One project I have very close at heart, is a Residential School in India, for poor orphans and single parent kids, called Balashram.

The residential school, which educates from preschool to high school, has obtained government accreditation and houses around 500 children who receive FREE care and education. The school is solely financed and funded by donations.

The State recognized Residential School utilizes the best Eastern and Western methods of teaching and its holistic approach provides a balanced and nurturing foundation for the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual growth of each child. It is a place where spirituality, arts, music and yoga are taught alongside conventional subjects like math, history, geography and languages.

The aim is to teach its children how to lead a complete and successful life by embracing and paying attention to all its aspects. Children learn for instance, how to look after the cows on the premises, as well as how to grow vegetables and fruits, both of which contribute to their healthy and balanced diet.

I met these children on several occasions and I am always amazed on how happy and loving they are. Their interest and curiosity is genuine and they take advantage of every opportunity that is given to them to grow and live a better life.

This is a model which can create a better society starting from the children who actually represent our future! Depending on how we help them grow and what and how we teach them, we will create either a promising or a complicated future for us and for them. I do hope this model will, one day, be replicated in other countries as well.

In India, we started with 40 children…..now we have about 500 and numbers are growing! We, therefore, urgently need to expand and construct new buildings and facilities for the children, the teachers and other staff working at the school. We also have a new Health Centre on the premises which also serves the surrounding rural community by providing FREE medical care.

For this reason, here in the UK, we have organized a very challenging Charity Fundraising Event: A 7-day trek in Tanzania!

The challenge is managed by Charity Challenge to raise funds for the Balashram School. More information related to the trek can be seen here:

https://www.charitychallenge.com/expedition/2835/Maasai-Bush-Trek#tabs

The trek is quite demanding and a real challenge for me on all levels.

We will walk an average of around 20 km each day, in a hot climate live in tents with very basic facilities … I have started the physical training to prepare me for the walks but also need to raise a minimum of 2500 GBP (includes 8% fees to 'Justgiving') to enable me to participate at the trek.

I am hoping you will help me raise as much money as I can for these children.

From the bottom of my heart thank you for any little help you can give!

May your generosity come back to you multiplied many many times!

With Love & Gratitude,

Patrizia

Here are some videos and more information on the School:

- You can see our latest news in the Spotlight magazine:

https://www.handinhand.at/cms2/images/spotlight-pdf/Spotlight_Magazine_2017-en.pdf

- We are on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hariharanandabalashram

- Balashram : http://www.hariharanandabalashram.org/