As you are by aware, the Mongol Rally is not _only_ about risking life and limb to make the world a less boring place, but also, and more importantly, it’s about raising money for worthy causes.

Each team has to raise a minimum of 1,000 GBP (henceforth to be referred to as ‘squids’*), of which minimum 500 have to go to the Mongol rally’s chosen charity for that year.  The rest can be dispersed as the team raising the funds sees fit.

And yup, we think of ourselves as a charity, too – this race has costs, yo, _costs_!  The fuel alone is terrifying :P

BUT, back to the point of this post.

We have chosen our charities, and are now able to collect donations.

From http://www.lotuschild.org/ (the section on the Mongol Rally)

The Mongol Rally 2012 charity is the Lotus Children’s Centre Charitable Trust.  Their website says the following:

The Lotus Children’s Centre is a Mongolian non-profit, non-government organisation working with vulnerable children and families to provide the basic human rights of shelter, food and education. We care for up to 150 abused, orphaned and abandoned children at any one time.

Very, _very_ worthy.

As for our New Zealand charities?  Well, this was tricky.  One of us is female, and both of us are fans of same – we are, therefore, upset by abuse affecting women and children.  Further, we like animals, and are appealed at how poorly they are treated, and how often.

And, of course, we live in New Zealand, which has been profoundly (and generationally) affected by the recent huge earthquakes in the Canterbury region.

Meaning our charities are:

• Women’s Refuge Wellington (we live in Wellington)
• SPCA
• Red Cross 2011 Earthquake Appeal

We have 9 months to raise decent moolah.  Let’s get to it.  Details are available on the ‘Donate’ page on this website, here.

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* aimee likes tentacles, and also lived in London for a while, where she picked up this particular piece of vernacular