The Khmer Rode RAGE (Ride Against Greenhouse Emissions) Team is a group of enthusiastic students and volunteers who are interested in poverty, sustainability, bikes, mechanics, fitness, and science. They are based around Ballarat and Bacchus Marsh. Having just returned from their epic adventure through Cambodia and Thailand, the Khmer Rode RAGE team are now calling for expressions of interest for a return trip in 2014.
The 13 members of the 2013 Khmer Rode RAGE team raised over $40,000 for the Cambodian Children’s Trust (CCT) and the Wilderness Friends Foundation Thailand. Whilst allowing the team the opportunity to travel overseas, there was no time for relaxing. Living and working at the Cambodian Orphanage, the team helped the children learn English as well as other skills that are excellent to escape the poverty cycle.
But it wasn’t just the children who recieved a visit from the Rode RAGE team, they also volunteered at the Thai Wildlife Sanctuary and contributed to the many other health and educational programs within the Battambang community.
The team also took time to visit the astonishing Solar Forest in Singapore and the Hell Fire Pass Memorial on the Thai-Burma Railway to pay their respects and give thanks to the WWII soldiers who gave so much to give us such a comfortable lifestyle.
“We didn’t think it was fair that Australians are the biggest per capita greenhouse emitters in the world but, even though we have had terrible floods and storms and bushfires in recent years, it is not us that pays the biggest penalty for our pollution. For people and wildlife in developing nations, it is literally a daily matter of life and death. We think it’s Un-Australian to cause a problem and expect someone else to clean it up”, said team member Chloe Ridge-Burns.
Jacob Baxter added, “It was amazing to be able to get so close and intimate with tigers and elephants, not something you can do in Australia but even more amazing to see the positive impact we were able to have on the kids at CCT. They are so happy and have so little of the things that we take for granted every day…. And then to read Weary Dunlop’s message that we should tell everyone back home that they gave their tomorrow for our today…. It really made us appreciate what we have, and makes us more determined to help others who aren’t as lucky to have been born in Australia”.
The team plans to return in 2014 and is currently calling for expressions of interest from other passionate, committed young people to join them either as part of the travelling team or as non- travelling fundraisers.
In the meantime, the team is flat out fundraising and organising to bring a team from CCT out to Australia in November to participate in the RACV Energy Breakthrough, to learn more about Australia and to renew the wonderful friendships that were formed in Cambodia.
Will you join the 2014 Khmer Rode RAGE team?
To express an interest or get more information please contact:
Tony Davidson
Phone: 0419 563 920
Email: tony
Website: www.roderage.com.au/khmer.
If you are an existing RACV Energy Breakthrough team, you can express interest through the Online Registration System. Just log-in and click ‘Additional Programs’ on the left hand menu.
Great to see the team doing so much more than racing!! Inspirational