A big curry lunch followed by a drive down 36 hair-pin bends made for quite an interesting combination, particularly as we passed a spot en-route where a car had gone clear over the edge at one of the bends, since our arrival the other day! The remains were supported on the hillside by a tree, and undergoing close observation by a handful of locals. How easy and regular accidents happen here that they don’t even draw much of crowd. Had this been in Portugal or Italy it wouldn’t have been surprising to have seen someone selling ice-creams to a huge crowd, within minutes!

As we neared the foot of the Nilgiri Mountains my mind was in overdrive thinking about Happy Home and suddenly being amongst the children there. Feeling very connected to the experience it dawned on us that we had only been to the orphanage once, and that was being driven whilst in the back of a Land Rover, coming from a different direction and yet something told me to turn right as we came to a junction. Naturally, my less spiritual risk analyser didn’t agree and felt we should carry straight on.
Uncharacteristically I chose to avoid the discussion and with a deep inward smile drove on to the next village where we could ask for directions. With directions from a friendly local (and translated by Abilash) uploaded we turned around and made our way to Happy Home.

“How did you know that?” asked Roy. “I don’t know” I replied “the same way as you know when a project for us to support is coming, I guess!” So different and yet so similar is our partnership in this whole charity, travelling thing that it just works at a level way beyond I would ever want to or have need to question!
As we parked up across from the orphanage gates a group of the children ran to the gates and within seconds had retrieved enough keys to release the various locks and swung them open, beckoning us to drive in. As we pulled onto the grass at the orphanage the car was approached by a sea of smiling faces. It felt like arriving home, and we had just been away on a short trip – how strange! Suddenly here were those smiling faces that had we had enjoyed so much on the last time, been missing from the roadside on this trip so far!

Lots of “hello’s” and “how are you’s?” to be exchanged before we met our first adult, Stephanie who was a friend of the orphanage’s founder Katherine who was over from Switzerland and had been helping out and living at Happy Home for 3 months. You didn’t need to be a ‘rocket-scientist’ to see how much the children loved and respected her. Likewise, you didn’t need to look too hard to see that it was completely mutual! The children would just touch her and smile as they walked passed. It was as though they transferred a little spark of energy to each other as they connected – incredible!

It was wonderful to see Grace again and I had a wry smile as she and Roy shook hands. She must have read my mind and came over for a big hug! I could tell from the twinkle in her eyes that she was up to something and so didn’t say anything as she sneaked off. Formalities over for now – it was like watching the pied piper as Roy wandered off to play with some of the children. He’s like a magnet for some of the boys and they’ll follow him anywhere. Again, it’s completely mutual and a pleasure to see!

I went for a tour around the orphanage led by Stephanie and followed by my own little entourage, each taking turns for cuddles as we walked! In particular, one little girl Yasmin (who I christened as my ‘delightful, cuddly shadow’) led the cuddle charge and was never far from my side. I remember her from playing ‘tag’ last time we were there.

It was both incredible and humbling to see how much had changed with the orphanage since our last visit, including a mini-outdoor eating area with concrete benches and tables for 90 people (with structures in place ready to create a sun cover to protect the children from the heat of the lunchtime sun), solar panels to reduce the energy costs for the clearly increasing population, more books, beds and somehow a sense of more children?!

During the tour, we came across a group of girls dancing together. Recognising some of the faces, it was initially a little surprising and out of character that they hadn’t come to say hi earlier … until the penny started to drop! It’s so noticeable how shy and bashful the tribal girls are over here and it’s actually quite refreshing to step back in time again to this way of being. I’m sure I’ll feel this way even more as my own daughter grows up, no doubt embracing the confidence of the Western race and keen to embrace adulthood as early as possible! Sobering thought!!

On ‘tour completion’ we were greeted by a very smiley Grace who invited us to a quiet area for tea and homemade biscuits and a catch-up. Despite, out of the four people one being fluent in Hindi, one in French and two marginally fluent in English the conversation flowed at a wonderfully comfortable pace! We seemed to cover so much ground, but the lahesting highlight for me will be following my question to Grace “So how many people are you looking after here now?”

“95!” she proudly stated! … “but I thought that you were at full capacity of 85 last time we were here in November? Have you built another bedroom” I asked, interested in her reply!

“We were at capacity then, and now we have 95!” Before adding “How can you turn people away?” rhetorically. Fair point we were thinking just as Stephanie, clearly feeling very emotional, piped up with a story about how they were having to turn people away now. In particular, they had turned one little girl away this morning.

With tears in her eyes she explained that this little girl had no mother or father and had ben living with her aunt, but they had recently been thrown out of their house and were currently living under a tree. Worse still there was no prospect of the aunt getting work to pay for accommodation without someone to look after little girl! She was so moved by the experience that she has already been in touch with the orphanage’s founder to agree special dispensation that if she could raise the money to keep her month by month the girl could move in. “How will you do that?” Roy asked, knowing that she was leaving in 3 days to go travelling.

“I don’t know, but I will!!” she replied with so much determination. We discussed what it would cost to take on the girl and look after her, and fund her accommodation, clothes any medical bills, school uniform, books, food, etc. and agreed that we would fund her for a year. It was a very emotional moment, and I still cannot think about Anabukarasi without getting a tear in my eye! The gift of being able to transform someone’s life into one that they deserve filled with love and care is one of the most precious things on this earth.

Now I understood why having been so very ill for a full 19 hours the previous couple of days, I was suddenly well enough to travel again! There was no way that we could have missed this moment ? What made the whole experience even more special is that we were able to fund Anabukarasi on behalf of one of our personal sponsors who had given us a sizable cheque prior to leaving and ask that we spend it wisely on whatever we saw fit, but to try and make it as tangible as possible. Knowing the person concerned, there could have been no better gift for him and his family or Anabukarasi, and no better way for living the vision of Global Children’s Trust is really about.

Never could we have been given a bigger or better illustration of why we needed to get on and build this second orphanage. We just have to believe now that if we live our vision, the funding and support will follow, and so to all of our sponsors and donors … thank you!

You make incredible things happen to people who really and truly deserve the chance to be loved and safe! Thank you ?

There are only three trains a day, and we were advised to ignore the 9am one as it tends to be extremely busy (and that was by Indian standards, and so we were happy to heed the advice and gift ourselves a lie in!) Sadly we didn’t have time to do the full mountain trip as we wanted to get have as much time at the orphanage as possible and so decided to travel to the next main stop at Canoor and have Abilash meet us there with the car. In true British style the expected bun fight for train tickets was a very ordered and civilised affair, overseen by the rather official policemen! Absolute chaos out on the streets, but heaven forbid there might be some pushing in to buy a train ticket! One of the reasons I love this place so much – you just don’t know what’s coming next … but whatever it is … is usually pretty memorable!!

We bought First Class tickets as recommended to get the best view & experience. These premium tickets set us back a full 75 rupees (approx. £1.10) which doesn’t sound much in Western terms, but when you compare to the 3 rupee equivilent for standard class you start to get an idea of the disparity between wealth and classes here!

As first class passengers, we were able to stand the other side of the rope, and closer to the tracks, with the fifteen or so other first class passengers, whilst the standard class passengers (approx 150 in total for 3 carriages) queued in organised & supervised fashioned. The whole experience was like stepping back in time, particularly when we spotted the sign advising that “Clean habits are noticed by others and copied too” in pride of place on the station wall!

The train ride was a wonderful experience, affording some beautiful views that would just not have been available by road, ranging from steep hill views, to colourful settlements, villages to the wonderfully happy smiley children. For me this was the bit I was really missing from our first trip. As we had travelled via more major routes than some of the very rural stuff we did last time, we just hadn’t seen the roadside schools, and kids playing by the side of the road. I hadn’t realised just how much I had missed those contacts and experiences until now! Definately time for our visit to Happy Home Orphanage!

We met Abilash at Conoor and he routinely jumped into the back of the car so that I could drive us to Masinagudi and Happy Home, via Ooty, with Roy taking up his customary relaxed passenger position reclined in the other front seat – such a pair of colonials!

Sadly, my enthusiasm to get to Happy Home counted nothing towards the slow mountain climb in the rain back to Ooty, which took a good hour an half to conquor! More memorable however were some of the sights and experiences of that mountain climb, including some of the most high risk overtakes I have ever witnessed! My efforts in comparison were incredibly safe, verging on feeble – so much so that my human risk indicator on my left didn’t flicker once! I love a good overtake as much if not more than the next guy, but there’s a time and a place and I quickly realised I was completely out of my league! Any wavering, was quickly gave way to caution and relaxation, particularly as we were overtaken by a guy riding on the back someone’s motorbike dressed all in black, carrying a huge sythe. I’m not sure I would have believed it myself if I hadn’t taken a quick video (which I will post on You Tube) of the pair and their next near death overtake – still what did they have to fear?!!

The journey was so spectacular that it was like being in a film, filled with so many rich experiences. Eventually we arrived back into lower Ooty and stopped for an authentic Indian lunch. During lunch I picked up a rather excitable message with its author describing how excited they were that we were in India , but with no reference to who they were?? An Indian mobile number, but no name against it in my phone – hmmm … only one way to solve the mystery, however the person was so excited to have been called back it was a full two minutes before they took a breathe and came up from air, but which point it could only be one person! Kevin Allen (aka Bananman) is probably one of the few people I know to have experienced one of these types of calls – which are as confusing as they are delightful! It transpired to be Grace who runs the Happy Home orphanage who had just got wind of the fact that we were back in India and coming to visit!!

Stupid me … I hadn’t called to let her know!! As I had been in regular contact with Sammy, one of the Trustees (and dealing with funding, housing and finance issues) … I realised that I had only spoken to Grace a few times since our last visit, despite having such a powerful spiritual bond with her since our first meeting. Now I knew who it was behind the “I’m so happy” rendition earlier. What a lovely and gifted lady and suddenly I felt as excited as she was!! It was real – we were going back and honouring our promise to make a difference. we hurried the rest of our dinner – it was time to go!!

With no twin rooms available, we had a room each. I had literally just fallen asleep as soon as I had lay down, but was awoken at 5.30 to a very excitable dawn chorus. All hopes of a lie in
were dashed at the first hurdle!

It was quite a basic room, and Roy wasn’t responding to texts (therefore presumed asleep) and so there were few options left other than to go for a walk and explore the amazing location and view.

Based upon the previous evenings experience, we decided not to chance breakfast, but instead to press on to Ooty and eat at The Savoy there, billed as a gorgeous colonial hotel. To kill two birds with one stone we arranged to meet the trustees there too, before heading offto view a plot of land that they had
short-listed for prospective purchase to build a brand new orphanage on as a sister one to Happy Home.

Driving high into the hills (via another 22 hairpin bends!) we arrived in bustling Ooty and made for the Savoy. What a pleasure to enjoy a cup of tea in their gorgeous gardens and to finally meet with Sammy, his wife Sarah and Mr Beaman (Happy Home Trustees, with whom I had spoken on a fortnightly basis since our last trip), before heading off in to the rural hills to view the plot. It is clear that these guys are extremely committed to their involvement with the orphanage despite all having full-time day jobs.

By this point, Abilash (still wearing his driving whites) had been relegated to the back row of seats to make room for Sammy & Sarah. Quite an unusual experience for a paid driver but he was fast starting to learn to expect the unexpected himself and starting to fit in well!

Driving over here is just such an experiencewhere everyone jossles for the smallest of spaces and Ooty (at its busiest during holiday season for Indians seeking altitude & cooler temperatures during incredibly hot period ahead of monsoon season) this was no exeception!

The plot was beautifully situation in a dip looking far over a valley, complete with its own natural water spring, with road access, three phase electricity and within walking distance of two schools. Perfect criteria for an orphanage! We dutifully explored the whole plot (about 1 acre and planted up with cabbages) exploring different configurations for building, play garden, etc. What a pleasure. Suddenly our purpose there was very real!

There’s no doubt that we need to do this, particularly given the opportunity to create an orphanage in partnership with an already successful and well run orphanage. There is still lots to sort out yet, but it is clearly meant to be!!

Ooty reall is a most beautiful place (in many places at least!) with so much history and culture that felt familiar, and so many stories and places to visit, but the headline act was still going to be visiting the children of Happy Home (in Masinagudi – about 45 minutes drive away) the following day!

We were a little late leaving the hotel and so issued our usual intructions to the taxi driver “jaldi, jaldi” which means quickly. The great thing is that this tends to get taxi drivers very excited, and it appeared to have made his day. He did good jaldi and got us to the airport with time to spare! We were also treated to a light sightseeing commentary en-route too.

Such is the wonder of India, as we passed an overturned tuc tuc on the main 4 lane road/motorway with two rather confused Chinese tourists climbing out, whilst the traffic continued to whiz past!

We arrived in Bangalore to glorious sunshine ( big bons as the forecast had been for rain!). At Bangalore we sorted out our hire car courtesy of Hertz (they really are everywhere!!). Apparently you can’t hire self-drive from the airport and so we negociated a drver/fixer for the duration of the trip, & the ability to drive ourselves as soon as we were out of our hotel!

Coming here and not experiencing the driving was just not an option, much to the delight of the two Indian ladies, also working there who wanted to come with us. Our instructions for the driver were that he must speak a little English, be relaxed & fun & to bring his CD collection so that we could listen to Indian music for the duration!

The following morning Abilash arrived at the hotel with our car. His English wasn’t great, but still far exceeded our Hindi capabilities, and in every other way he turned out to be just the perfect host and handy person to have around! Our car was a white Toyota Innova which was quite an upgrade from our last driving experience!

As we started dressing the doors with our latest set of magnetic decals, hot off the press with our new GCT logo. The sight of these magnets going on to our car attracted a lot of attention from the hotel staff who wanted to know more about what we we were doing in India. They were captivated by the fact that we had come a the way out to India to help their children … but to be fair, there are quite few people that we meet back home who wonder the same thing!!

Have a look at the photo of the gentle giant with the car. He went out of his way to share his admiration & appreciation which just reminded as why we love being in this country so much & never to judge a book by it’s cover

** For the benefit of readers who are not in our Facebook pages we have recently undergone a huge rebrandibg exercise for the Global Children’s Trust to better reflect our ethos & aspirations as we step closer towards the world stage.

The work has been undertaken by Bulletproof (who do brand work for iconic brands such as Coca Cola, Ted Baker, Kenco and Kraft Foods). The guys have been amazing to work with, and we are extremely grateful for them donating 100% of their time & costs to GCT. Gusche & Jonny who run Bulketproof were also part of our Endurance Rally last year through Southern India, and were captured by the opportunity to make a difference to disadvantaged children across the world, and our simple model of sponsoring GCT overheads so that 100% of funds donated are put directly towards supported projects. Last year they also donated their Christmas card money to GCT abd continue to donate personally.

Thank you guys – we truly appreciate your support! **

Soon enough our bags were loaded and it was time to leave. Bangalore is such a busy city that it took over an hour to get to the outskirts, which was still much quicker than our two hour trip from the airport the previous evening.

Once out of Bangalore, I took over the driving whilst Roy kicked back in the luxurious middle row of seats.

What a great feeling to be driving again over here again, although I could tell that our driver wasn’t quite as excited! Part of our Endurance briefing last year had taught us “to expect the unexpected with unfailing frequency” which is the best advice you can give anyone for driving here – and we were not disappointed!! People, cows,bikes, motorbikes, cars, lorries, buses, dogs just appear from nowhere over here and show absolutely no fear! After an hour or so Abilash relaxed off and started to relax and enjoy the journey too! After three hours he was fast asleep, which I took as a big compliment! He was very embarrassed when he woke up, and would be mortified if his boss ever found out … so keep that to yourselves!

After a solid 3 hour stint of driving we deveated off the main route and up Chowmundi mountain to see the famed temple and have a leg stretch. Some nice hairpin bends before being greeted by the most glorious colours at a market at the top of the mountain outside of the temple. Also chance to buy some lovely outfits to take home for Charlotte!

Only another 2 hours and we were in the jungle, just in time for it to get dark. It was literlly like someone had turned out the lights, and so time to pass over the controls to Abilash who did a mad sprint through th elephant and tiger reserve and up the first of the hairpins of the Nilgiri Mountains before finding the recommended guest house part way up!

A long, long day driving in the heat (for some reason we prefer to drive with the windows open rather than use the air conditioning!) but it layed us up for the night close to Ooty, and old colonial hill town where we were meeting some of the trustees from Happy Home Orphanage to view some land with a view to purchasing for the building of a second orphanage.

After a pretty uneventful flight and only a few hours sleep it was great to quickly reclimatise to the noise, people & surroundings of Mumbai. We were met by a local guide, Thomas who had agreed to escort & explain about the slums of Dharovi. We wanted to understand the workings of this slum and get a better sense of the resourcefulness of the people that reside there.

As slums go, this was definately one of the more organised and wealthy ones that we have visited. 55% of Mumbai population live in the many slums of around the city. Dharovi alone generates an incredible £550 million to the economy of the city every year. We learned such so much that will help when it comes to creating opportunities to channel this resourcefullness for some of the more deprived orphan and slum children from the country.

It was amazing to discover just how much of the world’s goods originate from this slum, but most of those big brands will never know!! Through Thomas we were able to spend time inside some of the small factories and industrial hubs and even spend time on the corrugated roof of one to survey just how much work and product drying goes on, above ground level!

As you might imagine we got to see some incredible sights, both humbling & inspiring & we soon became reimmersed in the friendly & cheeky way of the youngsters here!

It was great to contribute to the community school scheme where they appear to be doing a great job of helping the children find a sustainable way towards an even better life away from the slum, although I wonder whether for many they will enjoy the education and stay?! Although in Western terms, it’s dirty and unhygenix in many parts, it does work and there is an incredible sense of community bewteen multiple religions without crime or violence. There aren’t many places in the world that can boast that these days!

What a great thing to have experienced. Definately something to be admired. The only thing I would have changed would have been to have had a few hours more sleep for the great distances we walked straight off an overnight flight … But many of the guys we met would have given anything to have experienced that … So everything’s relative!! To put into perspective, it takes 3 days to walk around the whole slum – it’s huge! We just did a small cross-section but saw such amazing extremes.

A short siesta later & the world feels so much better! Time for a dew beers and an explore. We thought we might have a curry tonight too!!

Take care all & will keep posted our adventures & discoveries on here …

We WERE beaten by the volcano in the end!  As we eagerly awaited details of our flights, we learned that our flight had been cancelled on the morning we were due to go.  I can only guess that this meant our plane was still in Mumbai and so even if the airspace opened (which it did 25 minutes after we were due to take off!), we wouldn’t have had a plane to travel in!

We both wrestled with our disappointment at such a worthwhile and exciting adventure being brought to a close – why??  Consoling ourselves, we thought that perhaps we could just get out a few days later;  but with such an unprecedented event there was total chaos everywhere and we could not get a rescheduled flight for love or money!  Personally, I was so cross and frustrated at so many levels!

Less than 48 hours later my 6 year old daughter, Charlotte was admitted to Cheltenham Hospital for eye tests.  She had previously had a bad ear infection which had lingered, but then started complaining of blurred vision, and she would have to cover one eye just to watch telly and read.  Our GPs had given here antibiotics and recommended a course of action, but her eyes started to point in different directions as though there were pressure on the back of her head pushing on the mechanics of the eyes from behind.

The eye tests escalated into Charlotte being admitted into the hospital and given a CT scan, which fortunately 90% ruled out a tumour, but indicated a possible blood clot on the brain.  The following day she was moved to the specialist neurology unit at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol for an MRI scan, which confirmed the clot, along with damage to the eyes as a result of a very rare, but very serious condition.  Poor Charlotte has been there ever since and fortunately continues to receive amazing care.  Her conditions, whilst serious, are treatable and she continues to make great progress, but we are all resigned that this is more of a marathon than a sprint and hopefully she will be out of hospital within the next ten days or so, although treatment will last for a number of months.

I have included a couple of pictures below. On her first day in Bristol an explorer came to visit the children there and brought with him his collection of rare pets, and so Charlotte loved playing with snakes, a tarentella, skunk and meercat as part of her induction! If only all hospital visits were that much fun!

We will get back out to India once Charlotte’s condition is more stable, and have recently received details of some land in Ooty on which we may get to build our first orphanage!

What a huge blessing that Charlotte is in great hands, but thank you so much to Mother Nature and the Icelandic volcano that kept me in the UK and on hand to support my gorgeous little girl and family through this traumatic ordeal!

What an interesting few days it has been, tracking the progress of Iceland’s volcanic cloud and the thousands of poor travellers stuck and unable to get home! 

As many of you know, Roy and I are pretty excited about our forthcoming India trip and so have had a pretty tense time waiting for the UK airspace to open up again so that we can get clearance to fly out.  It’s been a long time coming, but finally there is promise of planes flying once again in and out of the UK airspace from tomorrow (the day that we are due to fly!).

We have the capability to flex our travel plans by up to 4 days, maybe 5 days, but beyond that we have work commitments (work being the thing that currently sponsors 100% of mine and Roy’s involvement and travel with GCT), but more importantly the monsoons are on their way, and so we have a very tight window in which to travel.  What is meant to be … will be, so watch this space!  We will be!!

At one point we did consider a plan B which was to travel by train to seek out orphanages in Romania, and we would still like to do that, but right now it’s going to take more than a volcano to scupper our plans in India!  Prior to the announcement of about UK airspace we were looking at driving across Europe and flying out from Spain or Toulouse, but fingers crossed we will get to leave from Heathrow as planned. 

The big risk now is that we get bumped off our flight in place of delayed business class and first class passengers who may be prioritised above us, and as we’re self funding once more we cannot afford to upgrade.  We do however have the wonderful Amooti (marketer for Ewan Macgregor and Charlie Boorman’s ‘Long Way Down’ programme) fighting our corner with JET Airways to try and make sure that we don’t get bumped.  Thanks Amooti, and looking forward to you working as part of the team once we’re back.

Back to the packing, and hopefully a bit of sleep too, although I am currently feeling so churned up inside sleep might be a tad optimistic!  AA real mixture of fear, trepidation and bucketfuls of excitement that precedes most big trips or adventures I partake in, although this feels on a par with the volcano!  Must mean we’re in for a good trip J 

I am genuinely humbled by the support that we are receiving – thank you J 

If you fancy having a bit of fun, why not email us, or place a comment on one of the posts requesting us to do a dare for money.  You suggest the dare, and the amount that you are prepared to pay to sponsor us to do it, and if it’s do-able and worth it, then we’ll do it!  Remember that ever £10 or euro 10 makes a big difference out, but don’t feel limited to 10!!  Where possible, we will post photographic evidence of us doing the dare.  last year we raised lots this way, and had a great deal of fun too! 

Take care all, and please keep checking back here for our progress and updates.  It means a great deal. 

Nigel x

Local Businessman Brings a Taste of India to the Classroom

Local Businessman Nigel Watson brought a taste of India to classes at Ashton Keynes School and pre-school, particularly as class 1 is helping to raise funds ready for Nigel’s second trip to Southern India which is happening later this month.

Nigel’s daughter attends (school) and has seen first hand just what her dad’s hard work has done to help underprivileged children in Third World countries. Upon his return from his previous trip to India in November 2009, Charlotte asked many questions about his trip and has heard just how her dad and fellow charity partner Roy Cooper trekked across Southern India to raise funds for his co-founded Charity The Global Children’s Trust, as well as many other Charities including UNICEF, Banana Appeal and Rainbow Trust.

Nigel explains, “I wanted to come and speak to the children about my experiences in India because I think it is important for them to understand from a young age that they are extremely privileged and that there are other little children in the world that need our help. My daughter often asks questions like ‘what is their school like?’ and I have to explain that it is part of the reason that myself and Roy Cooper (co-founder of The Global Childrens Trust) are helping raising funds, so that they can have things we take for granted like schooling and clean running water”.

Class 1 is helping to raise money to buy chickens and goats which Nigel and Roy will be buying once they are out in India later this month. In their previous challenge (the Karma Enduro challenge), they covered 2000km of hard driving across southern India through jungle and over the Western Ghat mountains range many times as they weaved in and out of rural India. Collectively, they raised £150,000 for Unicef and Rainbow Trust!

“Roy and I are excited to be heading off for the slums and orphanages in Southern India again in two weeks time! Our trip will see us arrive in Mumbai for 24 hours and take us once again straight into the slums of Dharavi (as recently featured on C4’s Indian Winter series), before heading off to Goa for a night and to pick up a car before driving to Masinagudi (Tamil Nadu) and then NE to Bangalore” says Nigel.

Nigel is the founder of Cotswolds-based performance culture consultancy Q4 Solutions and co-founder of The Global Children’s Trust.
For more information visit www.globalchildrenstrust.org

ENDS

Editor’s Notes
Nigel Watson is one of the most experienced performance culture specialists in Europe. He has been managing director of Q4 for almost a decade and has over 20 years experience in serving corporate household names.

Q4 Solutions delivers programmes of leadership development, workshops, facilitation and coaching. Using acknowledged leaders in their field, Q4 has assembled a formidable array of talent under the overall guidance of Nigel Watson

Nigel’s career has been spent in the people, performance, process arena and he has worked with many prestigious clients, including: Alliance & Leicester, Augusta Westland, BP, BAE Systems, EDS, KPMG, Logica CMG, Selfridges and Vodafone.

Nigel was also part of the company responsible for: training the skippers and crew for the BT Global Challenge Yacht Race, creating a joint civilian leadership school at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and for working with Sir Clive Woodward in developing the shift in behaviours and performance for the England 2003 Rugby World Cup Squad.

For further information visit www.q4solutions.co.uk
For press enquiries please contact Amy Larman on 01603 477 949 or by email amy@mediajems.co.uk.

Roy & I are excited to be heading off for the slums and orphanages in Southern India again in about 3 weeks time! Our trip will see us arrive in Mumbai for 24 hours and take us once again straight into the slums of Dharavi (as recently featured on C4’s Indian Winter series), before heading off to Goa for a night and to pick up a car before driving to Masinagudi (Tamil Nadu) and then NE to Bangalore.

It’s definately going to be quite a challenging drive on our own, but that has some appeal, and will be compensated for by the opportunity to seek out orphanages en-route in the quest for further project that we can support from Global Children’s Trust.

We will of course be posting blogs and pictures of our adventures and experiences at regular intervals.
This is also a ‘dry run’ for putting on a series of organised trips between orphanages in this area that will raise further funds for GCT and provide opportunity for people to connect with the projects they support first hand. We’ve already had a great interest in these trips, which will ultimately spread further across the globe as we do!

Talking of other parts of the globe we are extending our reach into the following areas :

Zululand, Africa - We are delighted to have been able to part sponsor some of Kevin Allen’s (aka Banana Man!) amazing work in Zululand. Kevin’s work feeds the hungry, malnourished, impoverished and starving children of Africa with fresh fruit through Food to School Programmes. You can buy his book and read all about his incredible adventures here (each book feeds a child for 1 month!) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Banana-Man-Inspirational-Accidental-Thousands/dp/1905823738 It’s one of the best books I have ever read!!

Zululand, Africa – Hot off the press – GCT will be sponsoring a programme aiming to transform the belief and lives of deprived children in Zululand through the power of football. This is currently a completely separate project to the Banana Appeal, but we hope to join them up soon. We will share more on this exciting project, and the presentation of the new GCT football kit presented by the Zulu Tribal Chief shortly.

Kenya, Africa – We are looking into the possibility of building a teacher’s house alongside a school we helped build several years ago so that the Keynan government will sponsor the appointment and salary of a new teacher.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Roy is heading out to Brazil & Columbia in June combining some adventure and exploring with the opportunity to get deep inside some of the most impoverished and dangerous slums anywhere in the world to see how we can support some of the organisations who are already there and making a difference. Check this out –

Video – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcdoxO2axJY
Website – http://www.a-r-d.org/RIO%20Library/Favelas.html

Africa – We are in discussions with an amazingly passionate and driven lady called Amooti Binaisa about how to help execute her visions to:
• Distribute intelligence to transform rural African communities
• Track aid projects across the world to promote shared learning and take significant cost out of support projects
This is also the lady responsible for the marketing of Ewan McGregor and |Charlie Boorman’s ‘Long Way Down’ project. Our kind of lady – Amooti, we salute you! ?

Generic – Very early stages, but last weekend, I had the most incredible and surreal conversations with Kanya King, the founder of the MOBO awards (Music of Black Origin) about joint projects in India and Africa. Lots of water to flow under the bridge to bring this to fruition, but here’s what happened (an excerpt from my email back to Kanya), so I have to believe that it was meant to be:

“Even more incredible though was what happened to me just before you came up to speak! Some things had happened in the morning which told me it was going to be an exceptional day.

First off, I found myself crying before your session (for only the second time in 20 years – not a stat that I am particularly proud of, but very significant all the same!) Then you came to speak, and 30 seconds in, I had the most incredible vision of how we were going to work together. The rest of your talk (which was inspirational and extremely clear) served to confirm why I had that vision and belief, and provided some insight into the how we will get things done.”

There has to be some reason why I keep waking up at 4.30\5.00am most mornings inspired to write and connect with key people. It’s time to act and move towards playing on the world stage!

The whole concept of a charitable trust that not only puts 100% of funds raised to supported projects, as well as supporting existing causes in a way that makes them sustainable, where sponsors and donors can get involved first hand, and even manage their own projects within the umbrella of GCT is blowing a welcome hole through the traditional model of charity organisation – and long may it continue!

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world” Mohandas Gandhi

With regards to Happy Home, we learned over the Christmas break the full implications of the WWF’s (as in the World Wildlife Fund one, and not the World Wrestling Foundation!) plans to increase the tiger reserve boundary within Tamil Nadu where the Happy Home orphanage exists.
The redrawing of this new boundary would threaten the very existence of the orphanage and neighbouring school.

During this period of uncertainty, we were approached by the Indian Trustee of the Happy Home orphanage (the other 5 main trustees being based in Switzerland) to see if Global Children’s Trust would sponsor the building of a new orphanage in a new location to relocate the Happy Home’s current orphans and staff. It was always our plan to sponsor orphanage builds, but not quite this soon into GCT’s existence. That said, and with children’s futures at stake there was only ever going to be one answer … which of course is “yes!”

The plan was to relocate orphanage itself to nearby area about 45 minutes away, where it might be possible to purchase some tea plantation land and build from scratch. As it stands today, it would appear that Happy Home themselves and the local school are likely to be able to remain is great news! Having uncovered a potential formula however, whereby Global Children’s Trust would fund and build a new orphanage from scratch to house another 85 orphans we are considering just doing it anyway! Although with the pressure off somewhat, things seemed to have slowed down at the Indian end!

Roy and I head back out to Southern India towards the end of April and so will be able to determine the viability and appropriateness first hand. We will also be exploring the other capital projects, such as building and stocking a library, computer suite and climbing frame whilst out there.

Unfortunately, many of the resorts in this area will be affected by the redrawing of boundaries. In particular Jungle Hut and Jungle Retreat, where we stayed on our recent endurance trip remain very much under threat of compulsory purchase and closure. Naturally they are appealing against the proposed decision, and we wish them every success in their appeals. In particular Anushri, and Vikram from Jungle Hut have been invaluable in supporting GCT efforts with Happy Home.

Watch this space …