The president of the Huelva Provincial Council, David Toscano, received this Thursday the amateur cyclists José Luis García and Ricardo Pérez ‘Ritxar’, who have arrived in Huelva on the route that will take them to travel 2,500 kilometers throughout the Andalusia with a solidarity objective.
As indicated by the provincial institution in a press release, Toscano wished the cyclists a good ride and thanked them for their involvement in the ‘Ruta del Silencio’ project, which aims to raise funds for a project of the Vicente Ferrer Foundation. (FVF) that will provide bicycles to boys and girls in rural India to ensure that they travel to secondary schools and, therefore, do not abandon their studies prematurely.
Along with both athletes, who are deaf, the FVF delegate in Andalusia, Rafael Carmona, and the Sports Deputy, Juan Daniel Romero, attended this reception.
Furthermore, on this occasion the cyclists have the collaboration of the Andalusian Union of Deaf People (UNASORD), with which they have organized a dozen informative meetings with the protagonists of this initiative in different cities along their Andalusian route. In Huelva they have offered one of these talks at the Gota de Leche Social Center.
The official start of the challenge took place on Friday, September 1, from the headquarters of the Vicente Ferrer Foundation in Andalusia, located in Seville, and will end on October 13. From Seville, the athletes pedaled to the province of Huelva to pass through municipalities such as Fuenteheridos, El Cerro del Andévalo, Sanlúcar de Guadiana, San Silvestre de Guzmán, Villablanca, Lepe, Cartaya and Bellavista.
The Provincial Council of Huelva maintains a long collaboration with the Vicente Ferrer Foundation, which has materialized in different projects of the Foundation in India for more than a decade, such as access to secondary school for disadvantaged young people and construction of homes for disadvantaged families, among others. The Foundation presented a distinction to the Provincial Council as a collaborating institution on the occasion of its 20th Anniversary in Spain.
The FVF delegate thanked the two athletes for their initiative, since, as Carmona explained, by purchasing bicycles in India, “hundreds of boys and, above all, girls, will not abandon their studies when they pass to secondary school”, because “the schools are further away from their homes”, so it is “a means of transport that changes everything”.
“These cyclists show us that sport is a unique tool to transmit values, to change reality and to help people who need it,” he added.
José Luis García, with bilateral deafness, was the first Mallorcan Spanish representative in the Olympics in the category of deaf person in the years 1995, 1996 and 1997, with the recognition of elite athlete. Since 2010, he has organized numerous initiatives to benefit the Vicente Ferrer Foundation and has visited the NGO’s projects in rural India.
‘Route of Silence Andalusia’ offers different ways to participate in a new solidarity challenge: following their profiles on social networks; approaching one of the ten conferences that cyclists will offer along their route; and making financial contributions through its micro-donations campaign that will go directly to the acquisition of bicycles in India.
