Pic 1 : Scott when finished at The Breeze, BSD City
Jakarta, October 18th, 2015 – After starting the action at The Aceh Tsunami Museum on 27th September 2015, Scott Thompson, a Scottish charity runner finally arrived in Tangerang, Jakarta border on Friday, October 16th, 2015. Through ‘BecakTerus’, a rickshaw charity ride, Scott and his rickshaw “Flying Merah Putih” has successfully completed a distance of 2601 KM across 7 provinces from Aceh to Banten in 20 days. This action aimed to raise social awareness and collect donations for 4 Foundations, namely YCAB Foundation, Mary’s Cancer Kiddies, Wisma Cheshire, and Puspita Foundation.
BecakTerus has gained a lot of public attention from many regions in Indonesia. To show support for Scott and his charity action ‘BecakTerus’, many people participated in ‘Welcome Home #BecakTerus’ today (18/10). This activity was to welcome Scott and his rickshaw through cycling and running a distance of up to 18 KM at ‘The Breeze’, BSD City – South Tangerang. Some beneficiaries of ‘BecakTerus’ donations also appeared to show appreciation to Scott Thompson. At this event more than 700 participants came, from sponsors, Scott’s fellows, beneficiaries of ‘BecakTerus’, running communities, cyclists, and media partners.
Pic 2 : Scott Thompson and cyclist supporters.
“I was very relieved to arrive in Tangerang safely on Friday, October 16th, 2015 and I have rested a full day yesterday (17/10). I saw so many interesting things about Indonesia along the way. I also got a lot of very warm welcomes from the locals. Although I had a little bit of haze nuisance in the area of Riau, Jambi and South Sumatra, but I am very happy to get through it all. This has been an experience of a lifetime and unforgettable. I want to build more ‘bridges’ with people who are less fortunate.” Scott said when we met at ‘The Breeze’ – South Tangerang.
Pic 3 : Scott with beneficiaries of BecakTerus
In South Sumatra, Scott met with children of a YCAB Foundation Learning house in collaboration with the Social Institution Youth Development in the Indralaya region (33 km from the city of Palembang). Scott participated for lunch along with the children of the Learning House and donated 100 pieces of type 3M masks, 10 oxygen tubing units, and vitamins and supplements for the students of Home Learning. This assistance was provided in support of the children’s activities and health from disaster and disruption by haze.
Farhan, Project Director ‘BecakTerus’ said: “I was deeply moved by the enthusiasm of the people for ‘BecakTerus’. Hopefully in the future more people are aware and concerned about the social problems that occur in Indonesia. Currently donations collected have reached nearly 5.8 billion rupiah. For those of you who want to help, we are still receiving donations through www.kitabisa.com, a crowdfunding website until October 31, 2015. We would like to thank everyone who has supported this charity action.”
During the journey from Duri to Pekanbaru on Tuesday, October 6th, 2015, Scott passed the Guinness world record for the Longest Journey by Rickshaw. The previous record was held by Mr. Tim Moss, an Englishman who managed a distance of 1377.96 KM with a rickshaw in 2010. Of course, for confirmation of the record we are awaiting the verification process by the Guinness World Record jury with the overall distance traveled by ‘BecakTerus’ of 2,601 KM.
During this ‘BecakTerus’ action that lasted 20 days, the public could directly follow the journey of ‘BecakTerus’ via live tracking on the website www.becakterus.com, and also through online or social media with the hashtag #BecakTerus. Along the way Scott uploaded short videos that showed parts of the trip and the diversity of Indonesia. Scott also thanked the wider community, especially netizens for helping spread the vision and mission to help others through twitter @Berlariterus.
In collecting donations, Scott chose www.kitabisa.com, an online crowdfunding platform where people are easily able to give donations. With a spirit of togetherness or in Bahasa Indonesia gotong royong, funds raised by Scott can be channelled immediately and directly to the four foundations. Individuals or communities can take more part in ‘BecakTerus’ by becoming fundraisers through these sites.
Various companies who are in full support of this charitable action, including Achilles, Mogu-Mogu, Cirebon Energi Prasarana, Guinness, and ICAP. We would like to say thank you to all BecakTerus sponsors! Thank you for the support to underprivileged youth in Indonesia.
