Links-India

As many of you will have heard one of the areas where we work has been hit by devastating floods with over 100 people killed.

Although Ladakh is a high altitude desert it has suffered unprecendented rainfall in the last two days which has led to wide spread flooding.  The major problem for the local people is that the houses are made from dried earth and so are simply washed away with any significant amount of water.

Currently we are supporting four nuns at the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Choglasmer – an area very much affected by the river Indus overflowing its banks.  One of our friends and supporters also lives in the area.

I have attempted to contact them but it is extremely difficult.  I will  post news as I receive it.

Welcome

A scorching hot day in New York but, willing to take on the world for Links-India, Jenny Burnard set up her stall and opened for business.  Yard sales are big in America – a bit like a private car boot sale, I suppose, but one that lasts for as long as you like.  In Jenny’s case for two solid days of hard work.

Ably assisted by friends both at the event and behind the scenes, Jenny was able to make a profit of over $800.  Wow!

Hand Painted

Jenny said “Most of the big tickets items went early on and I ended up giving away the lemonade as people were starting to wilt”

The Crew

Friends and local businesses generously donated raffle prizes which provided an additional source of income.

All of us at Links-India send a huge big thank you to Jenny, her husband Fish, his company who donated a helper for the day, Jenny’s friends who helped and helped and helped and all the people who donated raffle prizes.

Fantastic job.

Yes we did it.  The Santa Fun Run was completed by five of us last Sunday (December 6th).

Torrential rain in the early morning meant that Toby, Amanda, Harriet and Emma arrived at the start line soaked to the skin but being made of strong stuff they continued  undaunted.

Toby deserves a special mention (and a huge thank you from me) for pushing me the entire 5km in a borrowed wheelchair.

I estimate that the sponsorship so far is about £800 but I’ll let you know the final figure when we’ve got all the money in.

If you’d like to contribute please go to our justgiving page – you can sponsor us for as little as £2 and every single one of those £2 is very much appreciated.

I’ll be posting a few pictures on a separate page sometime this week.

We have the option of buying a few places for the Super Heros fun run in Regent’s Park this summer – no date as yet but let me know if you’re interested.

Easy Fund-raising and Amazon.co.uk are both willing to donate a percentage of their income to Links-India if you shop at their online stores using one of our links.

All you need to do is click on one of the above links to be taken to the site where you can do all your Christmas shopping and support our work at no extra cost.

Using the Easy Fund-Raising link you can shop at brilliant, established, reliable online stores like Argos, John Lewis, The Ethical Superstore, M&S, Vodafone, Matalan, People Tree, Littlewoods and The Early Learning Centre.

If you shop on Amazon.co.uk (and most of us do don’t we!) please access their site via the link on the left.  If you then go on to buy something within 24 hours Amazon will pay us a small but significant commission.

One thing is important and that is you haven’t visited their site directly within the previous 24 hours.

I am also looking into a bigger fundraising commission site which I will tell you about in a few days.

Many thanks

Brilliant news for us is that Guy’s Hospital hasn’t been able to proceed with its refurbishment work on its main tower.  This means that they have agreed to allow one final year of abseiling.  Once the work is finished they definitely won’t be letting anyone leave their dirty foot prints on it again.

The provisional date given is 18th Sept and we will again be limited to 35 places.  Right now I’m taking expressions of interest with the first places being reserved for our long-term supporters.

If you’d like to add your name to the “I’m interested but not ready to commit myself” list then send your name to pamela@links-india.org

I’ve set up an abseiling page and will keep that updated as I receive news.

I received an email from Geshe La this morning.  He’s just returned from visiting the nunnery in Ladakh and says that all 4 of the nuns we are sponsoring are doing really well and getting “the best education in their lives”.

The 4 nuns we sponsor were all sent to live at the nunnery either because their parents died or because they were unable to look after them.  They are now the most highly educated nuns that the nunnery has ever had.

Hi
I’ve been reviewing how we communicate with all our supporters and decided to try out something a bit new. We’ve been running this website for some time now but are aware that not many people visit it regularly. Why? Because you’ve no idea when its been updated and probably get fed up logging on to find nothing’s changed. So wouldn’t it be great if we told you when there was something new worth visiting the site for? Well the good people who keep our mailing list have sorted that all out and the great news is that people already on the list don’t have to do a thing!

If you received this message in your inbox then you are already on our mailing list, so sit back and relax and we’ll send you regular updates as and when we’ve got some news.

If you’re reading this on our website and want to be included then please scroll to the bottom of the page and sign up.
Best wishes
Pamela

Xanthe Steer is organising a 5 km Fun-Run to raise money for Links-India in Richmond Park on the 14th June.
To date she has about 20 friends ready to take part but a few more would be very welcome.
Thanks Xanthe!

Please sponsor Xanthe

On what may turn out to be the only hot day in 2009 Louisa Sington womanfully strode out across the green, green grass of Regent’s Park to complete the 5km fun run event

Massive thanks to Louisa for doing this all on her own after sicknesss and diary clashes wiped out the rest of Team Links-India!