Manuel Galvão, Mechanical Engineering student at the School of Engineering at the University of Minho, and Tiago Fernandes, from the Physical Engineering course at the University of Aveiro (UA) want to cross the Atlas mountain range and the Sahara desert, in Morocco, integrated in UNIRAID 2021, an automobile test for university students whose edition takes place from February 13 to 21, 2021.

With an adventurous spirit and courage, but also of solidarity, the young students got to know the UNIRAID project through a Youtube channel to promote automobile projects. “Since then I was extremely awake for the event, because I joined my passion for cars and adventure with the possibility of helping those who need it most, becoming an excellent two in one”, points out Tiago Fernandes.

Although he had been feeding the dream for some time if he took part in the event, “he was somewhat afraid that he would not be up to the level of what is needed to prepare such an initiative”. But he gained courage and decided, at the beginning of this year, to challenge his colleague Manuel Galvão, student at EEUM. “Luckily mine he became as interested as I was and so we decided to start thinking about the project”, he welcomes.

The team of the adventurous duo is called “The Bone Snaps” because they both consider themselves “Bone Snaps”. Besides the adventure, they want to take with them a little solidarity with the Moroccan people. With them they want to take with them to distribute, among other goods, school material.

Also having in mind the current pandemic situation the duo wants to take also to donate material related to personal protection based on masks, disinfectant gel and visors. “We are still studying what material might be most useful to those populations. The goal will be to take at least 40 kilos of solidarity material, but if the space in the car allows us to try to take as much as possible,” says Tiago Fernandes.

The preparations are still very much in the beginning because the situation of COVID-19 has delayed some plans, but they want during the next summer vacation to hold on tight to the project.

“Although our team has already acquired a car, as a way of boosting the project, we are thinking of trying to get a sponsored car. We’ve recently been talking to members of previous editions and they assured us that it wouldn’t be difficult to receive a sponsored car. This way, the car to be taken is not yet defined,” he says.

But since they haven’t started working directly on the car yet, and although they already have a sponsor who will give them the first hand, they say they’re still in time to change cars.

Now the time for both of you is to prepare as well as possible for your academic exams. Then the time will be to prepare as well as possible what will probably be an unforgettable trip for the two enormous ‘skinny-bonnes’.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trinca.espinhas.uniraid/

E-mail: trinca.espinhas.uniraid@gmail.com

Original news on UA.PT Portal

More info about this project in: https://www.uniraid.org/pt/inscripcion/