THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Thiruvananthapuram leg of ‘Tour de difference’, a cycling expedition by Make a Difference (MAD) group which started from Mangalore on August 7, will be flagged off on Friday. Tour de difference has three volunteers cycling to 12 cities - Mangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Chennai, Vellore, Bangalore, Mysore, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi - accompanied by MAD volunteers from the respective cities covering different phases of the expedition.MAD with its knowledge partner Cambridge University Press (United Kingdom) tries to empower children in orphanages, street shelters and poor homes with English. It now supports more than 3,500 kids nationally from various shelter homes. Each child needs Rs 850 for the Cambridge curriculum. Hence, the voyage aims at raising funds for Cambridge syllabus textbooks for the kids and spreading the message of MAD.With Tour de difference, MAD sells a coupon to the people the cyclists meet every kilometre of the 4,240- km expedition. Tour de difference will be flagged off by Aditya Varma of the Travancore Royal family on Friday at 4.30 pm from Kowdiar Palace. As part of the tour, a MAD stall will be set up at Big Bazaar, Pattom, on Thursday as a fund-raising event. Mehendi corner, caricature corner, food corner, challenge corner etc will be arranged for the public to take part and support this MAD initiative.The cyclists are Philip Bongartz and Sebastian Thele who flew in from Germany exclusively for the expedition. The team will also be accompanied by a support vehicle. From Thiruvananthapuram to Kochi, Popular Vehicles is providing the car as their support to this noble cause.At each city, the team stops for a day to interact with the local community and visit MAD centres. In the capital city, the cyclists will interact with kids at Hindu Mahila Mandiram, Poojappura, at 12.30 pm. The team would also meet the kids of LMS Wills Girls Hostel in the presence of a host of dignitaries.MAD, which works with the motto of ‘Bridging inequality in society through education’, opened its chapter in Thiruvananthapuram in 2009 and now has nearly 100 volunteers. MAD is associated with three centres in the city - Mahila Mandiram, Poojappura; SH Girls, Nalanchira; and LMS Wills Girls Hostel, PMG. MAD volunteers teach underprivileged children and it also has a placement project. Those who wish to take part in the cycle expedition may contact 9447327232.
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