By Emily Parkes | Program Officer
Dear Friends,
Thank you for standing with us throughout last year. Your continuous support to our cause is encouraging us in creating a safe and vibrant environment for our children. As we continue our journey on creating a vibrant, positive, and healthy future for our children at New Home, we thank you from the bottom of our heart for choosing to make a difference to their lives. We are grateful for your generous support and glad to share how your donation is been put to work!
It’s been a sporting season at Reaching Hand this quarter!
The medals keep coming!
The last three months have been very active at the New Home! Some of our boys participated in the State Level Olympics; Chiumayo ran the 300m Medley Relay where he and his team won the Bronze Medal. Charan and Bharat`s Team won the 1st prize in the 4x100m relay!
Meanwhile, Leshini and Monisha won Gold and Bronze medals in the Karnataka Inter-Schools Meet! The Reaching Hand team were stunned however when our children of St. Michaels came home from the Athletics meet at the beginning of November with an impressive 55 medals: 26 Gold, 21 silver and 8 Bronze! The meet was extra special as Chuimayo the Head Boy led the School in the March, followed by Monisha leading the School Band as the Assistant Band Captain. Our top athletes included Leshini, winning 4 Gold medals in the relay x2, 50m race, and Kho-Kho with a Silver medal in long jump; Umesh with 100m race Gold medal, and 3 Silvers in cricket, football and long jump; and Bharat winning 2 gold medals in cricket and football and, silver in the relay race, and bronze in the long jump. Siblings, Monisha and Surya came out on top, with both winning the Individual Championships! Monisha attained an impressive 3 Gold medals in the 100m race, throwball and basketball; 3 Silver medals in the 400m race, long jump, and shotput, with a Bronze medal in 100m relay. Surya managed a remarkable 5 Gold medals in football, volleyball, basketball, 200m and 100m races!
Many felt the Joy of Giving with Reaching Hand!
The Joy of Giving Week is a National ‘Giving’ initiative held every year across India between 2nd – 8th October. This encourages people to give their time, money, resources or skills back to society and the needy.
Sleeping Under the Stars
This was a unique event, and the first of its kind in India! To kick start the huge philanthropic event of the Joy of Giving Week on the 1st October, the Reaching Hand team, along with supporters spent a night in the city sleeping rough and without shelter. This was in recognition of the everyday challenges and extreme hardships faced by those living without shelter in just one night, raising awareness for the estimated 80 million homeless people in India, of which approximately 11 million are children. The event was a great success with thanks to everyone who contributed. In total about 400 people came to the event and 150 people stayed and slept until 4am!
This year, as part of the Joy of Giving Initiative we also took part in GeneroCity – a NGO Mela on the 5th October, followed by Food for Change, where we shared a giant ‘Thank You’ with our supporters and donors, and enjoyed culinary delights from the city’s top Hotels, along with grand entertainment and live music.
Diwali – the Children Celebrate the Festival of Lights!
Our children joined in the fun of Diwali by celebrating with lanterns and fireworks! Diwali means ‘row of lights’, and is celebrated by many looking forward to a prosperous year ahead!
Goals to Goodness, Round II!
Reaching Hand held its 2nd Goals to Goodness event on the 9th and 10th November 2013 at HAL Grounds, Old Airport Road, Bangalore. This was an event encouraging corporate teams to ‘Kick for a Cause’ supporting Reaching Hands work with underprivileged children. Reaching Hand would like to convey a huge THANK YOU to all those who were a part of Goals to Goodness II, the support from all the sponsors, partners, volunteers, participants as well as many individuals made the event the success it was! This time around, 21 teams participated from 17 different companies! The six teams that made it through to the finals were Mu Sigma, Mindtree, Target, Cisco, TCS and ANZ, with TCS winning GOLD! We are hugely grateful to both ANZ and TCS for generously donating their prize money, of 20,000 and 15,000 INR to our cause.
The highlight of the weekend was certainly the children’s match against the Team Captains! With a little advantage, and strong support the kids won 5 – 2. Thrilled with their win, the kids spent the rest of the afternoon and into the early evening playing football with one another. At Reaching Hand we value sports development for our children, as it is proven to encourage, and enhance their natural abilities. Sport also reaches out to our children regardless of their backgrounds, and with our guidance can build on their self-respect, self-esteem and empowerment.
Looking Forward to Christmas and the Start of a New Year
Now we are looking forward to the Christmas Season! We have lots of treats lined up for the children of the New Home during their school holidays! We are looking forward to another successful year, where our children will continue to thrive in their studies, talents and more memorable moments will be made! We thank all of you for supporting our children, please don’t forget us this Christmas, ‘tis the season to be jolly, so make a difference to their lives, and donate towards their growth and happiness!
Please consider telling your friends and family about our project - share the link on your blogs or social networks, use the tell-a-friend feature on the project page to email your network, or just bring us up in conversation. We want reach out to many as there are more children who need our services. You can also follow us on Facebook to see our regular updates and activities here - https://www.facebook.com/ReachingHand
Many thanks again for your support! We will continue to keep you updated about our work and events of the following months.
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
With love from the Reaching Hand Team
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