Press Release 8 December 2002 World biker on humanitarian mission for Oaxaca A globtrotting motorcyclist is has arrived in Mexico City to request support for integration of motorcycles in delivering health services to areas without proper roads. The Oaxaca State Secretary of Health Dr Armando Altamirano Jimenez wants ten machines for delivering vaccinations and other health services to remote parts of Mixteca., he told British-born biker Simon Milward last week. Milward, a 37 year old Briton, left his home in Exeter, Devon, England in December 1999, and has ridden 140,000km through 30 countries so far. He says that integration of small economical motorcycles that don’t break down in African health delivery has been extremely effective for many years. His fundraising three year adventure has already resulted an Asian pilot project using the system on the remote Indonesian island of Flores. In two villages here, child mulnutrition dropped from 57% to 14% three months after the start of the program. Milward is in Mexico City on a voluntary basis to promote the Oaxaca initiative to the federal health department, investigate prices and models with manufacturers and to invite support from interested parties. “I hope manufacturers recognise the PR coup for biking and offer machines at cost price or less,” said Milward, “There are also trainign and maintenance costs to think of. We need all the help we can get.” Milward was the General Secretary of the Federation of European Motorcyclists Association from 1992-99, lobbying for motorcyclists rights in Brussels Belgium. He now represents Motorcycle Outreach, an official USA charity formed earlier this year. The motorcycle, the John T Overlander is handmade in England. It has a Rotax 600cc single cylinder engine from Austria, a huge Italian 11.5 gallon gas tank giving him a range of 1,000km, a horn fitted in Guadalajara, and battlescars from all round the world. It is plastered with logos of groups and companies who have donated more than $200 to his fundraising appeal. Milward offers his digital slide show to audiences in Mexico. It depicts the smuggler's market at the Pakistan-Afghan border, a marriage proposal at the pyramids in Cairo from an Egyptian beauty, two civil wars in Southeast Asia, meeting the Dalai Lama in India, serious accidents in the Australian Outback and nearly drowning in Siberia. It's packed with gasps, laughs, and groans. He comes on a free basis for voluntary donations. He can be contacted on telephone 015 5364 4699, or , or through his website www.millennium-ride.com. He will be in Mexico for at least two weeks. Email: Internet: www.millennium-ride.com Cell: 408 386 8690