New Delhi: Jorn Witt and Hagen Benckendorff, like many Germans, have been fascinated by the vibrant, ethnic designs of oriental carpets, which sell quite cheap in a number of stores across their country.

But when they learnt of the connection between carpet making and child labor, unlike most of their compatriots, they decided to do something about it. As avid cyclists, the most natural thing to do was to say it with wheels and the young men have traversed eleven countries on their bicycles covering a distance of 13,700 km to learn firsthand about the reasons which force children into hard labor.

The two, both in their early twenties, first learnt of the phenomenon of child labor at school during a discussion about the problems of developing countries. ''Most people whom we spoke to in Germany were not aware of this issue. This was one of the reasons why we decided to draw people's attention to countries having this problem'', says Jorn.

''India is only the biggest example of where children are found working instead of going to school. But you come across this problem in many other countries, so we decided to travel through some of them to understand why'', he told UNI here. Jorn and Hagen are on the last leg of their cycle campaign. They began their voyage about six months back crossing Austria, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kirghistan, China, Pakistan and finally, India.

They have so far raised 7,500 U S Dollars in their country by way of donations. ''At first, people didn't know what we were talking about. They thought we were mad'', laughs Hagen. ''But now, there is a lot of public interest in our campaign and German media has been keenly following our tour''.

The two young men presented a cheque for 7,500 dollars to UNICEF's India representative Alan Court at a ceremony here yesterday. They hope to raise more funds to support UNICEF's work in India when they return to Germany. On their final leg, they will cycle to Calcutta which they hope to reach on September ten. The journey back home will be less adventurous, by air.

The geographical as well as personal voyage has brought the young men many hard- earned experiences, some tougher to deal with than others, but always enriching and leaving them with the firm resolve to do more for the well being of those less fortunate than themselves.

''We saw small children struggling behind carpets in a small town in the north of Iran, others as young as nine years working in garages in Pakistan'', says Jorn.

''We saw for the first time how children live in slums, deprived of basic necessities like health services and education during our stop-overs here, in Pakistan and the other central Asian countries on our itinerary'', adds Hagen. ''Until then, it was all-academic. Many things are only understood when you discover them for yourself. We learnt so much by staying with local people''.

The cycle campaign was planned as far back as April 1998, after the two completed high school. With the help of the German National Committee for UNICEF, they built up an awareness and fund-raising campaign that started a year later. They raised the money for their own trip by writing articles in various German newspapers and giving interviews on local and national radio stations.

The young Germans are confident they will be able to raise more funds for child welfare programs when they return home. 'Many shops in our hometown Eckernforde, about 100 km from Hamburg, have made different gift items and other consumer products which will be sold in a huge bazaar. The money collected from this will be sent to UNICEF'', says Hagen.

UNI