Katherine Brodie
Kates Epic Bangladesh Rickshaw Adventure
Fundraising for Valerie Taylor Trust
Story
Hi, My name is Katherine Brodie-Moyes,
I'm 19, Australian and with the company of my two good friends, Dominic De Luca and Matthew Paliaga, I'm going to become a Rickshaw Walla and ride a Rickshaw
across Bangladesh to raise money for an amazing Non-Profit organisation named The Centre for Rehabilitation of the Paraylsed (CRP)
(www.crp-bangladesh.org)
(http://www.valerietaylortrust.org)
In a developing country where most of the government is in jail on corruption charges and due to that, most of the world has lost interest in sending aid, it is more or less impossible for any companies, particularly non-profit ones, to raise any money, get any much needed publicity or be heard above the entire country screaming for the same few cents floating around. So i decided to hop on a rickshaw and ride from as far north as i can get to as far south. Beginning near the Indian Border, around Tetulia, and finishing on the coast of Bangladesh, Past Teknaf.
We estimate that it will take somewhere between one and two months but there isn't really anyway of judging how long this will take as it has never been done before, so who knows! We plan to take our time doing it, teaching villages along the way about disability, speaking in schools, at workplaces, with local media, local people and whomever will listen, this trip will be about the journey, not the destination. We want to make Bangladesh aware of Disability, what they can do to prevent it, help it, what it is, etc... and hopefully dispel alot of the superstition and rumors surrounding it in the majority of the country at the moment.
I don't want to murder my butt for nothing so support whats sure to be my suicide mission and give disabled Bangladeshis a second chance at life because this country really deserves it.
If you love me, you get the satisfaction of making me the happiest girl in Bangladesh and giving me the adventure of a life time, meeting all the people of this wonderful country and getting me really really fit!
If you hate me, there' a good chance i will be murdered, robbed, kidnapped, tortured and contract malaria along the way so support me anyway!
CRP is pretty much solely responsible for any disability awareness or aid throughout the entire country, a country where about 10% of the entire population are disabled (that's about 15 million disabled people with no aid). Thanks to a widespread lack of education, most people tend to believe the cause is either black magic, bad parenting or a curse from god and the family will disown the child or adult. No one will hire a disabled person due to severe predjudices, so the disabled are forced into a life of begging, if they survive without treatment that is. The children are usually either orphaned or killed as they are a huge shame to the entire family and a burden which they couldn't afford. CRP gives them and their family a second chance at life. With the only special needs school in Bangladesh, children who would otherwise not be accepted into a school (a school which couldn't come close to catering for the needs of someone with something like cerebral palsy) as they are regarded as cursed, freaks and contagious, have a chance to learn, and more importantly to be accepted by other children, to feel normal and to have friends. Bangladesh has very little in the way of health and safety precautions, they are pretty much non existent, so quite often during work, the man (who due to the family dynamic and culture of Bangladesh, would be the sole breadwinner of his entire family) will have an accident at work and be rendered paralysed or unable to work for the rest of his life when with just a small amount of physiotherapy he would probably be able to go back to work in a few months as opposed to he and his entire family ending poverty stricken, often shunned from their community and most likely adopting a life of begging. There are so many problems here that really just shouldn't exist in this day and age but due to the enormous lack of money and education unfortunantly it is a hard reality that they have to face. with 80% of the population living on less than $2 US a day, with a terrible rate of borne disabilities due to poor nutrition, too many superstitions, too much prejudice and too huge a lack of education for anyone to have a chance at life after, or any knowledge about the all too common disability noone really seems to stand much of a chance.
Aside from helping raise money and awareness of an amazing cause, through me, you would be letting the world experience and relate with this insane and little known, very little travelled (I'm fairly sure tourist visa's aren't even available at the moment), very beautiful, and ridiculously strange country. Which i think, in the time of global unrest and with so much hatred in the world today, particularly directed towards Muslim countries such as Bangladesh, could possibly be the most important part of my journey. I'd say it's a safe bet I'm the first person to do this so you, in turn, would be the first people to sponsor someone to do this! I'd love to see you with me on whats sure to be quite an unforgettable and life changing adventure
So please help in any way you can, whether its donating, fundraising, sponsorship or just spreading the word around. Laughter is the best medicine and i garuntee youll be giving everyone who sees be along the way the best laugh.
Thanks for taking the time to consider my cause, i hope you can help us out!
Much peace and Love,
Katherine Brodie-Moyes.