Dubai: Two Dubai ladies are training hard conquering the sand dunes of Dubai in preparation for an all-women charity desert rally to help underprivileged schoolchildren in Morocco this October.
French expatriates Mathilde Rottembourg, 41, and Carinne Abou-Huguet, 40, will represent Dubai in the charity rally, Cap Femina Aventure 2014, in the Tifilalet region of Morocco from October 4 to 11.
The desert rally will see all-women teams pound Moroccan dunes on four-wheelers en route to an educational centre that needs refurbishing and repainting as chosen by the non-profit international organisation Coeur de Gazelles. The rally aims to bring smiles and hope to 100 underprivileged schoolchildren aged between three and 12.
“We’ve been very, very lucky in our business over the last few years. We’d like to give back to our community since we have such energy to give back,” Rottembourg, who has been living in Dubai for five years, told Gulf News.
“We want to prove to the world that Dubai isn’t only about the bling-bling but that Dubai has a heart that gives,” she added.
The duo will be participating as Team Yallah Dubai (Arabic for ‘Let’s go, Dubai’), which they say is apt since they want to bring Dubai’s generosity to Morocco.
“Both of us are French but our families, our businesses, our life is here in Dubai and we love it here. And so we would like to bring Dubai’s energy with us on this rally. We would like Dubai to come with us [through the sponsorships],” Abou-Huguet said.
The duo has started training by running 10-kilometre races and desert driving almost every weekend.
“We do run every other day to keep ourselves fit. We train very hard in driving in the desert and also in navigation, that’s the main thing. When we get there, everything will be about using the compass and driving past the dunes,” Rottembourg said.
But to be able to go, they said they will need help. The duo needs to raise at least Dh93,500 to join the competition and another sum of money to buy sports equipment, computers, stationery and books, clothes, and footwear as gifts for the children in the centre.
To know how you can help, email them at yallahdubai397@gmail.com
