In my last blog I mentioned my trip to India – I spent a day in a rural village in northern Rajasthan and one of the most striking observation was the way woman were treated there. In general not even as second class citizens – no, they were third class citizens. Most had never visited school and henceforth were living a life at home, married off at young age, with five or more kids – with no real hope of social and economic progress!!
During my visit I met Davita,Darindra and their brother Mohan- Unlike their brother the two girls are not going to school, as their parents consider them more useful at home and they will be married away anyway ….
The prospect of making a change to Davita and Darindra’s life made me start EDUCATION EXPLORERS
I have had the idea for an adventure in India for a long while – a friend had told me about a race in a motor rickshaw (also known as Tuk-Tuk, a 7 horse powered three wheeler) across the whole subcontinent… it sounded a fun way to explore this vast, diverse, colourful country… however for a long time something was missing.
I didn’t just want to do a fun adventure road trip – not a ride like Ewan McGregor and Charly Bowman in the Long Way Round – if i was to visit India it should be an impact mission. And I had the feeling it should be something about kids….and education (my mum and dad, both teachers would be proud 🙂
Bring in Phil, a good friend from Hong Kong. Earlier this year we discussed the idea of the race over a beer and he was immideatly game.. Phil’s connection introduced us to Rajasthan charity Educate Girls, which under the support of the UBS Optimus Foundation (the Corporate Social Responsability Program of UBS) works extremely effective on bringing thousands of kids into schools – through facility upgrade, transport links and information campaigns, that explain parents, why it is beneficial to have their kids attend school!
Our aim is high: We want to get 10,000 girls in rural India into school!
Giving girls access to education:
– Reduces poverty,
– Increases the chance of their kids to be educated
– 3x less likelihood to contract HIV
– Reduces child labour
– Can stop child marriages
Imagine the possible multiplier – an educated girl is way more likely to get their future kids educated – hence getting a girl into school, makes it way more likely that their 3-4 kids get an education too! Lets change 50,000 lifes!
We want to have them a smile like this:
So whats going to happen:
On January 1 a truly crazy group of people (Sofia, Clare, Tom, Phil and me – more on that soon) will embark on an epic challenge – we will drive two three-wheelers (aka Tuk-Tuks), powered by a 7horse power engine – 3000 Kilometres (!!!) through India and document innovative education projects.
Will endure sore bums, breakdowns, hopefully not too much Dehli-belly and whatever other adversity comes our way to discover grassroots leaders that are changing the status quo and are actively engaging to give India and the millions of girls a future.
For the whole mission we have less than three weeks!
All updates on https://www.facebook.com/educationexplorers and @edu_explorers
We launched the project official last Saturday in Hong Kong and raised already enough money for more than 700 girls to go to school!
Off to a good start, but we count on your support!!!
If you want to support the mission – please use the following link:
Support in USD: https://www.ammado.com/community/150473
Support in GBP: http://www.gofundme.com/educationexplorers
To summarize:
2 Rickshaws
5 People
7 Horse Power
3000 kilometres
….. and 10,000 Girls in Need!!
