December has been a busy month at here at Basti Ram, with the majority of the team working in India.
Rachael Kumar, Founder and Trustee of Basti Ram, recently visited the home of the late Basti Ram. Our organisation is named after Basti Ram, who was an ordinary man who achieved extraordinary things for his Punjab community. It is in the sprit of Basti Ram that we as an organisation follow in his footsteps.
This month we very excitingly began our work with Big Wide World India. We are supporting a group of inspirational young people from Lewisham to volunteer with the children attending our projects in India. The second cultural awareness workshop took place last Saturday and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! The volunteering venture will take place in the spring, please watch this space for updates on their fundraising and progress...
Rachael Kumar, Founder and Trustee of Basti Ram, recently visited the home of the late Basti Ram. Our organisation is named after Basti Ram, who was an ordinary man who achieved extraordinary things for his Punjab community. It is in the sprit of Basti Ram that we as an organisation follow in his footsteps.
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| Basti Ram's bedroom |
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| Rachael Kumar, Founder & Trustee of Basti Ram, visiting the Orange Tree, home to the late Basti Ram. |
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| Big Wide World India, young people from Lewisham will be volunteering at our linked projects in India in the spring. Their preparation workshops are underway... |
In India, Rachel Stovold, our Fundraising Officer, visited the volunteer's house over Diwali. To celebrate this Indian festival of light the volunteer's decorated the house with rangoli. Rangoli is an Indian art form which uses coloured powder into decorative forms on the floor. A priest came to bless the house and project ground staff held a firework display from the rooftop terrace.
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| Volunteer's in India celebrating Diwali at the volunteer's house! |
Back in the U.K. we were lucky enough to receive a £500 capacity building grant from the VSO Big Lottery Diaspora Volunteering Programme. This funding will go towards hiring an external consultant to support us in developing a fundraising strategy, with a specific focus on grant applications for our work in the U.K. and internationally.
Basti Ram has seen many other highlights throughout 2012, including an inspirational puppetry project delivered by volunteer Kellie Rickell and the Beyond Boundaries III project. We also saw another cohort of boys at our linked destitute children's home learn how to use a camera for the very first time in our participatory photography project 'Life Through the Lens'.
The Basti Ram team would like to offer our sincere and heartfelt thanks to all of our followers, our dedicated and passionate volunteers, our colleagues and friends in India and the U.K, our partners, and most importantly the children and young people who attend our projects. Without you Basti Ram could not have achieved so much throughout 2012. We look forward to your continued support into 2013 and wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a very happy and healthy New Year.
If you would like to know more about the work we do or how you could get involved please visit www.bastiram.org or email info@bastiram.org
The Basti Ram team would like to offer our sincere and heartfelt thanks to all of our followers, our dedicated and passionate volunteers, our colleagues and friends in India and the U.K, our partners, and most importantly the children and young people who attend our projects. Without you Basti Ram could not have achieved so much throughout 2012. We look forward to your continued support into 2013 and wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a very happy and healthy New Year.
If you would like to know more about the work we do or how you could get involved please visit www.bastiram.org or email info@bastiram.org
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