Official launch of the scroll on WIMA Day: 25 April 2004
Ex-WIMA President, Sheonagh Ravensdale, has launched a Round the World Motorcycle Relay to raise funds to build a refuge and school for young girls at risk from prostitution in India....
WIMA officially adopted the India Street Kids Project as the first ever WIMA global charity at the August 2004 International Rally in the Netherlands. We have now obtained full charitable status in the UK (charity no 1108088) and will be launching a dedicated website www.indiastreetkids.org very shortly.
A scroll, on which people write their names in return for a donation, left Dorset, England, by motorcycle on 25 April 2004 at the start of an epic journey. It has already toured the UK and Ireland and is currently travelling round Germany. It will finish in Europe at the August 2005 International Rally in Sweden. From there, we plan for Japanese women to take it home before sending it on to New Zealand in time for the November 2005 International Rally. Then around Australia and the USA, finishing up in the USA in July 2006 at AMA Women in Motorcycling Conference with, we hope, at least 50,000 signatures.
Now back to the reason for all this...While Sheonagh and a friend were riding a motorcycle round India in the late 80's, they were shocked by the scale of poverty particularly in urban areas. Then as publicity first began to surface, Sheonagh became aware of the problem of child prostitution. Working in the travel industry, she began to realise how this was exacerbating the problem. The Times of India reported back in 1997 that up to 400,000 children were involved in the sex industry and that the figure was rapidly increasing due to the internet and tourism.
Research shows that there are a few projects to help boys, but very little for girls. Sheonagh became determined to "do something" and enlisted the support of WIMA. She writes:
"With 2000 members across the world, many of them mothers with children, we have a fantastic opportunity of making a significant difference to the lives of countless children.
I visited three registered Indian NGO's (non-governmental organisations) in Mumbai and Goa in November 2004 and we are currently raising funds to build a shelter for the Mumbai (Bombay) project Saathi.
To date, we've raised nearly £4,000 and our target is £125,000 - so we'll be grateful for your help! You don't have to be a motorcyclist to join in! And we've sent £1200 to Saathi as they needed a deposit for their new emergency shelter - so our money's working already.
We have some ambitious fundraising projects - please join us on 17 September for an all female FIREWALK in Peterborough UK! Just ask me for details. Asking your boss for a raise will never scare you again after you've done it - trust me I've done it! (and the firewalk!)."
Sheonagh on a borrowed Enfield, near Ooty in southern India.
- Secure online server:
- UK£ cheques payable to:
WIMA INDIA STREET KIDS PROJECT
c/o Sheonagh Ravensdale
6 Stottingway Street,
Upwey, Weymouth,
Dorset DT3 5QA - bank transfer to HSBC
15 Cornhill,
Dorchester DT1 1BJ,
England
sort code: 40-19-21,
account name: WIMA INDIA STREET KIDS PROJECT,
account number 71414623.
Email sheonaghravensdale@tiscali.co.uk and she'll send you details of the Indian projects. Volunteer opportunities are available. Zany fund-raising ideas welcomed (as long as you're volunteering)! Sponsorship forms gladly available on request to WIMA members or bona fide contacts of WIMA members.
TYVEK®
scroll sponsored by:
TECHNICAL DETAILS: Our scroll material was kindly donated by Conservation by Design in Bedford. It's made of Tyvek - amazing stuff which is flexible, lightweight, waterproof, writable on but pretty unsmudgeable, cuttable but barely tearable - absolutely brilliant stuff. The first 20 metres are on the road - and we've got another 4 sections to follow on when the first lot is full of signatures - so please help to fill it up!!!
Sheonagh on the Rajdoot 350 somewhere in India. Two up it was unbelievably uncomfortable.