As part of his 50th birthday celebrations in July 2014, James Alty challenged himself to ride his single speed bike from one end of the UK to the other travelling south to north raising money for the Buwan Kothi International Trust.
The ride starts on Thursday 18th September and planned finish is Wednesday 1st October.
A total of 1,014 miles (1,631 Km) at an average of 72 miles (115 Km) per day.
To follow James’s progress visit his blog Link.
Three BKIT trustees from the UK visited the Gilly Mundy Memorial Community School (GMMCS) for one month in April, to support new principal Inderjeet Pal Kaur Grewal who started in March. The trip was intended to help her settle in, develop plans for new child-centred provision at nursery level at the school and recruit new staff.
Currently GMMCS has 591 children up to year 10, with 23% receiving subsidised education through Dr James Partridge Assisted Places Scheme. The school is on target to become one of the few schools in the state to meet requirements under India’s Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009, which requires schools to provide 25% free spaces for elementary education to socially and economically disadvantaged children.
Other positive developments include a new project by the sports teacher, Hari Shen, who is offering evening sessions for children from local villages who are not necessarily attending the school. The school is also gathering estimates for solar panels that will make the school self-sufficient in energy – currently irregular electricity supply means significant and rising costs to run a generator. A possible plan that is being explored is for surplus energy produced by the panels to power street lighting in the local village – another first for the state. As long as we can raise the funds, we are hoping to put this fantastic opportunity in place before the end of year.
Since 2007, the money BKIT has raised for projects in Haryana has always come from sponsored events and individual donations, but we have now received our first grant: the Openwork Foundation has provided £10,000 towards improving education provision at the Gilly Mundy Memorial Community School (GMMCS).
Openwork is a network of UK financial advice firms and its staff support the Foundation by donating money through regular giving and supporting fundraising events. Its Care4Kids programme supports disadvantaged children in the UK and overseas and applications are nominated by Openwork financial advisers and employees. Our grant was supported by BKIT supporter and Openwork advisor Gautam Mehra.
The generous funding given to BKIT is able to make a significant difference to the school by helping to
- Provide new equipment for nursery classes that encourage child-centred learning through play.
- Cover the salary of a science teacher and a nursery teacher for two years.
- Purchase materials for coaching slower learners in Science, Maths and English in classes 6 to 10.
- Pay for furniture and materials for Art and Crafts classes.
- Secure new cricket, football, volleyball and other kit for sports lessons.
- Buy shelving, maps, books and computer software for the School library.
We are delighted that this collaboration with the Openwork Foundation is able to cover so many different areas of the school’s activities and we will provide further updates over the coming months as the money is spent.