Khushi Archive 2015
January 2015: A New School Bus
The Mobile Street Schools at GNCEM are run for children who live out on the crowded streets of Kolkata's city centre. Many of these children are orphans. Every morning, the volunteer teachers drive round the streets of Kolkata in a big yellow school bus and pick up the children (who can be spared as beggars).
As you can imagine, this school bus goes through a lot of wear and tear. GNCEM told us that they now needed a new bus for the mobile school and we wanted to help! By the end of last year, we were very pleased to have managed to raise £15,000 (1,500,000 Rupees) which was enough money to buy GNCEM a brand new shiny school bus.
GNCEM are now using this vehicle to pick up children from the street and slums of Kolkata and take them to their Hatibagan mobile school. Thank you to everyone who donated last year and helped up achieve this. It is making a huge difference to the street schools.
February 2015: Announcing Mark's Marathon
Every year, thousands of fundraisers raise huge amounts of money for hundreds of charities by applying to do the London Marathon. This year, Khushi Feet have an entry! Mark Grainger (from Teynham, near Faversham) has taken up the challenge and is training extremely hard for the 26 mile run which will take place on Sunday 26th April 2015. Mark is a great supporter of Khushi Feet. He says:
“I got involved with the Bollywood dance event (in 2013) and was just inspired by Emily really and her commitment. I don’t want to sound cheesy, but there’re some people that don’t really have anything. So I think we should all try and do our bit.”
We are very grateful to Mark for what he’s doing to support Khushi Feet. We want to get behind him as much as we can. Let’s make every hour of his training worthwhile and help him reach his fundraising target of £2,000.
However much you can sponsor will make a difference to the lives of street children in Kolkata. Just £1 will feed a child at the street schools for a whole week.
Keep up to date with Mark’s training progress and tweet him some encouragement using #TeynhamTortoise.
February 2015: Three Years
Today is Khushi Feet's third birthday! Happy birthday to us!
This means we have now been fundraising for three years . . . and what an exciting three years they have been. From our first damp festival weekend in 2012 to 1,500 people Bollywood dancing in the sun; cycling to Kolkata (virtually) to our Gala Dinner with a whole host of special guests.
Thanks to massive support from hundreds of people we have managed to do some fabulously innovative and fun fundraising. Since 2012 we have sent over £50,000 to the GNCEM street schools in Kolkata. This money has been used to buy resources for the children at the street schools including food supplies, clothes and towels, educational materials, books, medicine and sanitary products.
Our fundraising has also contributed to the building of an extension to the GNCEM school in Daspara and provided a new school bus for the Hatibagan mobile school. With your support, we are helping to improve the lives of children living on the streets of Kolkata. A huge thank you to all who have taken part in Khushi events and donated towards our appeals. You are all stars!
April 2015: London Marathon
@Mark_HJGrainger has FINISHED the #LondonMarathon in 4 hours 57 minutes! #champion#MarksMarathon#welldonepic.twitter.com/zmNBqpNs3W
— Khushi Feet (@KhushiFeet) April 26, 2015
May 2015: USA Fundraiser Announcement
Khushi Feet’s first fundraising concert in the USA will be taking place in New Jersey! Aakash Deep (New York based Indian musician/singer) and Shrabani Nandi will present ‘ANTORER ANTORALEY’ (??????? ????????) a “uniquely designed music and dance concert to raise funds to support the education of orphan children in India”.
The event will take place on Saturday 13th June 2015 at 5pm, at Linwood Middle School, 25 Linwood Place, North Brunswick Township, NJ 08902.
Aakash Deep blends melodious Bengali style singing with old movie songs, new age bands and Hindi urban styles. His voice has a unique and non-conventional tonal quality, range and depth. He gave his debut public music performance at the age of 9 and started performing all over Kolkata by the end of high school. He received his early age training from the laate Sri Binoy Bhattacharya and later from Sri Kumar Ray for vocal rendition in Hindustani Classical. Aakash Deep founded an Indian mellow rock band in Bangalore, India during 2001 and was one of the lead singer and composer for this band from 2001 to 2005. In 2004, he was signed by Times Music as an ‘Exclusive Artiste’ and released his debut Hindi album ‘Nadiyaan” along with two music videos directed by acclaimed video directors. The video topped the charts of leading music channels of India and received critical acclaim. In 2009, Aakash Deep released his debut Bengali music album "Chhoto Chhelebela". Aakash dedicated this album to all the homeless and orphan children across globe and commits the royalty of the album to child welfare. Aakash Deep currently lives in New York, USA promoting Bengali and Indian music in the North America region.
Emily, our Founder and Chair, met up with Aakash in New York to talk about Khushi Feet and the upcoming concert Antorer Antoraley.
June 2015: USA raises over $3500 for Khushi Feet
The concert was a huge success and raised $3602 (£2350) for Khushi Feet. Aakash met with Subir Roy (Founder of the GNCEM street schools) in Kolkata to give him the money in person. We are extremely grateful to our friends in the States for getting involved and supporting our cause!
August 2015: Footsteps to the Finish
Earlier this year, Mark Grainger took on a huge challenge for Khushi Feet and ran the London Marathon (in 4 hours and 57 minutes).
The running bug seems to be spreading, because Mark has persuaded his wife Zoe (who is also a recently appointed Khushi Feet trustee) to run the Canterbury Half Marathon with him. With her training now well under way, Zoe says: “It’s taken me a while to build up my stamina and to date I've made it as far as 6 miles without slowing to walk. However, I can now breathe and move at the same time so that’s progress - plus the local teenagers have stopped jeering at me!”
In taking on this Half Marathon, Zoe has two ambitious goals: firstly to complete the race without sustaining any permanent bodily harm, and secondly to meet (or even exceed!) her and Mark’s personal fundraising goal of £250 for Khushi Feet. Working at a school in Sittingbourne reminds Zoe of how fortunate we are in the UK to be able to teach, support and nurture children and young people in a safe and outstanding environment. She and Mark and both passionate about helping the street children of Kolkata safely access a vital education.
With your support and donations, Zoe and Mark’s footsteps to the finish line will become footsteps to freedom for even more street children in Kolkata.
October 2015: Faversham Churches Support KF
Khushi Feet has recently been voted the ‘Charity of the Year’ for the Churches Together in Faversham, and this Harvest, Faversham Churches have generously supported Khushi Feet.
On Saturday 26th September, Faversham Baptist Church put on a community Barn Dance, raising £272. This was followed by a Harvest offering at Faversham Gospel Mission’s annual Harvest service on Sunday 4th October. £300 was collected. We have also had a generous gift from the Parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Among other things, this money will be used to buy food provisions for the starving street children at the GNCEM street schools in Kokata. At a time of year when we remember how lucky we are to have such a delicious array of foods available to us, it’s wonderful to be able to help the street children in this way.
“Give us today our daily rice”. A huge thank you to the members of both Churches for being the answer to the Indian street children’s prayer.
October 2015: Carnival
Khushi Feet took part in Faversham’s annual illuminated carnival to raise awareness for the schools for the street children in Kolkata.
Our ‘Street School Experience’ float featured Khushi the Cow as the school teacher. The children and young people taking part in the float wore blue school shirts, representing the uniform worn by the street children in Kolkata.
November 2015: Fireworks
We put on a bonfire party and firework evening. A great evening was had by everyone who came; the fireworks were stunning and best of all, we raised around £200.
December 2015: Khushi Feet Supporters Visit Kolkata
Aakash Deep, who organised the fundraising concert in New Jersey earlier this year, met with Subir Roy (Founder of the GNCEM street schools) in Kolkata to give him the funds raised in person. By a strange coincidence, Ask Mukherjee (the Indian dancer who choreographed for Khushi Does Bollywood in 2013) was also in Kolkata at the time, and paid a visit to the street schools to see their the fantastic work that they do. They had a great time singing and dancing with the children.
In response to visiting the street schools, Aakash said: “I don’t know how to express my joy after seeing the work GNCEM are doing to support these children and helping society in Kolkata! I’m already missing those kids and wish to do a music workshop with them on my next visit to Kolkata.”
Thank you Aakash and Ash, for your continued support for Khushi Feet; we are delighted that you were able to experience the street schools for yourself!
Go to: Khushi Archive 2016