A guide to the mongolia charity rally 2015

Aguidetothe

Mongolia

CharityRally2015 Theadventureofalifetime inanutshell. Orinacar...

A Guide to the Mongolia Charity Rally – The adventure of a lifetime in a nutshell.

Or in a car…

The Mongolia Charity Rally is an epic 10,000 mile pan-continental road trip for charity across mountain ranges, deserts, and more barren and inhospitable lands than you’d care to shake a gear stick at. It traditionally starts in London, though the starting point is entirely flexible, and ends in the ancient Mongol capital of Ulaanbaatar.

Teams, usually formed of 3-4 people, find themselves a vehicle, fundraise a ton of charity and sponsorship money, and with a little help from us (to make sure ‘T’s are crossed and the ‘I’s are dotted, and to ensure everyone is fully prepared), they set off from London, not to be seen again until they reach Mongolia!

This rally, which is 100% for charity, is just one of several different rallies run by Charity Rallies, the fundraising arm of the adventure charity Go Help. The Mongolia Charity Rally began as an ambulance run, supporting Go Help’s flagship ambulance service in Mongolia. It has now been expanded to include teams driving all kinds of different vehicles that are either used in Mongolia for charity services or sold commercially. The best ambulances go to our Ambulance Project, the best vans are used for transport, and the best 4x4s are donated to other NGOs.

In a nutshell: • One vehicle = one team = up to 5 people • A vehicle must be no more than 9 years old • Fundraising is a must - the first £1,000 goes to Go Help, the adventure charity that organises this epic event • Any fundraising thereafter can go to the charity of choice • Sponsorship can be raised to help cover vehicle and expense costs • This rally is 100% for charity, run by a charity, for charity • The basic route is Brussels-Ulaanbaatar • The specific route choice is up to the team: the world is your oyster!

• Depending on the route, the rally takes approx. 3-6 weeks • The launch is on July 11, 2015, in London • Teams can start anywhere they like, we’ll help them out • Registration opens August 1, 2014

GO HELP Go Help is a UK adventure charity that is committed to working with local communities in Central Asia and Central America to improve their access to education and healthcare services. It is run by volunteers, and began as an effort to launch and operate ambulance services in third world countries. The cause is now much broader and we endeavor to help local organisations in any way we can.

Our charitable activities are largely in the fields of healthcare and education.

Go Help’s core objectives include: • To promote charitable adventuring; • To enable access to primary healthcare through the provision, distribution and maintenance of emergency vehicles; • To foster local talent, through providing scholarships and employment opportunities for young people; • To support education projects which provide opportunities for literacy and self-improvement; and • To facilitate the placement of skilled health and education volunteers with the aim of enhancing the capacity of local communities.

Go Help is staffed almost solely by volunteers and most are past ralliers. As part of Go Help, enterprising ralliers have pioneered and trialled a number of other projects in recent years, including an ambulance to Nepal and tuktuks through the Cambodian jungles. There are always new and great ideas in the pipeline.

CHARITY RALLIES Charity Rallies is the fundraising arm of Go Help. Under this umbrella, Go Help currently runs three rallies: the Mongolia Charity Rally, from Northern Europe to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; the Roof of the World Charity Rally, from Northern Europe to Dushanbe, Tajikistan; and the MesoAmerica Charity Rally from San Diego to Siguatepeque, Honduras. Each of these works with different projects in the destination country, all within the fields of healthcare and education.

The MesoAmerica Charity Rally, the newest of the Charity Rallies, recently ran a successful test run that saw two US ambulances donated to Siguatepeque and Comayagua in Honduras. These ambulances have since been put into active practice and have seen the fruits of the labour of the ralliers. The progress and use of the ambulances is regularly monitored by Go Help volunteers. The relationships built during this test run were positive and long-lasting, and this Rally opened to the public in July 2014.

The Roof of the World Charity Rally was started by former ralliers who took part in the Mongolia Charity Rally several years before. Following their visit to Tajikistan and the realisation that the country is in need of help, Go Help assisted these volunteers in setting up the rally which treks some of the most dangerous high altitude roads in Asia. On the ground in Tajikistan Go Help employs a small office that helps the ralliers with vehicle donation, paperwork and general admin, as well as keeping up the relationships with our projects in the country.

Go Help’s flagship Rally, the Mongolia Charity Rally has been running since 2007. With an established office in Ulaanbaatar, a dedicated team with contacts to the Mongolian Government, as well as a host of successful partnerships with local projects, the Mongolia Charity Rally pulls in over 50 teams a year. Starting with the ambulance project, the rally now runs all manner of vehicles across the 10,000 miles of inhospitable terrain to be donated to charities or sold for charitable profit.

THE EVENT ITSELF Europe - Ulaanbaatar The Mongolia Charity Rally traditionally runs from London to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. However this year, due to our massive increase in main-land European sign-ups, the official rally starting point will be in Brussels. If a team is determined to start elsewhere however, we, as a charity, will of course do our best to help them out.

The route the team takes is entirely up to them. Here’s where the imagination can really go into overdrive! Once we’ve helped a team register and finalise the paperwork for their chosen vehicle, its time to chart the route and grab that place on the starting grid in Brussels!

So what is the experience going to be? The northern route, through Eastern Europe, visiting the Reichstag, the Charles Bridge, and crossing the Tatras on the way to the Ukraine? Will it be to brave the potholes and dirt roads of southern Russia, and cross onto the Asian continent in Kazakhstan and along the shores of the Caspian Sea before driving across the barren, deserted lands of western Mongolia?

Or perhaps the Southern route is on the menu? Cutting down through Western Europe to Turkey, crossing over the Bosphorus River on the Bridge to Asia; driving lazily through the beautiful countryside of Iran, before collecting as many ‘Stans as possible on the way north east to Mongolia?

The average northern route takes about 3 weeks, whereas the southern takes at least 4. But this is where the imagination can be the guide; there are no rules on this one!

HOW TO SIGN UP Taking part in the Mongolia Charity Rally 2015

The standard entry fee is £499. However, we want teams to sign up as early in the process as possible to ensure that they are fully prepared for this epic adventure, so we’ve put in place a bit of an incentive for you: • For the first 20 teams to sign up, we’ll give you the fantastic price of £199!

• For the next 20 teams to sign up, you’ll pay £349!

• Thereafter it’s a team price of £499.

To sign up, just go to our website at charityrallies.org, and click the sign up buttonto sign up your team for next summer’s epic Charity Rally. Your sign up price will depend on how many people have already signed up, so to get the lowest possible price, sign up early!

Teams are of a maximum of 5 people. However, if you’d like to add team members you can, for an additional £50 per team member.

Once you’ve signed up and paid your entry fee, we’ll add you to our facebook group, and our whatsapp text group so you are kept up to date with all the latest news and get regular updates on conference calls and deadlines, and we’ll send you loads more info on how to fundraise, what paperwork and visas you need to be thinking about, and what our partner organisations can do for you.

The 2015 Mongolia Charity Rally kicks off next summer in Brussels on July 11. We’ll be hosting a launch party at the starting line.

Bringing home the bacon Fundraising is an integral part of the deal. While the entry fee goes a long way to helping the charity, Go Help relies largely on fundraising from the teams to support the partner projects in Mongolia. Whether it is friends donating per mile, or fa- mily chipping in per day, or better still, high flying contacts emptying their pockets in bulk, all we ask is that the first £1,000 raised goes to Go Help and, in turn, to the local efforts we’re involved in.

Any sum raised above that £1,000 threshold is free to be donated as wished. While many people choose to leave it with us to beef up the pot for our chosen local projects, others prefer to take this surplus and donate it to a charity of their choice, or indeed to several worthy causes. This is entirely up to the teams and we’re happy to help either way.

In addition to fundraising for the charity, many of our teams like to get themselves some sponsorship which, rather than going to charity, goes towards helping to cover the costs of the vehicle, the expenses, etc. It’s very important when setting out to raise money, be it fundraising or sponsorship, that it be made very clear what the money will be used for.

Not only do we give a load of money that you raise to charitable projects, we also make sure that the vehicles that you drive are donated to the best possible places once they arrive in Mongolia. That’s why it’s important for you to choose, with our help, the right vehicle before you set off!

We also encourage teams to gather supplies and equipment to donate in Ulaanbaatar and along the way. Examples are new or used medical equipment such as x-ray machines or dental equipment, or school supplies such as paper, pens, books, and the like. Teams on other rallies have even been creative in bringing bouncy castles, mascot costumes, and recreational sports equipment.

Get some WHEELS You can of course drive any vehicle you choose to Mongolia, but here are a few important things you should know before you make the ultimate rally vehicle purchase.

The fundamental points are these: • All vehicles taking part in The Mongolia Charity Rally must be pre-approved through the charity rallies website. Our team in Mongolia pre-approves rally vehicles with Mongolian customs, so this is essential!

• Some vehicles are subject to import taxes upon entering Mongolia and we don’t cover tax costs.

• Only vehicles useful to the Mongol people should be driven as these will be donated on arrival. This is not a banger rally, and Mongolia doesn’t want – or need – our scrap metal.

• Vehicles must be no more than 9 years old due to incremental Mongolian import taxes. This rule applies to all vehicles, including ambulances. The only exception is for motorbikes.

• Consider getting a left-hand drive (LHD) vehicle, as there is a possibility the Mongolian authorities may soon limit the import of right-hand drive (RHD) vehicles in Mongolia. LHD vehicles will therefore be a more valuable donation in the country.

• We are here to help! Not only do we have a really experienced team on the ground in Ulaanbaatar who can help you choose the best rally-ride, we also have a team in London that has spent years painstakingly navigating the maze that is Mongolian import tax and is here to help you!

You can find more details on how to choose the right vehicle in our Rally-Ride Guide.

What you get for your entry fee: • A spot on the starting grid for the ride of your life • A dedicated team in Europe to answer all questions • And a dedicated team in Mongolia to help with all import and handover docs!

• Monthly conference calls with the Charity Rallies team and past ralliers • Help and advice on paperwork and vehicle selection, visas and taxes • Advice on routes and supplies from the team and past ralliers • Mongolia Charity Rally t-shirts • Go Help and Mongolia Charity Rally logo stickers to pimp your ride • A kick-ass starting line fanfare!

• A kick-ass finishing line welcome!

• Reunions and Adventure Support Days • And better memories than you thought you thought possible!

What you don’t get: • Your vehicle! We can advise, but getting and pimping your ride is up to you • Hand-holding while en-route - this is an unsupported rally once you hit the road!

• A phone number to call in case of emergencies • Insurance • Spare tyres

OUR PROJECTS IN MONGOLIA The Ambulance Project Mongolia Go Help’s Ambulance Project aims to improve the quality and efficiency of Mongolian healthcare.

Official figures provided to Go Help by the Mongolian government have highlighted a shortfall of roughly 100

ambulances across the country. furthermore, what this figure doesn’t take into account is the many vehicles already allocated to hospitals that are broken, old or lacking the appropriate medical equipment.

The actual need therefore is far greater than the figures indicate. Through the Mongolia Charity Rally, Go Help has been able to donate ambulances to many hospitals and clinics throughout Mongolia, especially in rural countryside regions where ambulances and healthcare are scarce. We make sure that they have a real need for the vehicle, and that they will look after it and use it responsibly. Hospitals and clinics receiving these ambulances then provide periodic reports to Go Help detailing its usage. Since the charity was founded, 22 ambulances have been donated to Go Help, which were then in turn either donated to hospitals, clinics and NGOs, or retained for use in charity projects. 8 of these in 2013 alone.

The Book House Project The Book House was opened in a deprived area of the Nalaikh district on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar. This project aims to increase the reading, writing, listening and speaking skills of the local children, but also provides space for mothers and retired people to use for reading and socialising. Go Help, through our librarian, Binya, organises regular activities and projects such arts and crafts lessons, English lessons and computer courses. There are frequent competitions for the children too, such as drawing, poetry and singing competitions.

The Book House is located at the heart of the community where over 20 children between the ages of 9-16 use the services daily. We also have children of the Nalaikh district taking part in English lessons taught by our volunteers.

The Book House is at the top of our list of projects to receive additional funding this year to meet the need for essential equipment and facilities, including the installation of electricity, heating and further learning materials.

OUR PROJECTS IN MONGOLIA Go Help Scholarship Programme Go Help’s Scholarship Programme is aimed at students in Ulaanbaatar from lower economic backgrounds struggling with the increasing tuition fees at universities.

In exchange for volunteering, Go Help supports students achieve a university degree. Khalii, the first student to go through our programme, got her degree in accounting a few years ago. Since then, 12 other young Mongolian students have been able to get the degree they have worked hard for thanks to the programme. The students are from varying disciplines of study and all have basic conversational and written English.

Their participation with Go Help and with our projects has been immeasurable in enhancing the achievement of Go Help’s aims and objects. Their regular participation in volunteer activities at charity projects has allowed Go Help to operate more efficiently and has afforded us the chance to expand our work and reach out

and get involved in more projects. In return, the students are able to study, rather than work part-time in an unregulated environment, and gain valuable experience, improving their English and their levels of professionalism. Each of our students has a role within Go Help and works towards improving their skills and giving back to the organisation and the local community.

The Mobile Library So far, two routes have been selected based on their distance from the city and the availability of local libraries and Internet service.

The new bus has had a complete interior and exterior revamp; deisgned by Martin Hsu, a San Francisco based illustrator, who previously worked for Disney and Nickelodeon. He has agreed to donate his time and our team is now working hand in hand with him to get the project off the ground.

The Mobile Library Project did not run in 2013. However, the year was spent planning for a new mobile library following the donation of a bus from a Belgian team in 2012. This project is set to be put into action in the second half of 2014.

The, as yet unnamed, mobile library and Internet service is a project designed to meet the information needs of under- or inadequately served people, especially children and young people living in rural areas.

We have found an experienced local interior designer with knowledge of library design, to help with the layout of the interior.

Go Help has also been in discussions with the Mongolian Libraries’ Consortium, an association of Mongolian libraries, who are eager to collaborate with us on the project.

Their role will be to provide human resources (teachers, librarians) and book loans from different libraries during the summer months, when most of the libraries’ activities decrease.

MEDIA COVERAGE

OUR VOLUNTEER PLACEMENTS Go Help places skilled volunteers into local organisations. Through our office in Mongolia we know that voluntary skills are incredibly sought after. Some of the organisations we have worked with include: • The police centre for street and lost/abandoned street children – Donations of clothing, volunteering for activities and presents are distributed here by Go Help.

• Lotus orphanage - NGO • Flourishing Futures - NGO • Save the Children • Nairamdal - International Children’s Centre-government agency • Scouts of Mongolia - NGO • Mongolian Education Alliance - NGO • Health Clinics in Amgalan, Gachuurt, Selenge province, Uvs province, Bayan Olgii province • Kindergarten No.10 - Rehabilitation Centre for Children with Disabilities • Batsumber - Retirement home We encourage all our teams to visit projects when they arrive in Ulaanbaatar, and are always on hand to help arrange placements, visits or longer-term volunteering opportunities.

OUR PEOPLE Board of Trustees David Griffiths is a co-founder of Go Help and Chairman of the Board of trustees.

He is a lawyer based in New York with significant pro bono and human rights related experience, having worked with UN-ICTR, UN-WFP and the OAS.

Charlie Hogg took part in the Mongolia Charity Rally in 2008 driving the first fully equipped ambulance to Mongolia. He joined the board of trustees in 2009 and won the Rotary Young Citizen of the Year award the same year.

William Dodsworth is a co-founder of Go Help. He is a lawyer based in London.

He has also worked as a teacher at the Mongolian National Legal Centre.

Ryan Walker is a founder of the annual Go Help fundraising event the Roof of the World Charity Rally. He works for Mercedes F1 and became a trustee in 2010.

David Treanor is a veteran of Go Help having taken part in the Mongolia Charity Rally back in 2009 and later writing a book about his experiences. He became a trustee in 2013.

Charity Rallies Coordinators

Dulguun Batkhishig was previously head of the Go Help Mongolian Office in Ulaanbaatar. She is now a trustee.

Go Help Regional Officers

Joanna Meade manages the events and communications for Go Help and is Charity Rallies’ Rally Commander. She tested the MesoAmerica Charity rally in 2011 and will be rallying to Mongolia in 2015!

Javzaa Myagmar is the Head of the Mongolian Office in Ulaanbaatar and Mongolia charity projects coordinator.

Sophie Willingale runs the fundraising and development for the Roof of the World Charity Rally and the general administration and events for Go Help in the UK.

Tseveendavaa Ozoi is our legal advisor in Mongolia. He deals with the Ministry of Finance and Mongolian Customs on vehicle tax exemption.

Murray Johnson was in one of our most memorable teams on the Roof of the World Charity Rally. He is the brains behind the MesoAmerica charity Rally and he manages it from the U.S.

Uyanga Bold works in our Mongolia office.

OUR PARTNERS Real Russia - http://realrussia.co.uk/charities Real Russia supports Go Help by offering a bespoke visa service for all the rally teams taking part in The Mongolia Charity Rally. Visas for the teams are heavily discounted and they have dedicated staff and website pages for assisting the Rally teams. Real Russia is an independent company that specialises in Russian and Central Asian visas and travel services for business people, tourists and independent travelers. They have a 100% success rate, even with problematic or urgent visa applications.

Big Yellow Storage - http://www.bigyellow.co.uk/store/Balham-self-storage The Big Yellow Self Storage Company has donated free storage space to Go Help. Go Help doesn’t have an office and the support of having free storage is hugely helpful for the charity and volunteers, especially considering the events we run. Big Yellow provides the best quality facilities for short term storage, long term, personal, business and student self-storage.

Viewranger - http://www.viewranger.com/en-GB ViewRanger is a tool that can track your team in real time and allow you to navigate with detailed mapping and GPS. ViewRanger turns your iPhone, iPad, Android smartphone/Tablet, Blackberry 10 or Nokia Symbian device into a fully functional offline GPS navigation and mapping device. We prefer to work with small grassroots organisations that have a greater understanding of local needs and who have cost effective and useful projects benefiting the community.

OUR ADDED VALUE

Since its inception in 2007, Go Help’s fundraising arm, Charity Rallies, has strived to make all its adventure fundraising events as good as they can be. We have spent years building strong relationships both at home in the UK, and on the ground in Mongolia. Our dedicated office in Mongolia’s ancient capital of Ulaanbaatar is manned by a small but impressive team of locals who have the contacts, the know-how and the enthusiasm to help us and lead our partner projects.

Our efforts to give the Mongolian people what they want and need has earned us a positive reputation with the Mongolian authorities and customs with whom we have regular contact, and work close in hand with, to ensure that our endeavours always remain an asset and never become a hindrance. This reputation extends to our partnerships with established associations such as the London Ambulance Service and Save the Children. These relationships are important to us and we work hard to maintain them.

Our personal attention to our teams, to our cause and to our fundraising projects is what sets us apart from others.

Keeping our rallies small, we ensure a personal aproach, an ability to respond in person in a timely fashion and interact personally with the teams. We are also able to keep the Charity run by volunteers, allowing for our 100% donation to charitable causes.

Our volunteers have experience, drive, charisma, and have all completed at least one of our rally events themselves.

We can thus all give advice from experience, understand what teams are going through, the complexities of taking part in an event such as this, and can help in the best way possible. Go Help is always there to help both the participating teams and the volunteers who work so hard to keep Charity Rallies a growing success.

OUR SUCCESS This table shows the number of teams per rally, per year, who finished the rally and raised funds for Go Help: Year

Teams for MCR

Money raised

Teams for ROTW

Money Raised

Total teams

Total Money raised

2008

67

£ 214,764.36

/

/

/

£ 214,764.36

2009

27

£ 48,933.26

7

£ 5,002.93

34

£ 53,936.19

2010

34

£ 55,472.55

10

£ 8,311.56

44

£ 63,784.11

2011

34

£ 32,372.27

5

£ 9,072.93

39

£ 41,445.20

2012

33

£ 36,050.66

4

£ 6,240.43

37

£ 42,291.09

2013

31

£ 53,331.00

7

£ 7,816.00

38

£ 61,147.00

2014

27

/

11

/

38

/

Since 2008, Go Help’s Charity Rallies have helped 260 teams raise money for third world countries.

That means 260+ vehicles, carrying 1000+ people, have driven a total of over three million miles, over the course of six years, raising an incredible £475,000, and counting, through Go Help.

We’ve worked on over 10 different projects with 20+ partners, watched teams get sponsorships from hundreds of companies, conquered new continents and grown from one to three rally events since 2008.

We would love to hear from you.

You can find us at Charity Rallies event website at http://mongolia.charityrallies.org Or through the Go Help charity website at http://gohelp.org.uk Or better yet, for general information you can email us on info@gohelp.org.uk

OUR DISCLAIMER DANGER! We’ve said this before, it’s mentioned time and time again, but we can’t stress this enough. Driving 10,000 miles half way across the world can be dangerous.

Once we’ve helped you pick the right vehicle, get your paperwork sorted, and waved you off the starting line, you are on your own.

This is not a walk in the park. This is not a country jaunt. This is not a jolly excursion to look at the pretty views.

This is adventure. This is a challenge. And it’s dangerous.

We do not hand-hold, we do not assist. We do not give you emergency numbers to call. No back-up van will be escorting you, or hidden in the shadows should you fall flat on your face. No mechanics will be positioned in strategic places across the Kazakh desert. No satellite will be following your every move. No translators await you at border crossings, and helicopters will be dropping food to you in the middle of nowhere.

You will be fending for yourselves. You will be dealing with irate foreign border guards, de-muddying the wheels of your vehicle when you get stuck in a ditch. Be prepared to pull, push, shove, kick and abuse your car when it just can’t take any more dust and sand from dirt roads. Forget comfort, soft warm beds and temperate running water.

No one will be there to give you advice. There is no one you can call.

We repeat, you are on your own.

We take no responsibility for you or your vehicle, so be prepared. Read up, ask questions before you leave, our team is here to help you in any way we can before you set off, so put us to good use. Take thousands of photos, bring back a million memories, do some good, but be careful, it’s a jungle out there!