Audrey Anpi and ASD Ring of Life, with the support of Assopace Palestina, Progetto REC and ACS and the contribution of PEM Habitat Teatrali, organize RIDE 4 SUNBIRDS from Milan to Rome, approximately 700 km by bicycle to raise funds to support the Gaza Sunbirds .
Godmother of the project will be Morena Tartagni, the first Italian athlete to stand on the podium of the cycling world championships in 1968.
The group of cyclists will leave Milan on Thursday 25 April at 9.30 am and will arrive in Parma around 5.30 pm, in Viale S. Martino, 8, where they will be welcomed by the Xaverian Fathers, Caritas Children and FIAB Parma. At 9.30 pm, in the Hall of the Xaverian Fathers, the documentary Tour de Gaza by Flavia Cappellini will be screened (Nazra Palestine Film Festival 2020-2021)
The proceeds from the campaign will be donated to the Gaza Sunbirds, through the NGO ACS (Association of Cooperation and Solidarity), active in Gaza and the West Bank for more than 20 years and now engaged, at various levels, in humanitarian interventions, such as the distribution of food and essential goods and psycho-social support to displaced people.
A project in which the bicycle becomes a symbol of rights and humanity!
The RIDE 4 SUNBIRDS project:
About ten cyclists from Milan and Rovigo, 671 km from Milan to Rome in 6 stages, to raise funds for the Gaza Sunbirds, a Palestinian team of paracyclists who every day deliver, by bicycle, basic necessities to the population on the The Gaza Strip is now on its last legs.
A “pedal voice” will cross Italy, symbolically uniting with that of the Gaza Sunbirds.
A gesture of solidarity from those who believe in the urgency of a peace dialogue and in the need to create a support network for the population of Gaza. In the stages of the route (Parma on 25 April, Bologna on 26 April, 27 April stop at 2.40 pm in San Piero a Sieve, in the evening in Florence, San Quirico d’Orcia on 28 April, Bolsena on 29 April and Rome on 30 April) meetings and initiatives will be organized to bring attention to the very serious and atrocious situation that the Palestinian people are experiencing. On May 1st we will wait for the cyclists in Milan, in the Central Station, to celebrate the achievement together with Progetto REC Palestina and ACS.
GAZA SUNBIRDS It is a group born in 2020 from an idea of Alaa al-Dali, a professional cyclist who lost a leg during the demonstrations on the border with Israel between 2018 and 2019 (demonstrations that caused the death of 214 Palestinians and more 36 thousand wounded, many of whom were hit in the limbs by Israeli snipers and, like him, amputated).
Alaa al-Dali decided to found a team of paracyclists made up of professionals and people who risked remaining on the margins of society after their amputation. The team, made up of around twenty members, supported by the Association of Cooperation and Solidarity NGOs, was training with the aim of competing at the 2024 Paris Olympics. In these months of siege and carpet bombing, their efforts have been converted into help to the community, providing distribution of food and essential goods to displaced people. The dream of the Paris 2024 Olympics is still alive: a delegation of three athletes from the Gaza Sunbirds could still compete in Belgium and Italy to qualify for Paris.
HOW TO SUPPORT GAZA SUNBIRDS
It is possible to donate via the buoncausa.org platform by searching: Ride 4 Sunbirds
https://buonacausa.org/cause/ride-4-sunbird
MORENA TARTAGNI The first Italian athlete to stand on the podium of the cycling world championships (Imola 1968); she set the world record for the 3 km on the track at the Rome Velodrome; she won 2 silver medals at the world championships in Leicester and Mendrisio and obtained 10 Italian titles on the road and on the track. She has collected 100 victories, in heroic and difficult times for women’s cycling. You have held important roles in the Italian Cycling Federation and were Councilor for sport and youth policies of Senago. She came out with a book, I wanted to be a runner, in 2022, already in its second reprint (Edicicloeditore).
ANPI AUDREY HEPBURN – Milanese partisan section, founded by 22 women in 2020, to express a common civil and political commitment in reaffirming and guaranteeing an open, welcoming and prejudice-free society, spreading anti-fascist cultures and practices in schools and in the streets through forms more varied: meetings, workshops, music, sport, theatre.
ASD RING OF LIFE – It is an amateur sports association founded in 2016 by a group of friends, martial arts and combat sports enthusiasts, who strongly believe in the educational and inclusive value of these sports. They work with young people at risk of social exclusion, unaccompanied foreign minors, women victims of domestic violence, NEETs and young people with psychophysical disabilities. People who benefit from sporting discipline and the strength of the group.
HALL OF THE SAVERIAN FATHERS Viale S. Martino, 8 With the support of Assopace Palestina, Association of Cooperation and Solidarity, NGOs, Research and Culture in Palestine and the contribution of Pem Habitat Teatrali
Tags: Ride Sunbirds cycle relay arrives Parma afternoon April #25th
