Locarno triathlon Sept 2008

Here's the last one - £5000/$10,000 was raised in total - thank you all

Here I am again, writing about the Locarno triathlon but this one is of a more positive nature so read on...........

The past 3 days before the event on Sat 6th Sept, it had poured non stop with rain so the air & lake temperatures plummeted.

The morning of the 6th I awoke to thunder, lightning & more rain.
I honestly did not want to go through this all over again but once again, there was no way I could back out.

I had raised another £1000/$2000 & the 4 guys from London who had also raised between them nearly £1000, were eagerly awaiting to participate in their first ever triathlon, amongst 459 competitors, of which very few spoke English !!

When we arrived to register, Adam nervously pointed out that everyone seemed so professional looking in their racing outfits on their fancy racing bikes, checking everyone else's fancy bikes out whilst we looked a sorry lot with the boys in their surfie board shorts with no seat padding.

Adam borrowed a 20 year old race bike but didnt have clip on shoes which hindered his hill climb whilst the other 3 picked up their rented, chunky looking road bikes.

Not having time to go for a practice ride, poor Jav's bike would not pedal going downhill, so those two will definitely be doing faster times next year!!

With the five of us wearing our VITAL tshirts, we looked more like a football team than triathletes but we were a team, connected in spirit, to raise money & awareness around us, of the plight of millions of children around the world, suffering in conditions that we, in the west, take for granted - clean drinking water, education or basic health care .

We decided to inspect the route from the swim to the bike, & to the exit where we were able to commence the cycle leg.

We could not believe the 6 inches of mud we had to run through.

There was no way you could run through mud that deep without your shoes sticking in the mud like quick sand.

Who wants to cycle & run in shoes filled with mud??

Mithra always knew I was crazy but this time he thought I had really flipped!

All summer long I would, much to his embarassment, wear a wetsuit, whilst swimming in the lake.

Come the end of summer, 3 days of heavy rain with the lake rising 2m/6 feet from cold mountain water feeding into the lake, I decided to do the swim without a wetsuit.

Surely I could put up with 12 minutes of freezing water.

There was no way I was going to suffer another panic attack in a wetsuit!!

I was pleased with my swim, concentrating on a good strong swim rather than feeling sorry for myself in such cold water.

Tom was opposite me in transition & threw me a much appreciated warm smile (he's such a cutie) as I raced off with my bike.

Meanwhile Adam was hopping around on one leg trying to put on his bike shorts whilst the pro next to him whipped off her outfit in a quick orderly manner & was gone like lightning.

I decided to clip my shoes onto the pedals & run barefoot through the mud carrying my lightweight bike.

I then wiped the mud off my feet on where ever I could find grass, unclip the shoes & wear them without socks!

As I pedalled out, I missed the clip & scraped a 4 inch long scratch down my shin, which drew blood.

The open wound was then splattered with mud. I hoped it would not get infected.

Oh dear, when did I last have a tetanus shot?

I ignored the pain & fear of lockjaw as there were more gloomy things to think of ahead of me!

(Incidently, at the end of the event I noticed the pain was more than the achy sore muscles!!)

It was not long before the guys whizzed past me.

I was accused of going on a sightseeing tour I was so slow!!

Once again I froze with fear as a new challenge lay ahead of me - the strong wind blew in sideways rather than head on, tilting my bike at times to 30 degrees (well at least that's what it felt like but probably more like 15 !!)

I actually thought the bike would slide sideways underneath me like motorbikes do in the movies but I pedalled on, once again in the rain.

Then came the uphill climb that I was aware of & dreaded.

The wind changed & was now head on.

I thought I would have to walk the bike as I ran out of gears, when what seemed like a never ending hill, finally plateau-ed out.

How does one do a U turn without stopping??

Now the return down the hill in the rain. I stopped pedalling at 48kph/30mph as that was plenty fast enough for me.

I have no hesitation at driving 110mph/176kph in either a pruis or a porsche but on a bicycle, I'm afraid of speed.

The first km of the run all I could think of was - I'm getting too old for this.

The 2nd km I thought - I really mustnt force Mithra into doing this next year for fear of him suffering a heart attack!!

At the halfway mark I was offered an energy bar. Concentrating on chewing this disgusting tasting bar over the last 2.5km made the run so much more bearable.

I must remember to carry one next year as Adam said he was never offered one!!

So, thank you cheer squad for enduring the rain, the wind & the cold to cheer us on - you guys are the greatest.

Thank you friends & family for your support & generous donations.

Please take a look at this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfAOVKjmDfg & KNOW that your donation WILL HELP hundreds of children like that little girl, receive an education, & remove her from the cycle of poverty.

If you wish to donate again & help many more like her, you can still do so at www.mycharitypage.com/YvonneNeuman

See you all at the House of Lords black tie dinner next year ok?? God bless you all & those children Yvonne xx

Primitive tribes

We loved our first visit to India so much that we asked our guide, Suvo, to organise an interesting tour for our return in January 2007 & he suggested the tribes in Orissa.

This was to be a gruelling trip of 8 hours each day in a car, travelling along narrow winding roads full of potholes after the monsoon rains had eroded them away.

There were no fancy 5 star hotels, no restaurants or toilets, as we were in the middle of no where, visiting tribes very few people knew existed.

Tourism in this area had only started 20 years ago with about 12,000 visitors each year.

There were 3 different markets we had to reach, on certain days to see these tribal people walk miles to buy & sell goods.

The Bonda tribe was the most fascinating for me with only 3000 of them left, living in the mountains 1000m above sea level, untouched by modern civilisation.

We came across Dongaria Kondha, once infamous for their practice of human sacrifice, Kutia & Desia tribes with their tattooed faces & arms, & the Gadabas, with their brass or aluminium ornaments & large hooped ear rings.

Then there were the very colourful Santals with flowers in their hair or the Parojas with their silver pins in their hair, armlets & bracelets.

It was after we returned from this trip that I had decided upon the next chapter of my life – to set up a charity to help the beautiful children who, despite their living in poverty, were still able to welcome us with such warmth & happy smiles.

The next 3 months was spent researching charities, statistics & reading, as much as possible on the net.

It was very disturbing, depressing & very often I was in tears to read about what is happening out there, so very far removed from the comforts, safety & warmth of my home.

What a rude awakening to the privileged dream life in which I exist.

I emailed several charities in Kolkata making appointments to see them. This would my 3rd visit to Kolkata in 7 months. I was hooked.

I chose 3 projects to support & returned to London, fired up to start my charity, but having never entered the “business” world (my work was motherhood for the last 25 years) I couldn’t even fill out an application form to open a bank account!

To register the charity in the UK I had to complete a 30 page form whilst my son registered the charity in the USA.

We then set up a Foundation in the USA to underwrite all the charity expenses so that 100% of the public donations will go to the children.

This Foundation will also donate each year to the projects should we not be able to raise enough funds.

To minimise spending too much of the Foundation’s money, we tried to get as much done as possible gratis…Rian for design of logo, Tom for design of website, Michelle for the website as it stands today & most of all, the help from my husband & two sons…the list goes on.

In November we decided to take the Trustees to meet the grassroot charities we partnered as well as to meet & see for themselves, the children & the appalling conditions in which they live.

In April 2008 I was back to teach the teenagers living in the red light district & will return in Nov to teach them again.

In the meantime, read the next blog on my fundraising events….surely there must be easier ways to raise money???

my first trip to Kolkata

When I first arrived in Kolkata, I was not warned that my five senses would be assaulted.

The heat and the humidity when you first walk out of the airport makes you want to strip down, then a man hands me a plastic cup the size of a thimble filled with sweet hot milky tea.

I accept thinking what a kind gesture but when he asks for money after I gulped down the tea, I am embarassed but luckily I have some Indian rupees, the smallest being a 100 note which he cannot change as the tea only costs a couple of rupees.

The taxi ride to the hotel starts with a constant horn blasting in the congested traffic so the earplugs the airline offered would have come in handy.

You are constantly on edge as your car is sandwiched inches away from other vehicles. You feel that any minute your car will be hit so you try to take your mind off it and watch the scenery only to be shocked by the poverty and the slum areas.

I don’t like air conditioning so I wind down the window but the pollution from the car fumes & the heat is so strong that your throat starts to hurt and your eyes sting and I reluctantly appreciate the air conditioning and wind up the window.

Your car stops at the traffic light and you jump out of your skin when you hear a knock on your window. You turn your head and your heart beats furiously as you see a deformed beggar or a child carrying a baby motioning for food to eat.

I thought I was prepared for this but obviously I was not. I didn’t know what to do and the driver didn’t speak English. Do I wind down the window and give money?

But these people look so dirty and frightening I turn the other way and the knocking continues until the car drives away. I feel guilty and ashamed.

The hotel is sheer luxury, the other extreme of what I have just witnessed. Clean, cool and the staff are SO friendly.

You actually feel their sincerity when they welcome you but once again, that guilt was waiting to surface inside me, how can I stay in a place like this when the cost of one night must be more than a month’s salary for a taxi driver?

After a hot shower, good food and feeling clean and refreshed we meet our guide Suvendu, who we previously arranged to spend the week with us.

Naturally I was full of questions, the first being, what should I have done with those beggars knocking on the car window? Would they be aggressive? Could I catch any disease from them if I touched them?

He was adamant that you DO NOT GIVE them money.

This only encourages children not to attend school. He gave an example of how a tourist gave $200 to a child. This generous kind hearted tourist did not realise that word quickly spread to the villages outside of the city as well as within the city.

Kolkata was inundated with children running away from home, dropping out of schools and parents sending their children in to beg, all in search of this tourist, in the hope that there would be plenty more of these generous tourists.

As to the other question, no, they are not aggressive and just don’t touch the lepers who may still have blood on their bandages!!

First Vital Blog

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the Vital Blog. Please keep checking for updated news about our charity.

Thanks.

Yvonne