Ladies Circle

 

GB&I organised the Ladies Circle International Service project 2007-09, with an aim to build 100 toilet blocks at rural Indian schools.

 

In a developing nation an education is an important part of growing up, preparing for adulthood, and improving the prospect of a better life. We were helping to give this opportunity to many girls across India.

 

Many schools in India are built without toilet facilities and as girls grow up and mature this becomes more and more of a problem to them. 50% of girls who drop out of school do so around the age of 10-12. This is the point at which they reach puberty and require an amount of privacy. Some children go home and don’t return for the remainder of the day or develop stomach-aches and other problems due to the lack of facilities.

 

Each block was estimated at €700 and this increased to €1,000 due to inflation, therefore the total amount required was €100,000. 

 

Where funds were raised by an individual Circle or country they would be linked with a Circle in India who were arranging for the construction of the toilet blocks.

 

The entire Ladies Circle International community set about raising the much needed funds.  GB&I held a variety of Indian themed Bollywood & Curry Nights.  Stamps were collected and traded in for cash.  The funds started to flow in.

 

Christine Wright the project coordinator even decided to undertake the London Marathon in April 2009 to raise awareness of the project and additional funds.

 

 

 

On 15th June 2008 we inaugurated our first toilet block in Salem.  The funding from this block was raised by Maidenhead Ladies Circle in GB&I.

 

The total amount raised over the course of the project was a staggering €121,774 of which € 37,500 was raised by GB&I.  This meant 120 toilet blocks could be built all over India.  In addition Ladies Circle India raised a further € 42,200 to continue the good work.

 

A huge thank you to everyone that made donations, be it large or small and the teams in GB&I and India that got this project off the ground and coordinated where the much needed toilet blocks should be built.

 

Of course the biggest thank you must go to the project coordinator, Christine Wright of Bushey & Oxhey Circle, GB&I who dedicated two years of her life promoting the project, liaising with and visiting India and ensuring all the monies were spent wisely.