Two Wheel Drifting in Calcutta for Share the Ride
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This year, Share the Ride got together with MAD (Make A Difference) which helps educate thousands of children across India through its numerous charitable ventures. The program is possible thanks to a whole lot of young inspiring volunteers who act as parents for the underprivileged. Joining in their noble cause, we decided to choose one shelter home among the hundreds they help run, and bestow upon them the joy of owning and riding bicycles.
The Children Together Trust in Calcutta was chosen, and together we brought joy to the faces of 28 children. These children do not have the privilege of a proper family or adequate educational support, but this year they got something which will definitely bring upon a drastic positive curve in their lives, brand new bikes. We could clearly see in the sparkle in their eyes, a feeling which every human should know.
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 A whole lot of excitement was in the air. |
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| Preparations for the giveaway are always fun and those brilliant and innocent smiles are just priceless. |
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| The bikes, waiting to light up the lives of some children. Oh, the wonders two wheels can bring! |
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 | You have no idea how much of a positive effect this is going to put on the lives of these children. What you see as excitement and joy is just the tip of the iceberg. Their lives are never going to be the same again. From having fun, to easier commuting, these children are just going to use these bicycles to their maximum potential. - Sankalp Sharma, CFR Calcutta, MAD. |
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| Stoked beyond words. |
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| They could not wait to get out and ride. Some needed a helping hand. |
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| While others were having fun skidding and having fun all over the place. |
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| Sharing the ride, sharing the joy. |
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| Both the PB and the MAD teams were stoked too! |
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The smiles and rides were followed by a lunch for the kids along with a short bike movie screening on a projector. Most of them were looking at mountain bikes and their capabilities for the first time. They were awestruck and inspired. The screening was followed by a short workshop on bicycle safety and basic riding.
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Even after lunch, many of them hopped onto the bike again, stoke courtesy of the movie. We have decided to conduct workshops and classes with the kids every weekend to help the ones interested in getting better at riding. Perhaps someday they will even race in some national events. Inspired and stoked, the cheer was endless.
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| Spreading the joy, spreading the cheer. |
The kids were more than thankful to Pinkbike's Share the Ride program for the initiative, Kali Protectives for the amazing helmets and most of all, the awesome people who donated selflessly so that deserving children across the world can experience the joy and thrill of a bike ride and owning a bike.
No hassles, no fancy gear, no worries. Just freedom and the wind in their hair. Some children are not fortunate enough to own bicycles and experience the joy and freedom of the two wheeled wonders. Share the Ride is helping change that with the support of you the Pinkbike users.
A whole lot of cheers from India!
- Prateek.
Make A Difference
Words: Prateek Singh
All Photos: Aryadeep Ghosh
MENTIONS: @PBShareTheRide / @KaliProtectives / @prateek24
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Spot on
@luci1606
How about instead if limiting the poor to fewer kids. Why not just limit the rich to a max income of something sensible. No one on the planet could ever claim to "need" more than about 20k a year. That one small change would mean suddenly pretty much anyone with any income at all would be able to afford a house, as the prices wouldn't be driven up by the super rich buying them all to rent etc. India in particular has a huge housing divide, with billionaires living in huge multi story complexes to themselves, literally across the road from shanty towns with hundreds living in tin sheds.
Hunger Facts
1.
Hunger remains the No.1 cause of death in the world. Aids, Cancer etc. follow.
2.
There are 820 million chronically hungry people in the world.
3.
1/3rd of the world’s hungry live in India.
4.
836 million Indians survive on less than Rs. 20 (less than half-a-dollar) a day.
5.
Over 200,000 crore Indians will sleep hungry tonight.
6.
10 million people die every year of chronic hunger and hunger-related diseases. Only eight percent are the victims of hunger caused by high-profile earthquakes, floods, droughts and wars.
7.
India has 212 million undernourished people – only marginally below the 215 million estimated for 1990–92.
8.
99% of the 1000 Adivasi households from 40 villages in the two states, who comprised the total sample, experienced chronic hunger (unable to get two square meals, or at least one square meal and one poor/partial meal, on even one day in the week prior to the survey). Almost as many (24.1 per cent) had lived in conditions of semi-starvation during the previous month.
9.
Over 7000 Indians die of hunger every day.
10.
Over 25 lakh Indians die of hunger every year.
11.
Despite substantial improvement in health since independence and a growth rate of 8 percent in recent years, under-nutrition remains a silent emergency in India, with almost 50 percent of Indian children underweight and more than 70 percent of the women and children with serious nutritional deficiencies as anemia.
12.
The 1998 -99 Indian survey shows 57 percent of the children aged 0– 3 years to be either severely or moderately stunted and/or underweight.
13.
During 2006 – 2007, malnutrition contributed to seven million Indian children dying, nearly two million before the age of one.
14.
30% of newborn are of low birth weight, 56% of married women are anaemic and 79% of children age 6-35 months are anaemic.
15.
The number of hungry people in India is always more than the number of people below official poverty line (while around 37% of rural households were below the poverty line in 1993-94, 80% of households suffered under nutrition).
Sources :
UN World Food Programme
UN World Health Organization: Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition, 2006
UN Food and Agriculture Organization: SOFI 2006 Report
National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (India)
National Family Health Survey 2005 – 06 (NFHS-3) (India)
Centre for Environment and Food Security (India)
Rural 21 (India)
Decide for yourselves.
Did my whining piss you all off? Go to This site and make a Donation!
makeadiff.in
Here we have a scheme which hasn't fed people, but it has bought happiness into their lives. Whether this will be short or long term we will see. Some may develop a passion for cycling, and become skilled mechanics and be able to support themselves or their families one day, or be so encouraged by the kindness shown that they become themselves more selfless and involved in helping others? We don't know.
However, what we can say is that this is a way for bike enthusiasts to share their passion for the sport with people who may otherwise be unable to access it. It was never advertised as anything other. There are people here who will have donated money who, rightfully or wrongfully, would never have considered donating money to a traditional charity, and the charity has engaged cycling companies who may otherwise not have become involved, so let's just keep it to what it is - it is a kind thing to do.
Those who wish to support traditional charities, as I do, may continue to do so (I would wholeheartedly recommend it!) - this is purely an additional act of kindness which, in modern times, we need more of.
Now 28 of them have bikes.
Give yourselves a big pat on the back.
I would go out on a limb based on the clothing alone ...Theses children are FAR from underprivileged.
Beware your ignorance to reality. When we support those who do not need it...We fail those who do.