Rickshaw Run Charity Fundraiser!

Update: we’ve taken a pause on the fundraising temporarily while we wait to find out when/if the Rickshaw Run will go ahead in the future, due to Covid-19. Thank you to everyone that already donated! We’ll email you personally soon x

Kia ora whānau!

We (Jarrod, Matt & Lauren) have put together a team and are entered in The Rickshaw Run in India in April next year!

The Rickshaw Run is a two-week adventure across India from Fort Kochi, Kerala to Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. In a rickshaw. Three people plus luggage (and the boys aren’t small...), 145cc, top speed 55kmph, on India’s quality roads... Sweet as.

Aside from the adventure, the aim of the Rickshaw Run is to raise money for charity. Their chosen charity is COOL EARTH, a UK-based registered international charity which works alongside indigenous villages to halt rainforest destruction. Cool Earth takes a very grass-roots approach to development and all of their partnerships are community-owned and led by the people most affected by deforestation. By developing local livelihoods, their mission is to end the cycle of deforestation entrenching villages into further poverty, creating strong, self-determining communities. Go check out coolearth.org, we love what they’re doing!

Donations will be split between Cool Earth and our chosen charity, the ACTIVE HEARTS FOUNDATION, because they’re both awesome and we couldn’t choose just one! Active Hearts is a New Zealand-based registered international charity working with Nepalese communities building small village projects prioritising health and education. Also very grass-roots and community-led, Dan, Arjun and the rest of the Active Hearts whānau take on projects proposed to them by their family and friends in Nepal. They upgrade rural schools and build libraries. They provide employment and national-standard librarian training. They purchase and deliver curriculum books, laptops and other school supplies sourced within Nepal, as well as distributing medical supplies, toys, hand-knitted clothes and blankets donated by their dedicated teams around the globe. We aim to provide the children of Nepal with better health and education opportunities! Check out activeheartsfoundation.org or click on the links below to find out more. They’re pretty cool.

We three will be arriving in Fort Kochi, Kerala at the start of April with the event kicking off on April 5th and (hopefully) crossing the finish line in Jaisalmer on April 18th. The lead up to the Rickshaw Run, our progress and our epic fails throughout our adventure will be posted on our team page (which has yet to be set up, watch this space). Any donations to these amazing charities can keep coming in until about two weeks after the Rickshaw Run ends, at the end of April 2020. Team entry fees, flights, etc. we are paying ourselves, ALL donations will go to these charities.

If you’ve got a few spare dollars to donate, we will love you forever. And so will the children of Nepal. And the rainforests. And the whole world...

Jarrod, Matt & Lauren x