Date: 25th August 2008 - for immediate release

Father and son head for the top to fight world poverty

Engineering lecturer, Richard Rider and his son, media technician, Stephen Pritchard are heading for Africa to do their bit in fighting world poverty.

From December 3, the intrepid duo will trek to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in support of Engineers Against Poverty (EAP) – a non-government organisation and charity dedicated to combating global poverty by encouraging investment in infrastructure, communications and training projects in some of the world’s poorest countries.

Richard, who lives in Brinklow, Warwickshire and lectures in computing at Coventry University, is very keen to promote the role of engineers in supporting people who live in the world’s lesser economies. While he and Stephen will be visiting the roof of Africa, they see this as a very down-to-earth approach to tackling poverty.

Says Richard, ‘World leaders often talk about sustainable development, but professional engineers are the people to make this happen through working on practical projects that have a real and positive impact on people’s lives. In an increasingly interconnected world, we all benefit from the eradication of poverty.

‘We believe that as engineers, it’s our responsibility to consider the impact of our work on the global community. The world that we build – and that we teach people to build – will have a long-term benefit for future generations throughout the world. We hope that the trek will create greater public awareness of the excellent work of this charity.’

The 10-day expedition to the top of world’s tallest freestanding mountain marks the tenth anniversary of founding of EAP.

Recent work by the charity includes a gas recycling project involving the local economy of East Timor with multinational gas and oil companies and a project to promote awareness in UK higher education of the role of engineers in sustainable development and the global environment.

Richard’s commitment to the cause has already impressed business leaders and sponsors for the trek include MCR Factors (Rugby), JP Auto Service (Harborough Magna, Rugby), Oonasdivers (Eastbourne), Davis (Decade) Ltd. (Birmingham) and Denso Sales Ltd. (Coventry).

Under the name of ‘Doc’ Rider, Richard also plays guitar, whistle and euphonium on the Coventry and Warwickshire folk music circuit, and is making plans for a fundraising concert in the autumn of top local musicians.

Travel costs to Tanzania are already covered and Richard and Steven aim to raise at least £3000 to go direct to the charity.

Anyone interested in donating or finding out more about the work of EAP can email Richard on r.rider@coventry.ac.uk or visiting www.justgiving.com/richardrider1

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