In January 2008, 34 cyclists from the UK, US and India took part in our biggest fundraising event – a 240 mile cycle ride through Andhra Pradesh in India. The idea was to cycle to the Heal Children’s Village in Guntur to meet up with the children and staff, and we raised over £100,000 for our small charity.

We filmed the whole event and you can view our videos at on the Cycle India videos page or view the best of the photographs we took at the Cycle India gallery.

We’re now looking for cyclists to take part in Cycle India 2010, and we are hoping this event will be even bigger and better. We’re hoping to take around 50 people with us to Southern India to cycle around 200 miles through Karnataka.

We have created a Cycle India blog where we have the main detail of this amazing event with instructions on how to take part.

Visit www.CycleIndia.org for more information.

If you fancy a challenge, whilst at the same time raising money to help support orphaned and under-privileged children, then why not sign up for Cycle India 2010. And, it’s a great incentive for getting yourself fit. For more information please contact matthew@heal.co.uk

The BBC’s Panorama programme has uncovered breaches of Primark’s commitments on working hours, wages and child labour. The company itself has said that it is unacceptable for children to produce its garments and has insisted it was unaware of the practise.

Primark boasts the latest in fashion at low prices and ethical guarantees on how they were produced. There have been near riots at the opening of new stores, including one last year in London.

Panorama’s six month investigation trawled some of the slums and villages in South India. It is here where many of Primark’s factories are, but is was suspected that some of the hand sewing of beads and sequins was being done in homes and back yards in breach of the company’s promise. Working under cover it wasn’t long before the Panorama team found children working on these garments.

it appears that the Primark auditors never visit these back street locations. These practices harm the children in many different ways - socially, morally, psychologically and physically. The panorama team found children in the slums of Bangalore working on sequined tops.

Primark say that this shouldn’t be happening and have cancelled future orders with the suppliers.

At Heal, we feel that the only way to ensure a good future for children like these is to get them into education. Many families are forced to put their children through child labour, because they are in such poverty that they wouldn’t be able to afford the education fees.

Heal has created it’s Poverty Trap project to encourage parents to send their children to school, rather than have them working. Heal pays for the education, a midday meal, school books and their uniform.

Only by education of today’s children do we feel the cycle of poverty in India can be broken for good.

Heal is dedicated to continuing to support as many children as possible at the Heal Children’s Village, through child sponsorship. If you would like to help us support this project please consider sponsoring one of our children at www.heal.co.uk

It is hard to comprehend that one of the fastest growing economies in the world can still have a major problem with child poverty in 2008. In Madhya Pradesh about 60% of the children are malnourished.

Heal are trying to do something about this and you can help too by sponsoring one of our children.

We currently have around 150 of our children sponsored currently by generous donors in the UK and US, but we still have hundreds of children who are not sponsored.

It costs just £12.50 per month (or $25.00) to sponsor a child in India. This will provide shelter, healthcare, food, clean water, medical care, a good education and more importantly a loving environment for the children to develop and achieve their full potential.

We believe that Health and Education are the most important factors in eliminating child poverty in India for the long term, and you can help by sponsoring one of our children.

For more information please visit www.heal.co.uk.

Bhargav Mannava is being cared for by Heal, a UK-registered charity, with a project in Guntur in Andhra Pradesh.  In his own words, Bhargav tells his story of how he came to be one of the Heal children:

My name is Bhargav and I come from a small village near Guntur.

My mother took poison and died when I was five years old. I lost my father also after some time. I was left at a Cycle repair shop by my relations.  The owner of the shop, a Muslim called Rasool looked after me for some time. I used to work in the shop, but when I said that I wanted to go to school he brought me to Heal and admitted me in it.

I am very fond of Manga Devi Auntie . She too likes me a lot. Marudhvathi Auntie always encourages me to study well. Our teacher, Mr.Mallikarjuna and Auntie Padma are very strict but they are both very nice people

I like sketching and painting. I like to play Shuttle Badminton.

I want to study well and become a teacher of Art.

If you would like to sponsor a child like Bhargav then please fill in the application form on the Heal website.

Two of the Heal children from the Children’s Village in Guntur tell their story in their own words:

 
My name is Maria Rani and My sister’s name is Danamma.
 
My father’s name is Daniel and Mother’s name is Tirupathamma.
 
My mother died due to a snake bite and after a few days my father went to sprinkle some pesticide in the fields . But unfortunately he got contaminated with pesticide and died.
 
The villagers published our story in the papers and Manga Devi madam read the story in the News papers and rang up our village Head. She agreed to take us in to Heal. My uncle came and admitted us in Heal.

 
We now feel that Manga Devi Madam is our mother. We are very grateful to Sathya prasad Uncle also for establishing Heal to look after children like us. If we had stayed in our village we would have had no schooling and become mere labourers.
 
I am in the fifth class and my sister in the fourth class . We both like sketching and painting.
We want to study well and get in to some big jobs. We feel very confident after we came to Heal.
 
Our House mothers Madhavi Akka and Parvathi Akka look after us very well. Padma Auntie is very strict but we feel it is for our good.

We are very happy, and being looked after well in Heal hence we too want to help children who are orphans like us after we grow up.

If you would like to help children like Maria Rani and Danamma, then why not consider sponsoring one of our Heal Children by clicking on this link.

Thank You.

Heal is a UK-registered charity based in Peterborough.  We have a number of projects which we fund and manage in Andhra Pradesh in India.

Our main project is the Heal Children’s Village in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.  Here, we look after over 200 orphaned or previously destitute children from the area.  All our children are given all the love and affection they need, as we have designed our children’s village with individuals bungalows, each with a house mother.  The children grow up in a family atmosphere, and with a quality education at the nearby Bala Kuteer school, they receive a great start in life.

Heal funds everything - including their medical care, clothing, reading books, toys, sports equipment etc.  We treat the children like our own, and we support them until they become self sufficient.

There are currently around 140 of the children have sponsors, but we still need sponsors for the remaining children.  To sponsor a child costs just £12.50 per month, and this covers all the costs for bringing up the child.

For more information about Heal, and to get in contact with Kath, the secretary of Heal, please visit the Heal website and find out more.