Time for final preparations before departure. The fifth Europ’Raid, Europe’s leading adventure rally, will be held from 28 July to 19 August 2018, as 250 teams and 750 participants travel 10,000 kilometres across Europe. They will take in 23 European partner cities and transport 25 tonnes of school equipment to schools in Eastern Europe. One of the teams is made up of Geremy Eleftheriadis, Alice Sioniac, and Philippine Varennes, all in their early 20s and participating under the team name Med’in Raid. These fourth-year medical students set off in style on Wednesday 25 July. Their departure was made possible thanks to a variety of activities, including asking for donations of equipment, building partnerships, and above all creating a charity which aims to share knowledge about essential hygiene rules and the skills required to teach them. “As a result of our studies, we are keen to pass on the basic rules of hygiene, which seem obvious to us, but that’s not the case in every country, far from it!” stresses Philippine. Philippine is from Antibes and a former animator at the Centre International d’Antibes, so she contacted the school and asked us to become one of the team’s partners. With education and mutual assistance being at the heart of the Centre’s philosophy, clearly we were keen to get involved and help the team to criss-cross the continent in order to offer assistance to disadvantaged youngsters. Beyond the destination and the mission, the adventure is also educational and full of promise. “I’m really looking forward to finding out about new cultures, meeting the children we’re going to help and being able to bring a bit of joy and fun into their lives. We don’t have enough awareness of the conditions that can exist some miles from home (as well as just down the road, of course),” Alice sums up. But that’s not all. Lots of preparation is required for anyone wanting to take part in Europ’Raid. “We’ve been preparing for this since August 2017 [...] We’ve all got ourselves energised.” Naturally, these adventurers of the road have some concerns: “Breakdowns or that the car might give us a fright or two along the way. That’s what I’m most anxious about!” says Alice, but they’re not about to be put off by more details like this, not when their motto is “motivation, determination, don’t give up without a fight, and above all patience!” On their departure from Nice, our young students will be driving across the Old World in a legendary Peugeot 205, passing through countries such as Switzerland, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic (check out the route here). They’ll visit a total of 20 countries in 23 days before finishing in Paris. Head over to their Facebook page now to give them the boost they’ll need for each stage of the adventure.
About the Centre International d'Antibes
