR
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Monday 27 June 2016 – Randgold Resources chief executive Mark Bristow’s fundraising motorbike safari from the east to west across mid-Africa has entered its final leg with his team having arrived in Kinshasa on Sunday.
Bristow has a little more than 500 kilometres to go before reaching the end of his ride which will have seen him cover more than 8 000 kilometres over 28 days from Mombasa to Muanda, through dense equatorial jungle. He is expected to cross the finish line in Muanda on Tuesday 28 June.
Speaking from Kinshasa where he again, on behalf of the Nos Vies en Partage foundation, pledged financial support to various charitable causes, of which some were beneficiaries of the previous ride, Bristow said this trip had proved to be the most challenging of the four trans-Africa motorbike rides for charity he has undertaken. The previous routes entailed a trip from Cape Town to Cairo in 2009, Bagshot to Abidjan in 2012 and Abidjan to Cape Town in 2014.
Donations have been made across the DRC to orphanages and institutions in the most remote areas the bikers have travelled. Cabinet ministers and members of parliament are joining the riders and partners at an event to celebrate the achievement and to make further donations to organisations in Kinshasa.
Dubbed Safari Kwa Afrika Bora – Swahili for Riding for a Better Africa – the journey’s aim is to raise $3 million for some of the continent’s most needy people, notably the women and children deprived of a decent life by strife and poverty.
The money goes to Nos Vies en Partage (French for Sharing Prosperity), the independent charitable foundation established by Randgold in 2014. With the money raised from this year’s ride, the foundation is committed to supporting post-conflict reparation programmes in the DRC and other African countries, particularly those aimed at working with abused women and neglected children, as well as rehabilitating child soldiers.
The progress of the ride can be followed at www.boyzonbikes.com and full details of the Nos Vies en Partage Foundation and how you can contribute to the fund can be found at www.partage-foundation.org.
