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.