27 October 2004	Wednesday	12 Ramazan 1425

LAHORE, Oct 26: Two British nationals reached here on Tuesday on a fund-raising campaign for the SOS Children's villages. Karen Igatowicz and David Lidell set off from the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle on Aug 11 by their 1964-model Triumph TR4 sports car to raise funds for the SOS children.

The SOS is active in 131 countries providing orphaned and abandoned children families and homes.

Pakistan is the 14th destination of Mr Lidell and Ms Igatowicz after touring Europe in two and a half months in which they have covered a distance of 16,000 kilometres.

The travel of next 30,000 kilometres will take them to India through the Himalayas into Nepal, China and South East Asia. They will complete their journey by reaching Sydney Harbour Bridge, Australia, in July next year.

"Its a bridge to bridge journey to raise funds for the destitute children," they told reporters.

They said they had visited SOS-Children villages only in Lahore and were impressed by the care being given to the children. They said they had financed the tour themselves and recommended that a major chunk of the fund at the end of the tour should be given to the SOS-Children villages of the developing countries.

They said they had ruled out tour of Afghanistan and Iraq due to security reasons.

Talking about the adventure, they said, they got completely lost in Istanbul where they were helped by a local driver. A rear spring of the car broke twice in Turkey and Punjab (Pakistan) which was fixed by the local mechanics, they added. They would cross Wagah Border on Wednesday (today).

SOS-Children's villages acting national director Ghazala Rehman said the SOS was running 45 projects including health, education, rural support programme, emergency services and villages across the country.