Taking on the desert to deliver Water for Life

Aurelien is helping some of the poorest people take their first steps out of poverty through his Water for Life challenge.

With a father passionate about cycling and president of a cycling association, it is not surprising that Aurelien Jondeau developed a taste for riding road and mountain bikes at a young age. Now he is putting his passion to the test for WaterAid by cycling through the desert from Darwin to Ayers Rock for his Water for Life challenge.

After riding the mountains and rolling hills of Provence, Aurelien decided to organise a challenging event to satisfy his passion for  extreme sports. He choose a route that stretches from Darwin to Ayers Rock because the route passes through the Tanami desert – an apt symbol of the need for water. In this terrain, water is more important that anything else.

The controversial subject of global poverty has had a lot of media coverage around the world in recent years. Aurelien became interested in poverty issues when he was living in London with the Live 8 concert, one of a series of benefit concerts that took in the G8 states and in South Africa during the G8 summit to pressure world leaders to drop the debt of the world's poorest nations, increase and improve aid, and negotiate fairer trade rules in the interest of poorer countries.

Today, Aurelien is helping some of the poorest people take their first steps out of poverty through his Water for Life challenge, raising awareness on issues like access to safe water and sanitation.

As well as raising our profile, Aurelien will raise vital funds for WaterAid. The challenge will be an annual event in which people from around the globe join together and cycle the same route to raise awareness and money for WaterAid Australia.

Download Aurelien's Water for Life itinerary ( PDF 17Kb)

Should you or your organisation be interested in becoming a partner or a participant in future Water for Life challenges, please email Aurelien.