Draft text for comments please- Fundraising booklet:
SHARING
In your neighbourhood and the groups you belong to, you can build connection with others and save money by using www.streetbank.com
REPAIRING
In your local area, if you want to support the pier regeneration, the Hastings Pier & White Rock Trust really value a broad base of local community support & regular financial support from residents as well as the new funding from the Lottery.
CARING MORE WIDELY
"If you have a vision that extends your support to where just £1 a day can provide a college education for those at the bottom of the caste system, the college I recommend supporting is a Buddhist college I visited and built a strong connection with, called Nagaloka. I have great confidence in the benefits of the work done there and would like you to join me in having this opportunity to make a really big difference for just a modest monthly sum.
I filmed the ambitions of these students from all over India & how they are going to use their education to generate personal dignity, empowerment & social change in the places they are working.
16 students in particular are being followed for what they will achieve for others in the next 10 years.
You can follow this on:
www.nagaloka-dream-cycle.blogspot.com
and/or through annual reports sent to supporters.
The course leader from the college has won a grant to come to England for two months and has chosen to spend three weeks of this time with me, fundraising in Hastings, St Leonards & Bexhill, where I live & work.
Together, I hope we shall show Nagamitra from Nagaloka in Nagpur (the central city of India), that those of us on the south coast of England are willing to make a difference when the cause is so worthwhile. Human rights, education and social justice matter the world over and you have a unique opportunity here to become personally connected with students at Nagaloka who are, one person at a time, getting empowered and helping others in a country divided by a caste system of great injustice."
(words from Paul Crosland, Director, Mediation Support Ltd)
PERSONAL STORIES
Here's some personal stories that will help you imagine the difference you could make with each of the following projects:
1) Share some gardening tools with Anita in the Southwater Area (or someone closer to you) and some benefits may be:
- a new friend or smiling acquaintance locally
- a sense of helping someone save money and clear their garden
- the creation of a 'pay it forward' system.
Though it doesn't address all Anita's concerns, living as she does in a house with large cracks in the walls, support to Anita to clear/tidy her garden near St Leonards Warrior Square station gives her more of a sense of freedom & frees her to give more time to the charity store where she works.
2) £x a quarter sponsors a series of planks for Hastings Pier.
(Jocelyn* remembers how the pier featured in so many significant times of her life; not least in courting Frank* & they both want to see the new 21st century pier, or peoples pier, as they sometimes call it, rise from the ashes in their twilight years).*NB Jocelyn & Frank's story is a story made from the words of a number of people and by door-knocking I hope to meet people willing to share their pier stories.
3) Just £1 day pays for all the costs of a college place, food, teaching and administration at Nagaloka in India and you can follow how the student you sponsor progreses & makes a difference over the coming years.
Maitriratna was born in the state of Aranchal Pradesh, born into the Chakma tribe who have always been denied citizenship rights. Inspired by a contemporary of Gandhi, called Dr Ambedkar, his mission is to work peacefully and with determination towards his people getting those rights. (Maitriratna can be seen on www.nagaloka-dream-cycle.blogspot.com and you can email him in Nagpur.)
YOU MAY BE ASKING:
If I choose to support the college in India that Maitriratna is at, does all the money get to the college in India?
ANSWER:
90% does; only 10% is taken to pay Mediation Support Ltd for the cost of producing and distributing these booklets.
The person who gave you this booklet will call round to collect this booklet back, saving resources. By then it is hoped that you will have had a chance to consider
1) sharing more with neighbours and groups you belong to;
2) supporting the pier
3) providing the £1/day costs of an education geared to social change in India.
The door-knocker who called on you will call back with the forms that enable you to divide the support you want to give the pier and Nagaloka college however you see fit.
