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ALGARVE BASED PORTUGUESE TEAM ON THE WORLD’S LARGEST AMATEUR RALLY

January the 15th 2011 marks the start of the world’s biggest humanitarian rally: the BUdapest-Bamako. The Portuguese AfroTeam will be there...
Created by the Hungarian Andrew Andrew Szabo in 2005, this international adventure and orientation event has the charity aid as its leitmotiv, having distributed over 700.000€ in 2009, and over 25 tones of aid in 2010, specially in Mauritania and in Mali.
Around 250 teams will participate in this event, traveling for 8570kms between Budapest and Bamako, joining Europe and Africa, in a grand total of 10 countries.
“For us it will be almost double!” - says António Vilela, one of AfroTeam’s pilots. “We’ll be leaving the Algarve heading North to Budapest to start the rally on the 15th of January, and two weeks later there’s the finish line in Bamako. After that we must return home.. so yeah, almost 15.000 Kms in total. Above all, a unique adventure, that’s what we’re hoping for...“
AfroTeam has a crew of five friends and two vehicles, whose off-road experience will render their participation a success, as Pedro Lopes, the backup car pilot mentions “It’s a minimal assistance rally, so we acknowledge the risk and the difficulties this event represents, and it’s from these ingredients that we feed our personal challenge, but we rest confident due to the experience we have in this sport, coming from the crew’s individual background, but also because of the off-road club we manage, promoting expeditions in Portugal and in Northern Africa. Above all, we love adventure!”
Besides the direct humanitarian aid that the rally's organization gathers from the teams and delivers by truck, the Portuguese AfroTeam will this year aim higher by creating the AfroTeam Development. In the words of Nuno Assunção, development consultant and team member, “We are aware that the direct aid is great and obviously welcome within the local communities, but to identify urgent needs and to develop sustainable projects that will serve so many more, is for us a core objective, cooperating with the rally’s organization and with the local authorities by creating ambitious development tools who will prove to be worthy in a near future.”
Every year there is a substantial media coverage around the rally, including specific shows that are produced, such as the Travel Channel for the last three years. For 2011, AfroTeam will output a documentary and a TV series, both in HD. According to Marco Teixeira, Juicylime producer “The team challenged us and we immediately said yes! 15.000 Kms, a convertible 37 year old Land Rover, 10 countries, West Africa? We’re in! We’ll produce amazing results and hopefully viewers will love to experience this rally like never before.“

Faro, October 21st 2010

The Budapest-Bamako 2011 ‘Back to Mali’ in its sixth edition, is the world’s biggest humanitarian rally and the largest amateur and trans-Saharan race in Africa, beginning January 15th 2011 in Budapest, Hungary, crossing 10 countries for 8547 Kms, finishing on January the 30th in Bamako, Mali’s capital city. www.budapestbamako.org The AfroTeam Algarve, From Albufeira, is the only Portuguese team competing in the Budapest-Bamako 2011 rally, whose crew of five will face an unprecedent humanitarian adventure, for over 15.000 Kms between Europe and Africa. www.afroteam.org
Juicylime is an Algarve based media production company, creating several supports in HD and offering professional services in publicity, corporate and documentary, among others. www.juicylime.pt
For further information: Marco Teixeira Rua Fernão Magalhães, Lote 21, 1.º Q 8200-129 Albufeira Phone: +351 960 098 880 http://www.afroteam.org info@afroteam.org
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