COVENTRY-BASED Global Care is searching for fund-raising heroes to take on its Shack Challenge this summer.
Over the harvest season, the charity is inviting people to take on a challenge to live with restricted food over five days, or spend one day in a restricted living space.
John White, Global Care’s CEO, said everyone had repeatedly seen the vital role education played in a long-term route out of poverty and the charity was doing all it could to help families survive the immediate crisis.
It was important, he said, whilst desperate to put food on the table today, families did not lose hope or sight of the way education could ‘build a better tomorrow’.
“The brutal reality of the coronavirus pandemic is the impoverished families we support are becoming even poorer.
“We really hope people will take up our challenge, to stand in solidarity with families who live with such restrictions all year round, and to help Global Care keep saving lives.”
The food challenge is based on the contents of emergency food parcels delivered by Global Care to families in Patripul, a slum near Mumbai, throughout the pandemic.
The restricted living challenge asks families to cope in just 10sq ft of space – approximately the size of homes in Patripul.
People will raise sponsorship funds by taking on either of the challenges.
The Shack Challenge will run from August 23 to 27 with participants urged to share their journey on social media.
After Rebekah’s father and brother died, she and her mother were supported by Global Care with food parcels throughout the first lockdown, and seemed to be doing well.
However in the second coronavirus wave which swept India, both became infected.
Rebekah’s mum died at home, after being turned away by hospitals because she was undocumented.
When Global Care partners visited, they found Rebekah ill at home, alone.
Initially they paid neighbours to provide food, but when her condition deteriorated, they paid for private hospital care.
Rebekah needed ventilation, and may not otherwise have survived.
Global Care’s partners began searching for a home for Rebekah after her relatives initially refused to take her in, and contacted the authorities about her case, and advocated for Rebekah’s needs.
Global Care began in Coventry nearly 40 years ago and is currently working in 14 countries across four continents.
The charity aims to support the poorest and most vulnerable children, through education, vocational training, feeding and welfare care.
Visit www.globalcare.org/Shack-Challenge-2021 to sign up for the Shack Supper Challenge
