Mangalore : Deputy Speaker N Yogish Bhat flagged a cycling expedition, off Tour de Difference 2011, organized by Make a Difference (MAD), a network of young volunteers, to raise funds for the education of underprivileged children at City Centre on Sunday, August 7..

As a part of project 5 MAD volunteers Raichand, Sebastian Thele, Phillip Bongartz, Sudith Xavier, and Prashanth Reddy will cycle to Mangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Chennai, Vellore, Bangalore, Mysore, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram, and Cochin, covering a total distance of 4240kms during August and September.

The expedition aims to raise Rs. 100 every kilometer covered by the cyclists to raise funds to purchase Cambridge syllabus textbooks for 300 children supported by the Mangalore Chapter of MAD.

Moideen Bawa, the owner of Mangalore United Cricket Team; Dr. Anand Venugopal, the professor of radiology at KMC Mangalore; and Samim Rizwi, the internationally acclaimed cyclist, were also present on the occasion.