Riding the Tour Aotearoa 2020 for St Mary's school India

So, in February 2020, I will be riding the Tour Aotearoa, a 3000km bike ride the length of New Zealand. What does this ride have to do with St Mary's school in India, you ask? Transport...and of course its an excellent excuse to raise enough funds to get these kids to school for another 12months.

The issue,

Even if the kids at St Mary's want to go to school, they often cant. A lot of the time the school is too far to walk, bike, or just too expensive to get a ride - so they don't go. In fact, transport is the biggest issue - this is a country school, and the kids are spread out over a large geographical area. For the school to be effective, they need children to attend!

IMO Learning should be a fundamental human right. To be exposed to education can not only help your community, but it changes you as a person.

Mahatma Gandhi - "Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."

Solution

The solution so far is to send a Rickshaw/Tuktuk around each morning to pick up the kids. They then get to experience learning, get feed; and at times, take rice or lentils home to share with their families.

Where has the money for the transport been coming from?

The teachers and principles. They earn very little, yet they still give money to fund transport to get the kids to school each day.

On top of that, one principle personally goes to the market most mornings to buy ingredients to make the children lunch. Both principle's work 6 days per week at the school to ensure the kids get the opportunity to learn.

Support so far

Victoria University (through the business school) has just recently given the school NZD 2k (over 90,000 rupees) which will fund all the kid's transport through to March 2020.

MBA Classes of 2015 - 2019

You guys have had the privilege of meeting these kids. You have seen how happy they are, even though their lives are tough. And I appreciate most of you have already given to the school and that is fantastic, they are continually grateful to the MBA students. But, it doesn't have to stop, nor does it take a lot of money (NZD) to make a massive difference.

Friends, family, Alumni, please consider giving whatever you can...wouldnt it be awesome if we could fund their transport for 2years!

I will be on your case until Feb 2020!