Message from Project Mala: Spread the word

It was good to receive a message recently which Project Mala sent to all its sponsors. Messages to sponsors from Project Mala are not so frequent they become troublesome...but received often enough to know I am not forgotten. This latest message is interesting as it is giving sponsors an opportunity to help in a small way which can make a big difference. The message asks sponsors such as me to consider putting a link to the Project Mala website on any websites we have. Apparently this could increase the likelihood of Project Mala appearing 'higher up the list' of results when surfers search the internet. Obviously this is crucial as many Project Mala sponsors find Project Mala through an internet search. It is only through more potential sponsors finding Project Mala and agreeing to sponsor a child that more children who need the help that Project Mala can provide will benefit from what Project Mala does. I already have the Project Mala website link on my Facebook page but as soon as I can I must think of other sites that I could add the Project Mala link to. Project Mala offers to help e.g. by supplying further information or the logo.

Another suggestion Project Mala makes in its message is to use printed media to get Project Mala into the public eye. They offer to supply any of us with press briefings about the work of Project Mala and/or the carpets if we would like to write to, or for, a local paper about our work. Perhaps I can approach some of the organisations I work with who have an interest in literacy. Can you think of anywhere or any way you could spread the word about Project Mala?   

It is good to see yet again how hard this charity works, dedicated and determined to reach as many potential sponsors as possible, thereby helping more children.         

London Marathon

 

While watching the Virgin London Marathon last Sunday I wondered whether anyone may be running to support Project Mala, the charity through which I sponsor a school child in India. I notice from the running vests and a quick look at the London Marathon website that some of the participants are supporting very large charities who arrange child-sponsorship agreements.

I sometimes find it frustrating that because Project Mala is a small charity, there are not more people who know about Project Mala. I am sure that if more people did know about Project Mala they couldn’t fail to be impressed by its work and achievements and want to sponsor a child. This is important because whilst there is already a huge amount of work being done to help the children in India which Project Mala works with, the charity needs more sponsors because there are more children in need.

Just a couple of the things that I have found particularly impressive about Project Mala which I don’t think you find with a large charity are: Firstly, the incredibly low overheads of Project Mala meaning there is very little of the money donated that is needed for the charity’s essential running costs rather than going directly to the children, their education, their food, their uniforms and their schools. The charity achieves this efficiency through the generosity of its staff who are mostly unpaid for all of their hard work.

Which brings me to the second point, the ‘personal service’ you receive as a sponsor. I have mentioned in other blog entries how impressed I have been whenever I have received communication from someone in the Project Mala team that the response has always been prompt and polite as well as appreciative.
 This is why I am interested to find ways to ‘spread the word’ about the work of Project Mala. Any ideas? I hope that this blog will be one way of encouraging other people to sponsor a child through Project Mala. Another way of raising the profile may well be through events such as the London Marathon. But I am under no illusion about how difficult and demanding it must be to run the 42.195km ~ even if it is just once in a lifetime. Having said that I am mindful that many of the Project Mala children have to travel half of that distance every day to attend school ~ but they do so gladly, such is their determination to take up the chance of the education that Project Mala can provide. Yet another reason why supporting Project Mala is such a worthwhile thing to do and why I hope more people will want to do so.

Project Mala provides bicycles free of charge while the children are at middle school so they can cycle the 10km or so between their home and school. You can read about this in a recent Project Mala newsletter.

A sponsor's visit to a Project Mala school

My last blog entry reflected on the email I had received from Project Mala about a trip that is being organised for sponsors. I mentioned that Project Mala is willing to welcome individual sponsors to visit its schools in India and commented that I expect it would be an amazing experience to do so.


Well Celia Davies and Jonathan Waters, Project Mala sponsors who have had the experience of visiting a Project Mala school have written the following few lines of their impressions of the visit to the school and given permission for me to add their account to this blog.


Reading about their visit is another reminder to me of how much I would like to visit one day but in the meantime how pleased I am to have come across the charity Project Mala and enter into a sponsorship arrangement so for just a few pounds a month from me a child in India can receive an education … and so much more. Please read on to see what I mean. Please visit the Project Mala website if you can sponsor a child.


“We arrived in Varanasi on an overnight sleeper train from Agra. Unfortunately we did not arrive until about 9.00, it should have been 6.30 and we had difficulty with signals on our mobile phones but our Tour leader assisted. Anil picked us up from our hotel around 11.00 so we had time for a quick breakfast before setting off to the schools.


Anil had kindly arranged for us to actually visit all of the classes so we saw children of all ages and had the opportunity to see a wide range of subjects being taught. We were particularly impressed with the maths class where quite young children (I think about 10 or 11) were doing percentages and profit and loss without the luxury of calculators UK children have. Although the classes were large by UK standards the children were working hard to learn and seemed happy and contented if somewhat bemused by these two strangers arriving in their school. One or two older ones took the opportunity to try out their English on some native speakers and the younger classes delighted us by singing us English songs.


All the classes were well attended and the children smartly turned out and despite a lack of resources as we know it, the benefits were obvious.

Anil then took us to one of the other schools but on the way stopped off at a state school with the aim of showing us the difference. As we approached the school it seemed strange that it was so quiet. We spoke with the headmaster and one of the children had been killed in a road accident during the day and the children had been sent home. The school had no toilet facilities and the child had been killed crossing the road to a field. It cast a shadow over what had been a very happy and positive experience.


In summary we were very impressed and very happy to see how so many children benefit by your charity. Our trip was very busy and very varied and the day in Varanasi was actually the only free day we had in India, we consider ourselves very fortunate to have shared it with Anil and his school.”

Thanks to Celia Davies and Jonathan Waters for their account and for their permission to use it here.