VIREN BHOJWANI
Viren took part in a charity bike ride from Delhi to Jaipur, from 5th-10th November 2016. He and his group would ride 50-100km per day together. The ride was in aid of the British Asian Trust, who support disadvantaged people throughout South East Asia through access to education, advocacy and the funding of local NGOs.
The Trust pledged to contribute 50% of the money raised through the bike ride to Project WHY. In the month preceding the ride, Viren also volunteered his time at the Project Centres, teaching English to the children and helping with their general development.
Viren and his group raised a total of £11,788.72.
MALTE: THE JOY OF GIVING
Malte was eight when he came to Delhi, India in 2013 and immediately fell in love with the country. The issue that really disturbed him and made his life miserable in Delhi was to see the poverty and suffering on the streets. He wanted to do something…something that would make a lasting difference.
When his mother started to work with Project WHY in 2014, Malte heard about Project WHY’s support for slum children, who had a difficult life but now had a chance to learn and improve their future. One Saturday morning, in October 2015, he came along and saw for himself how a small group of committed people was trying to make a longer- lasting difference for a lot of poor children.He was amazed to meet with the children and see their smiles on their faces as well as their eagerness to learn.
A couple of weeks later, he took his cub-scout group to whitewash the newly renovated Okhla Centre. They all joined hands with the Project WHY children to make the centre colourful and a happy place to learn. It gave him immense joy. He finally found a place where poverty was not accepted as a fate but as a challenge to overcome! And where he, a ten-year-old boy, could contribute to make a difference.
Malte’s determination to make a difference did not stop. He, with his friends Stefan and Scottie, decided to do even more. They came up with the idea of organising a donation drive in their ‘privileged’ school. They designed colourful posters to show Project WHY’s work, and asked the special kids (of Project WHY) to colour and decorate traditional piggy banks (gulak) for collecting donations. With everything prepared they got up early every morning, for one week, in the freezing month of December 2015, to build their stand at the school entrance asking all children, teachers and parents passing by to donate for Project WHY. Even the school principal and the American Ambassador were impressed and eagerly squeezed their donation in one of the gulaks. Malte and his friends raised INR 12,000 in total. With these funds, Project WHY was able to buy a bamboo roof for the Okhla centre, giving the students a covered shelter that protected them from the harsh summer and winter months.
Since then, Malte has felt a part of the Project WHY family. Periodically, he gives away his pocket money to buy school supplies for the Project WHY Centres. Every time he is overwhelmed by the poverty in India, he thinks up something new he could do for the children in Project WHY, knowing that at least his friends there will enjoy a different future.