GB Group's annual fundraising initiative - the ID3® Challenges
"When the going got tough, I just kept thinking that every metre climbed was another goat or square metre of land towards our farm in Nepal!"
(Participant in the 2006 ID3 Challenge)
GB Group raised over £22,000 for a charity in the Southern Terai region of Nepal with its two ID3® Challenges. Over the last eighteen months the company has been fund raising to support the Friendship Clinic Nepal which provides medical facilities, kindergartens and now, thanks to GB, a full-blown farm in the village of Meghauli in Southern Nepal.
In January 2008 GB invited the Nepalese chairman of the Friendship Clinic Nepal, Hari Bhanadary, to visit the company and receive a cheque for over £9,000 raised since last July. Richard Law, GB’s Chief Executive, explained: “We chose to support the Friendship Clinic Nepal after we realised just how far our money could go to improve the lives of the people in Meghauli. For instance, when the farm cow that we paid for in 2007 gave birth to a female calf last year, the increased milk production meant we can now supply the village kindergarten with all the milk it needs – and the savings this represents paid for an additional midwife at the Clinic!”
Three members of GB’s staff based in Chester recently returned from a trip out to Nepal to see first hand the work that was being funded by the company. “We wanted to see for ourselves just how the money we raise is being used. And it was a very sobering and humbling experience,” comments Richard Law. “For just the equivalent of £200 a month we can cover the costs of sending all the children in the village to a kindergarten where they not only receive an early start to their education but also learn about health and the importance of good sanitation and hygiene. They also receive a good, nutritious meal each day and this in combination with better hygiene practices has resulted in a dramatic fall in the number of medical cases coming to the village Clinic.”
Melanie Mohr, Marketing Executive at GB kept a diary of the trip: “We started our day with a motorbike ride through the village where we visited 2 more water projects and one of the health camps as a final destination for the mid morning. Driving on the back of a motorbike gave me a good chance to take it all in,…the farmer on the fields with 2 ox and a plough (no tractor), people cleaning the crops in front of their houses, people coming to the street to wave and smile at us, dogs, school children on their way back from the school either walking or on their bikes, fields of mustard, a rocky road (no tarmac), women cleaning or cooking,….nobody actually stayed inside – their whole life happens outside, which is so much different than our society.
Gareth Drury, a Business Analyst at GB, also visited the area in December: “Many people donate money to charities at this time of year – or buy goats, cows, sponsor a child as part of a Christmas gift to a friend or loved one. We wanted to see just where our goats were! Or more accurately, where our 2 fields, several wells, beehives and a pregnant cow plus calf are! The experience was fantastic and really brought home to me just how important it is – for us, as well as the Nepalese – to continue this sort of support.”
For more information on the Friendship Clinic Nepal, visit www.clinic-nepal.org or contact GB on 01244 657 333 or email mail_marketing@gb.co.uk.
