Thursday, September 2, 2010

Special needs children in Dubai were all smiles when their school was given a new bus with funds raised from a desert rally, writes Paul McLennan
For a whole year four friends living in Dubai worked tirelessly to train for the UAE Desert Challenge 2008 whilst simultaneously raising money for good causes.
Now that the gruelling rally is over, Paul Anselmo, Steve You, Sean Curnow and Jonathan Quan have been able to reflect on their achievement, which included raising dhs320,000 for the Dubai School for Special Needs.
The funds, raised through sponsorship, have paid for a brand new bus for the children, which will be used to take them on outings across the emirate.
The four friends have also raised enough money to help cover the costs of 10,000 mosquito nets for people living on the edge of Lake Albert in Uganda, where pregnant women and children often die from malaria.
Paul, Steve, Sean and Jonathan call themselves “four ordinary guys”, but staff at the school say this could not be further from the truth.
“These guys call themselves ordinary but we think they are extra-ordinary,” said Rania Muchrek, section co-ordinator for pre-vocation at Dubai School for Special Needs.
Speaking at the handover of the bus, she added: “Thanks to them we now have a well-needed bus.
“We need vehicles with special seats for our children and they are really costly.
“We have 137 pupils at our school with various levels of disability so this bus will be a great help to them.
“The team have been so generous and we could feel they put their hearts into it.
“We believe their efforts have been amazing.”
The four friends, whose team was called UAE Charity Challenge, put their bodies on the line during the six-day ultimate test of endurance, which took in some of the most remote, unforgiving desert regions of the Emirates.
They raced against 4x4s, cars and other motorbikes across 2,200kms of vast desert called “The Empty Quarter”.
Quan recalls the physical demands placed on the four friends during the challenge.
“We all finished and it was a really good experience,” he said.
“It was tough but we were all determined to cross the finishing line and raise a huge amount of money for the Dubai Centre for Special Needs, which was the most important part of the project.
“We were riding for nine hours a day and covered 2,200 kilometres over the five days.
“There were vast expanses of desert and the last ten kilometres were hard because the sand dunes went up and down very quickly.
“All we could think about was getting over that last metre.
“I think we did really well because there were some guys who had a lot of problems and others who got lost - one guy had to go through 50 extra dunes because he went the wrong way.”
Curnow said the men’s bumps and bruises were soon forgotten about when they saw the smiles on the faces of the children, who were presented with their new bus this week.
“It’s a fantastic feeling and makes everything we’ve done over the year worth while,”
he reflected.
“There was so much effort put in by everyone and at first I don’t think we realised what a big undertaking it would be.
“But we did it and I was so happy to see the children from the Dubai Centre for Special Needs with their new bus - they wanted to get on our bikes as well, it was a great day.”
Curnow says he and his friends want to continue supporting the school and are already planning their next challenge.
paul.mclennan@7days.ae