A lot of kids in Kolkata live pretty tough lives. Grinding poverty doesn’t leave a heap of space for fun or joy. But we think joy and fun are important and as audacious as it is, we want every single kid in our communities to experience at least one day of awesomeness!

We think that fun in and of itself is great! We think that through hosting carnivals and youth groups and art clubs and football tournaments and taking kids to the swimming pool or movie theatre we can provide fun and give a glimpse into a life with a bit more joy and a bit more hope.

…But there’s another layer too… We think that in doing these fun things we also help kids to make some positive memories. We help them to build friendships within their communities. We can show kids safe spaces and safe people they can come to when things get really tough. We think the relational side of things is super important too.

So that’s why we want to raise a bunch of money for fun stuff. But how we raise the money is actually pretty fun too…

“Joy Ride” takes place throughout October. Participants set themselves a cycling challenge and rope in some sponsors.

Last year we had participants aged from 3 – 80 years old! 3 and 5 year old siblings rode 100km between them. One gentleman rode all the cycleways of Christchurch to mark his 80th Birthday and someone else did their daily cycle commute in fancy dress for the whole month to bring a little more joy.

We had fun and we gave fun! Join us to create more this year!