Short summary
Ride for your Rights! started out in 2011 with a 5000km bike ride from Serbia to Russia. Over a hundred people joined the group, for a couple of days or for a couple of months, to rally support for student mobility in Europe.
The project was a landmark for many students, enabling them to take a stand and show how important it is to get to know one's neighbours in order to know oneself. The community grew larger, and we're as decided as ever to keep working towards a Europe where people, especially students, are able to travel and learn from different countries without obstacles.
In the summer of 2013, we'll cycle from Vienna (Austria) to Ankara (Turkey), riding for student mobility. We've teamed up with Fraternité 2020, the first ever European Citizens Initiative, which calls on the European Union to give 3% of its budget to mobility programs, like Erasmus and the European Voluntary Service. We will gather signatures for the Fraternité 2020 petition and we will ride through 9 countries showing how today's youth values the ability to travel without restraints.
What we need and what you get
In order to pull this off, we need help finding support for the cyclists who give their time and energy to make the group bigger and spread the message further.
Putting a support team in place, along with a backup car, costs a bundle in such a long tour. Think rental, insurance, diesel, tolls, ferries... you name it, we need to pay for it.
While the riders pay a fee to join, we want to provide them with free food and accommodation along the way.
We want everyone to be able to ride safely and to focus on contacting the people we meet throughout the tour and gathering signatures and public support for Fraternité 2020.
Since not everyone can join, we have a few things to offer for those who contribute, from Ride for your Rights! hoodies to special souvenirs that we can gather during the tour (postcards, crazy photos and videos and a special spot on our website and travel diary). Have a look at the perks and decide what would bring you a sense of belonging to this vibrant community!
Every euro we gather will help the entire group of cyclists, putting a roof over their heads, food on their table and power on their legs.
The impact
With this tour, we will be able to give great visibility to Fraternité 2020 and gather many signatures for the petition, which will bring us closer to the magic number of one million signatures needed to get the European Commission to reinforce the budget for mobility in Europe.
Our travel blog will record every stop we make and every organisation we work with, showing how rich and diverse are the activities of students and volunteers across Europe.
Our riders and our readers will get to know a great deal of often forgotten pieces of our common history, as we ride along the Iron Curtain Trail and visit key places in the Balkans.
What is more, we will show the world how European youth value their right to move freely and to learn from other cultures, and how we're not shy of hopping on our bikes and make our voices heard!
Other ways you can help
If you cannot donate, you can spread the message by finding other donors willing to contribute.
Also, you can sign the Fraternité 2020 petition and get others to do so as well.
Organise events online to get your friends and people in your community to sign the petition.
Share this campaign and the content on our website.
Meet us along the route and support us on the ground.
Join this great community which is fighting for one of the best things about being European: meeting and supporting our neighbours across borders!