FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: TRAVIS PASTRANA Joins Race 4 Change in Drive to End Poverty!

November 9, 2009, New York, New York—Nine-time X Games Gold Medalist and Rally legend, Travis Pastrana, is ready to rev up the movement to race to end poverty on this planet. Pastrana, who is already a Rally Racing Champ in America, has entered his endorsement of car #20, Race4Change (www.race4change.org), in the East African Safari Classic - one of the toughest rallies in the world.  He joins the efforts of Race4Change in raising awareness, on an international level, about microcredit and is encouraging people to donate money to two of the worlds leading poverty fighting organizations the Microcredit Summit Campaign (www.microcreditsummit.org) and the on-the-ground Kenyan microfinance legend, Jamii Bora, lead by microfinance eco-pioneer Ingrid Munro. 

 Microfinance is one of the most powerful tools being used to fight poverty. It is finding greater support as a viable, ethical, and socially responsible business model serving the very poor.  Since the birth of the movement in the 1970s many poor families have moved across the poverty line proving microfinance to be one of the greatest innovations for social good ever conceived!
 
Microfinance continues to surge as a massive movement to increase human dignity by providing a tangible means for more than 100 million of the world's poorest families to empower themselves economically. With access to financial services they couldn't get anywhere else, the poorest of the poor have proven themselves to be some of the most creditworthy entrepreneurs in life. 

"We couldn't be more pumped up to have Pastrana join us in our efforts to promote Microcredit," said Steven Funk, an American-born Canadian, founder of Race4Change, Co-Founder of the Dignity Fund, and Chair of the Advisory Board to the Microcredit Summit Campaign.  “Our mission is to drive a movement amongst road, rally, sports enthusiasts, and socially responsible people and organizations so that masses of people can unite, individually, to make change happen.  We are racing towards a revolution that will unleash economic and creative innovation in the lives of millions powered by the engine of microfinance. It is a vital poverty fighting tool that improves healthcare, education, and the environment and moves the world from conflict and need to a more secure place of peace and prosperity.  The prosperity brought by just a $45 loan is profound.  Micro-entrepreneurs are empowered socially, economically and filled with dignity, one of the most powerful and rewarding human emotions.  Better still, they repay their loans with interest, which allows microfinance to re-lend and be the gift that keeps on giving.” As President Barak Obama has so aptly said, “change comes from the bottom up.”  Funk is a co-driver of car #20 in the race.

Pastrana is a living legend when it comes to performance motor sports and we've all seen his fearlessness on his MTV show, Nitro Circus. He lives life to the fullest, planning to set a new world record for a car jump on New Year’s Eve and says, “having been fortunate enough to travel to far off places, I’ve seen poverty firsthand and am glad to be able to lend a hand in the crusade to end it. What I do is sometimes considered dangerous, but let me tell you that there is nothing more dangerous to an individual, a country, or our world than poverty.”

“I can't think of a more perfect superstar for this race and this cause,” says Funk. "His involvement will drive awareness among a younger generation, showing our youth that they collectively have the opportunity to do something HUGE right now – they can lead our children to only know poverty by studying it in history books."

This rally event was first held from May to June, 1953 as a celebration of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on terrain through Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika. It was later renamed the East African Safari Rally. The event was part of the World Rally Championship (WRC) calendar for many years.  The Kenyan Government and many supporters have now united together in an effort to restore the Rally's rightful WRC status.  

With such tremendous philanthropic involvement from fresh supporters like Race4Change and Travis Pastrana, the Kenyan government and its people stand to benefit significantly from the positive attention that will accompany such a highly charged race and cause. The race sets the stage for the April 2010 Microcredit Summit being hosted in Nairobi.

Top supporters of Race4Change have the opportunity to win two fully paid round trip tickets to Kenya, with lodging and Microcredit Summit VIP tickets.   The Summit has been described as the "Davos" of the movement and will bring several thousand advocates, supporters, and dignitaries from more than 60 countries, including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Queen of Spain, Queen Rania of Jordon, and many more longtime microfinance advocates to Kenya in April of 2010. Maybe even an American President will bestow dignity to the impoverished with an appearance.

Join www.race4change.org today as a co-driver, a pit crew member and a supporter of microfinance as this world class Rally runs over American Thanksgiving and help race for the end of poverty.  Give a little of your support and thanks and rally together as a force to make a positive impact in the lives of hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest families.  Create a better world.

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For more information contact:

Denise Hughes @ +1.917.549.2621

Denise@creative-connectors.com