Race Across the World winners Emon and Jamiul have updated viewers on how they spent their prize money, one year on from being crowned champion.

The uncle and nephew team joined in the BBC series, which saw pairs try and get from Mexico City to Argentina, and won the £20,000 cash prize mere seconds before their competitors.

However, shortly after winning, they revealed that they would be donating most of the cash to charity, after being touched by the poverty they saw across South America, while on the race.

Emon, from Bradford and Jamiul, from Oldham, are uncle and nephew who had been reunited after 10 years apart. They were reunited at a family gathering and decided to sign up for the show together as a way of regaining a relationship.

Speaking about signing up for the race the pair said

Emon: “My nephew motivated me to do this challenge – since we have rekindled our relationship, it would be a fantastic journey to go on with him and I wouldn’t do this challenge with anyone else. I was a very active explorer back in my twenties, but I’ve recently become lazy in my lifestyle. I also want to do this before starting my own family. I’m very competitive – I don’t believe in coming in second, I don’t do losing. I am in it to win it.”

Jamiul: “My main motivation to do this competition is to rebuild a relationship between myself and my uncle. To learn from one of my oldest role models, and understand what it takes to have a winning attitude and boldness. I like to think that I’m capable of doing whatever it takes to get what I want in terms of working hard and taking risks, but finishing first isn’t necessarily the focus for me, I’d rather make meaningful relationships. I have always done things with a support system to keep me from falling, so I believe this trip will push both me and my uncle in ways we have never experienced.”

A year on since the show was shot, Emon and Jamiul have posted a video update, showing what good they’ve been able to do for those in need.

In a video, Emon and Jamiul updated fans and told them where they had put the cash.

Emon said: ‘We met some lifelong friends made some crazy memories. We were taken back by the poverty that we’ve witnessed in South America, in particular the poverty that we’ve seen in Brazil, on the streets where we witness kids sleeping rough. It shouldn’t be like that. ‘So when we won the race, me and my nephew knew exactly what we wanted to do with the money and vowed to donate at least half of it towards helping kids on the streets of Brazil, and in South America.’

Jamiul added “The initial plan was for us to go out there after the show had been aired to show you guys how that money would be spent towards helping these children,’

However, because of the Covid pandemic, they were unable to go out.

Instead the pair teamed up with local charity São Martinho who help the children and families on the street with food, shelter, clothes and even education.

The children that are helped by the charity regularly send videos and messages to Emon and Jamiul that are seen in the video.

The pair were overwhelmed by messages from Brazil as they could see the difference their winning donation had made.

Despite the Race Across The World being over, the pair have a new ethos ‘to help as many as they can’

You can watch the video in full below.

 

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