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MotoForPeace: the Motorcycle-Based Volunteering Scheme That Travels the World Providing Humanitarian Aid
MotoForPeace celebrates 25 years of missions centred around solidarity. Their latest mission will travel over seven thousand miles to Mongolia, uniting Europe and Asia. What does this one-of-a-kind initiative delivering humanitarian aid involve? The story of a unique initiative-on-wheels.
The road, the engine, the wind, the scenery, but most importantly, the people you meet, the exchange with different people and cultures, and the support for those in need. The MotoForPeace project was founded in 2001 by Dino Lepore and is made up of employees from the Italian State Police, the corps of the Carabinieri, customs officers, and other European Police. It has been 25 years since the initiative first travelled the world to provide humanitarian aid.
MotoForPeace does this through motorcycle expeditions that promote exchange between different cultures and communities. Their introductory brochure explains that ‘the association aims to foster relationships that facilitate dialogue and living in peace and harmony. MotoForPeace has crossed various continents over the years: from America to Africa and from Europe to Asia, where the latest destination for this great adventure awaits. They will reach Mongolia between May and June 2026, bringing smiles, comfort, and companionship along with them.
MotoForPeace and ASIA: the Story of a Long Friendship
The thirteen MotoForPeace bikers left several weeks ago from Mersin, in Turkey, to cross Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia, sleeping wherever they were welcome along the way. They will end their journey in Ulaanbaatar, after travelling over 7,400 miles in around 45 days. The goal is to support projects from ONG ASIA – which is active in Mongolia, in educational and social contexts – through the kinds of messages of peace and solidarity that are, and always have been, at the core of MotoForPeace.
The two associations have formed a solid relationship, and MotoForPeace has already led two motorcycle missions in support of ASIA projects. The first was in 2002, for a Tibetan traditional medicine clinic in Dongche, in the Amdo region. The second set off in 2014 with ten fully equipped motorcycles to be donated to doctors for the Kavre emergency department in Nepal, so they could reach patients in more remote villages.
ASIA has worked in Mongolia since 2016 in increasingly difficult climatic conditions alongside nomadic and rural communities that live on the country’s steppes. Through the mission in Mongolia, MotoForPeace will provide support for various schools in Ulaanbaatar: three in the Songino Khairkhan district and three in Bayanzürkh. ASIA organises projects to fight malnutrition and improve the population’s economic situation.
Dino Lepore: ‘when you travel, you can no longer shut the world out behind the closed doors of your home.’
To share the story of MotoForPeace’s great adventure, we met the man responsible: the organisation’s president, Dino Lepore. And, with him, two bikers who have taken part in these extraordinary adventures for some time now: brothers Valter and Davide Magnifico, two police officers passionate about motorcycles and human relationships.
Dino explains how MotoForPeace came into his life at a particularly dissatisfying time. ‘That is how I found myself becoming a solidarity traveller. By starting a journey like that, you get to see what is happening in the world, and you want to do whatever you can for whoever needs it. Acts of solidarity are vital for anyone who has the opportunity, and when you travel, you can no longer shut the world out behind the closed doors of your home. With that in mind, I brought together colleagues, Carabinieri, customs officers, and employees from other European police forces.
‘During our missions’, Dino continues, ‘we always seek out opportunities for encounter and dialogue. This attitude has allowed us to involve a huge number of people and institutions; expanding our mission is crucial. We need people to talk about MotoForPeace so we can continue to ignite a fire inside them and grow this initiative that we hold so close to our hearts.’
Dino Lepore is keen to thank ‘the hundreds of people who have made sacrifices with me over the years. You cannot get anywhere by yourself, I always say. Together, we have sent a message, and the stronger that gets, the bigger the effect it will have.’ He spares a moment to recognise the Catholic missionaries scattered all over the world for ‘their extraordinary, fundamental, and often underappreciated work.’ ‘Soldiers of peace’, he calls them, or ‘faceless believers’ who ask for nothing in return. They work every day, avoiding ‘social revolutions’, and instead ‘feeding’ the world first and foremost.
Dino remembers everything from the past 25 years since MotoForPeace began, from the first trip ‘in Kosovo. Since then we have been everywhere, except for Australia and Southeast Asia. We are still standing,’ he smiles, ‘providing true voluntary work, completely free of charge, which allows us to fully express ourselves by using our holidays and our own money. We are far from our families, who support us, just like every person who knows how we work.’
The president of MotoForPeace comes back to solidarity: ‘Part of our travel costs and – if we are lucky – donations from some of our supporters are dedicated to this.’ Dino Lepore recounts his journeys in various places around the world affected by poverty: ‘In developing countries people are literally dying of hunger. When we manage to take on projects in these areas, we receive a staggering amount of gratitude. And when we come home, we thank God for the living conditions we have compared to them.’
Valter Magnifico Shares His Feelings
Valter Magnifico, one of the MotoForPeace motorcyclists, tells us how he first encountered the travelling project through colleagues, but with two young daughters, he thought he could only dream of taking part.
‘When I did join the mission to Africa, I realised that I had taught my daughters something precious with my absence. I was really scared of leaving them, but when I got home, told them my stories, and read from my very detailed diary, I realised that this journey had a positive impact on them: my daughters got to experience with me, from a distance, the support I had offered during my travels with MotoForPeace. The simple act of dedicating myself to my vulnerable neighbour, without charge, is a lesson in humanity for them as well.’
Valter continues, ‘Experiencing something like this goes beyond the idea of travelling to connect with other souls. I remember the embrace of a young boy with severe disabilities, the work of so many silently helping those less fortunate, the missionaries and the family of a young girl in La Paz, Bolivia – who I am still in contact with – trying to make her life, and her family’s life, a little simpler.
‘Through MotoForPeace,’ Valter adds, ‘I have seen for myself the most extreme poverty there is in the world, but I have also seen the enormous desire for peace that everyone has, and our shared need for love, beyond any flag. That love returned multiplies each time it is given.’
Davide Magnifico Reflects
‘I have always loved motorcycles’, Davide Magnifico begins, ‘like I love travel and people. I had known about MotoForPeace for some time, until one day – who knows if it came from a higher power – I started taking part. My first trip was in South America, and the moment we got there, I felt what it was like for two distant places to suddenly feel close, thanks to MotoForPeace.’
‘How so?’, we asked. ‘In Santiago de Chile waiting for us was a nun I knew from some time ago in Rome. In Mar del Plata, Argentina, a priest asked us to go and find the nuns from a centre for children with disabilities. The centre was run by the congregation of Father Orione, whose General House is in Rome, just a stone’s throw away from where I grew up, and a place where I spent many happy moments of my childhood and adolescence, thanks to its sports facilities.
‘In Mar del Plata’, Davide continues, ‘there were nuns who cared so lovingly for children with very severe disabilities. Their clothes were worn, but very clean and fresh: a sign of the profound dignity these nuns gave them. Their humanity made an indelible mark and taught me a lesson for life. We managed to help a young boy onto one of the motorcycles, and I remember the profound emotions I felt that afternoon.’
David concludes, ‘At the MotoForPeace headquarters there is a planisphere where the location of all the missions is marked in yellow. Well, the world is almost completely yellow on that map, thanks to all the expeditions we take, the hands we shake, and all the different stories we hear: from the lost missionary to the ambassador, from the apostolic nuncio to the Brazilian priest we met in Zambia, in a remote village that, day by day, became his home. These trips create an intense, unbreakable bond between the people who take part.’
First and foremost, a mental bond
‘Every trip I take’, Dino Lepore concludes, ‘I find that the further I get from home, the more I feel at home, because of how enthusiastic the people we meet are. To the guys in the group, I always say that these expeditions – which are by no means easy or free from unforeseen complications happening at challenging times – must be faced head-on. If you have the right mindset, everything becomes a lot simpler. Everything is less effort and less tiring, and we are always rewarded with the many things we gain over the trip – with peace, dialogue, and brotherhood always at the fore.
Translated into English by Becca Webley