Once more it is my pleasure to report on yet another successful trip to Mumbai in support of the Magic Bus charity. This unique programme, offered annually, gives pupils the opportunity to experience three totally different and challenging elements during the visit.
Initially staying in Mumbai there was the opportunity to engage in the inner city community projects including those in Dharavi Slum and Bombay Port Trust. Moving on to the Magic Bus Centre in Karjat, about 75 miles from Mumbai, the group was able to enjoy unique rural surroundings after the chaos of Mumbai.From here they were not only able to visit village communities but also plan a day of sport and fun for children from an outlying village. In temperatures often exceeding 35 degrees they put together a unique programme for children who had not even ventured beyond their own small village.
Before returning to Mumbai, an overnight stay and two day’s work were undertaken at a local school. On this occasion everyone slept on the hard floor of a classroom – a stark reminder of how so many people in Mumbai live out their lives on the pavements of the city.
My thanks must go also to Major Eke and Madame Mallett who gave up their half-term holiday to accompany me and the pupils to Mumbai.
In addition a huge thank you to all the parents who supported the Bollywood evening prior to our trip. Over £2500 was raised during the evening and with further events planned over the next few months the hope is to raise significantly more money.
Mrs Carolyn Phillips
Report by Simon Holme, U6th
The morning after House Shout, we had a 5am start to catch our flight from Heathrow to Mumbai. Arriving in the city, we were hit with a wave of heat and humidity that we were not used to at all. Even by night, the city never seemed to sleep; there was constant hustle and bustle wherever we went. The first five days of the trip were spent acclimatising to the temperature, exploring the city, finding out more about the Magic Bus charity at their Head Office and visiting the various communities where they work.
The charity was founded by Matthew Spacie, an OF, whose passion for rugby continued when he moved to India. Large groups of children would watch his team training in the city, and after a while, they began to coach a few of the children at the end of their own session. The benefits the children were getting from sport were huge, and when more and more were keen to join in, the sports ground said they could not continue. This is how the Magic Bus idea started, to help children develop through sport with sports sessions for the children offered elsewhere. Now it has grown into the largest children’s livelihood charity in India, with over 300,000 children involved.
We joined several sessions with the Magic Bus team to observe and participate in the work they undertake. Through play, children are taught key life lessons, such as basic hygiene, how to avoid disease and how to improve their job prospects. We met several people who had been through the whole system from the age of seven until they were adults and they told us about the positive impacts it had made on their lives. After these sports sessions we visited the communities where the children lived and fully grasped just how much sport meant to them.
The second part of our trip involved a service project. We travelled to the Magic Bus Centre, around two hours from Mumbai and into rural India. We organised a day of activities for 45 local school children who had no experience of the Magic Bus programme. This proved exhausting in the near 40 degree heat, but very rewarding when we saw how much the children enjoyed singing, dancing and playing games. They were even introduced to the classic English games – egg and spoon, three-legged and wheelbarrow races!
A different local school had problems with horses and cows disrupting lessons, so we had been tasked with constructing a fence around the perimeter and planting around 100 hundred trees and shrubs. Again, this was very hard work, but very rewarding. All in all, we learnt a lot on the trip; about India, the Magic Bus and ourselves. Thank you to Mrs Phillips, Madame Mallett and Major Eke for making it all possible; an amazing twelve days.