Three Key West women will ring in the New Year in Nepal, then begin a 2,000-mile odyssey through India piloting a dubious contraption known in Asia as a tuk tuk.

About 60 of these three-wheeled, far-from-luxury vehicles -- also called automatic rickshaws -- will participate in the annual Rickshaw Run, a loose competition that combines adventure travel with charity.

Oakleigh Waits, owner of Isle Style on Simonton Street, will join her three oldest friends and fellow Key Westers Cari Miller, a pilot and marketing executive, and Suzanne Young, a Hospice/Visiting Nurse Association nurse, in the adventure that begins on New Year's Day.

The trio will leave Key West on Dec. 26 and spend a night in Nepal with one of the charities the women are helping with ongoing fundraising efforts.

Maiti Nepal is a home for young women who have been rescued from the sex trade in India, Miller said, describing scenes of unparalleled horror in Indian brothels.

"Some of these girls are stolen from their villages in Nepal as young as 6 years old and then are sold to brothels for $1,000," she said, adding that many of them have as many as 14 abortions a year, and 80 percent of them are HIV-positive.

"There is a myth perpetuated in India that says that men can cure themselves of AIDS by having sex with a young girl," Miller said of the so-called Virgin Cure. "It's awful."

A woman who founded Maiti Nepal rescues the girls from the brothels, but has to house them because their families have been dishonored and will not take them back, Miller said.

The Key West women, who call themselves the Do Good Dames, will stay for a night in the Maiti Nepal house before beginning the Rickshaw Run at Katmandu.

"This trip is really 50/50. It's half this crazy adventure of driving a rickshaw 2,000 miles with my friends, and the other half is about giving back to others in a life-changing experience," Miller said.

They will stop during their trek to visit a school in Goa, home to the Children Walking Tall program that educates and houses kids from the slums of India to offer a chance at a better life.

The Do Good Dames are raising money for Maiti Nepal and Children Walking Tall as part of their entry fee into the Rickshaw Run. The race organizers require that each team raise at least 1,000 pounds, or about $1,600, for charities that operate in India or Nepal.

The local group also will focus its attention locally by raising money for a new art program at The Studios of Key West. The women want to combine the talent at the art studios with the kids at Wesley House Family Services to produce a new art program for local underprivileged kids, Waits said.

The women are paying for the entire trip themselves, from the entry fee to the rickshaw rental, she said.

"So 100 percent of the money we raise goes to the charities," Waits said, adding they also are collecting toiletries, clothes for girls and small women, stickers, coloring books and other small toys for the children at each group.

The race begins Jan. 1 in Pokhara, Nepal, and ends Jan. 16 with a celebration in Cochin, India. The 2,000 miles in between include Himalayan mountains, deserts, jungles, rivers and streams.

"Ideally, you will stop and find hotels along the way, because there is no set route between the starting line and the finish line," Waits said, adding that none of the Key Westers have been to Nepal or India before. "And you don't want to camp out in India because of crime."

The 7 horsepower vehicle they will rent, a "combination of a pedicab and moped," travels at a maximum speed of 27 mph with minimal comfort, Miller said. But speed is not a concern.

The local team is less interested in winning than raising money and awareness for three good causes.

"It's not so much about the race, but about the journey," Waits said.

mbolen@keysnews.com