Many described the 10-day adventure in India as “life-changing” and are determined to repeat the experience in two years’ time.

HEAL founder Dr Koneru Prasad announced during the trip that a new coastal cycling route, from Mumbai to Goa, was being considered for the fourth Cycle India event.

After five days pedalling through the beautiful hills and backwaters of Kerala, the intrepid team of 23 cyclists from the UK, India and USA developed a strong bond and cameraderie, which has been reflected by a buzz on social network websites ever since.

Cycle India 2012, which is expected to raise more than £40k when all UK fund-raising is complete, was closely monitored in the Indian media along the way.

Since returning home, many of the cyclists have had more news of their exploits published on blogs and in the press, while much of the chat between the new-found friends on sites such as Facebook and Twitter has been all about the countdown to 2014.

“I am definitely keen to be part of Cycle India 2014,” says 38-year-old nurse, wife and mother-of-two Zoe Smith.

“What an amazing trip that was, honestly unlike any other trip I have ever had. The camaraderie was incredible, the people inspirational and the feeling of euphoria impossible to describe.

“My emotion after the big hill-climb on day three was incredible and made all the better by being able to share it with such wonderful people. It was amazing to step out of the ordinary to do something extraordinary.

“Looking back, I did nowhere near enough training but the team spirit, the feeling of doing something worthwhile and the inspiration of HEAL pulled me through.

“I now plan to sponsor a child in India and hope to see that child grow and flourish under the nurturing umbrella of HEAL. I’m already looking forward to visiting the Children’s Village in Guntur again.”

Grace Shephard, a 53-year-old PA, along with husband Adrian raised money for HEAL by holding Indian dinners at their home in Warminster, Wiltshire.

“Not until the cycle ride was over and we arrived in Andhra Pradesh did I feel the full impact of our challenge,” admitted Grace.

“We visited the site of Paradise Village, seeing the plans for the whole complex and witnessing the early stages of the school building rising from the ground with the unrelenting work from happy local workers.

“We also went to the Heal Village in Guntur where we were greeted by hundreds of beautiful children full of life and ambition, and made a brief visit to the slums where many of the HEAL children would still be breaking stone in the quarry if not for the charity.

“This experience was truly life-changing, full of every emotion. It made every push on the pedals and fund-raising event worth the time and effort a million times over. Bring on 2014 to see those children again!”

Husband Ady, a 54-year-old events manager, agreed, adding: “We were looking for a special holiday to mark our 20th wedding anniversary and we certainly found it!

“For me personally, the ride was transformative on many levels. It was a great team-building experience, with cameraderie and mutual affection between us from the word go. We Brits aren’t always as stuffy and cold as our reputation!

“What a wonderful adventure and what a feast for the senses – warmth, colours, countryside, vibrancy and great food!

“It was my first time in India. Receiving the garlanded welcomes from the children was humbling and it all came as a big jolt to my moral compass. I’ll just say that I’m not quite the same as I used to be since the ride.”

Ann Cripps, who prepared for Cycle India by biking in the Yorkshire Dales near her home, is another planning another fund-raising trip in two years’ time.

“What will remain with me a long time is the visit to the HEAL Village – turning the corner and seeing all the children waiting to greet us was overwhelming and then being shown around so spontaneously by different children and realising the warmth and closeness of their life together.

“It was a magical couple of days that I feel privileged to have shared. Needless to say I plan to return in 2014 and my sister is keen to come as well!”

Led by Heal founder Dr Satya Prasad, 23 cyclists from England, Scotland, Wales, India and the USA pedalled 280kms in five days through the plains, hills and backwaters of Kerala, south of Mumbai, mostly in temperatures in the low 30s Centigrade.

During their 10-day trip the group also visited schools, a hospital and Heal projects, including the Children’s Village in Guntur and the ambitious new Paradise Village site in Andhra Pradesh.

Along the way they received welcome donations from local businesses, with most of the funds raised going towards new buildings at the Paradise project, which will become home to 1,000 orphaned, abandoned and needy children.

Heal’s head of fundraising in the UK, Matthew Glover, gave the event a big thumbs-up and said that organisers Kalypso Adventures had already been retained as partners for Cycle India 2014.

“Our first Cycle India in 2008 was a great success and we built upon that two years later, but 2012 was the best Cycle India yet and that was thanks in large part to Kalypso who did a great job,” he said.

It was also revealed by Dr Prasad during the trip that plans are afoot for a new biannual Cycle India event for Indian participants to run on alternative years, while plans are already in the pipeline for the UK to host its own Lands End to John O’Groats ride later this year.

The cyclists were warmly welcomed throughout the duration of the challenge from Kochi to Kumarakom and took every opportunity to interact with local children at towns, villages and schools along the way.

But nothing could prepare them for the tumultuous greeting they received at the Heal Children’s Village where hundreds waited in hot sun to celebrate their arrival before entertaining their guests with a spectacular stage show filled with song, dance and colour.

Some members of the group were even able to meet face-to-face with the youngsters they sponsor at the village, while others, such as Cycle India first-timers Emily Young and Stephen Garrett, were moved to sponsor children for the first time.

Upon leaving Guntur, Stephen and fiance Emily were heading straight to Mumbai for their own traditional Indian wedding.

A number of the cyclists have already put their names forward for Cycle India 2014, with a route provisionally planned to run down the western coastline from Mumbai to the popular tourist destination of Goa.

Please sign up to the Heal newsletter to receive more Cycle India reports and stories and the latest fundraising news, as well as regular updates of progress from the Paradise Village project.

Diwali is one of the most important festivals of the year in Andhra Pradesh and is widely celebrated by families, who perform traditional activities together in their homes.

Celebrations include decorating homes with lights, sharing sweets and gifts, as well as worship and religious rituals, but undoubtedly setting off festive fireworks is what the Heal children look forward to most of all!

The story behind Diwali and the manner of celebration varies from region to region, but the essence is the same – to rejoice in the awareness of the ‘inner light’, the uplifting of spiritual darkness and the celebration of the victory of good over evil.

In Andhra Pradesh, festivities start out at the crack of dawn and carry on well into the night. Most people make a trip to the local temple along with their families to seek the blessings of their respective gods before the night sky is lit up with a dazzling array of noisy fireworks.

The children of the Heal Village in Guntur may not have family homes where they can enjoy these celebrations, but there is nevertheless the feeling of great joy and excitement as their faces are lit up by sparklers under the watchful eye of their teachers and house mothers, safe in the knowledge that they are all part of the Heal extended family.

A 20-acre site has already been acquired and cleared and is ready for construction.

Donations are needed to help turn the dream of ‘Paradise Village’ into a reality, with sponsors being offered the chance to fund a classroom or building, perhaps in the memory of a loved one or maybe in the name of a company.

In this short video, HEAL’s Steve Sargent shows the stunning site of the new school in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, and explains what will soon be provided for the children.

He also talks about the poverty trap in this part of rural India and how the creation of a self-sustaining and mutually beneficial village community can help to break that cycle of poverty to bring hope to this and future generations.

Please watch the video, see how you can help, and then contact us through this website for details of easy ways to contribute and improve the lives of thousands of needy, orphaned and underprivileged children.

If you would be interested in sponsoring a child or have considered volunteering in India then please contact Ann at healsec@hotmail.co.uk.

Dearest Brother Ramanna Anna,

How are you? I am NagaLakshmi Gadiparthi from HEAL India. I remembered the happy day yourself and akka visited me in HEAL. Your visit gave me a lot of confidence.

Within 2 months I will be completing my 9th class. Tenth class is a turning point in life. I am studying hard and getting an aggregate of 80%. We have good Teachers. I like mathematics and Science. After Intermediate I want to do B.Pharmacy. With your support and blessings I hope I can fulfill my aspiration.

On 8th January we had a team of 30 people from England (Cycle India Team). They cycled around 200 miles in India to raise funds and to help the needy children of the HEAL. On that day the HEAL Children were so excited. On that day we celebrated Annual Day celebrations. I was there in Karate. You can see me in the pictures. I hope you like that.

Thank you very much for everything.

Love,
NagaLakshmi Gadiparthi

NagaLakshmi Gadiparthi taking part in a karate display as part of celebrations for Annual Day

Visitors from the UK and US visit the Heal Village as part of Cycle India 2010

Dear Kathleen

Best wishes
Janet Brooke

Our Heal children achieved very good grades in the SSC public examinations, with 43 children out of 46 achieving first classes and the remaining three children achieving second classes.

Mr P.Srinivasulu of our Nandana Rural School who is under Poverty Trap Scheme scored the top – 566 marks out of 600. This is 94.33% and 21 of our children achieved at least 500 marks.

These excellent results have been achieved through the hard work of the children and teachers – well done to you all.

Many of these children would never have had the opportunity to receive such an education without the financial support of Heal. For just £7.50 per month you can sponsor one of our children under the Poverty Trap scheme at Guntur to receive an education.

There’s also a nice image of some of our boys enjoying some modern dancing at the Sri Venkateswara Bala Kuteer School.

If you would like to make a real difference to one of our children please consider sponsoring a child.

Report from Adele and Albert Alcock:

Albert and I first visited Heal Children’s Village in 2006 and the happy memories of that visit stayed with us and encouraged us to start to save up straight away to visit again and finally at 4pm on the 27th January 2008 we arrived at Vijayawada airport. Vijayawada is approx 60km from the Children’s Village. Vijayalakshmi (sponsorship secretary) and George (Vijaya’s husband) had offered to meet us at the airport and transport us to Heal. Meeting Vijaya and George again was brilliant as we had spent time with them on our previous visit and had stayed in touch via email ever since.

The journey on India’s roads is not for the faint hearted but surprisingly once you get used to the constant honking of horns and pot holes on the roads you learn to sit back and enjoy the ride – all the drivers we experienced were excellent!

The journey to Heal took us 1.5hours and we were met on arrival by Dr Manga Devi, it was wonderful to meet this remarkable lady again.

Dr Manga Devi organised a lovely meal for us and we caught up with the latest developments at the village. Getting used to using fingers to eat rather than knives and forks takes a bit of practice especially when you are eating curry and rice!

We were also introduced to Kirsty Brodie who had been working as a volunteer at the village since arriving earlier in the month after taking part in the Cycle India sponsored bike ride from Hyderabad.

The following morning before going for breakfast we sat outside the guest apartment to take in the peace and tranquillity of the campus and watch the children going by to carry out their early morning tasks. Whilst doing this Hafisa (our eldest sponsored child age 14 yrs) arrived with her friend to greet us – it was so good to see her again and we couldn’t get over how much she had grown up and also overcome the shyness we had seen at the previous visit. At breakfast we met up with Kirsty again and we made plans to visit the two schools on the campus – The English Medium School and The Telegu School. There are children from Heal at both schools.

We started off by watching the morning assembly at the English Medium School then following that after encouragement from Hafisa and her friend went to watch the year 9 students morning karate class – or so we thought but all three of us where dragged in to participate!!!!!!!!! Whilst this was happening Marudhvathi, Co-ordinating Officer, arrived to greet us and arranged for our us to meet for the first time our younger sponsored child – 5 yr old Ambedkar – his smile was just beautiful and whilst he couldn’t speak/ understand much English Hafisa and Marudhvathi translated. Both children were then given some time away from their morning lessons to accompany us around the Teleguise school and to allow us to have some quality time with them. We visited the Toy Library and met some of the pre-school children, played with them for a while and made our minds up that before we left we would arrange to buy some new tricycles as the existing ones in the library where past their best. We also visited some of the other younger children and they recited nursery rhymes for us and we watched as they played games such as their version of ‘Simon says’ and musical chairs.

Maraudhvathi explained that they had an ongoing project on the campus to train teachers and there was to be a seminar later that afternoon where the trainees would benefit greatly from being able to talk to us and ask us questions around our culture and the education system etc in the England if Albert, Kirsty and I where agreeable – we said of course but we hadn’t bargained for being asked individually to stand up and make a speech!!!!!!!!!

Later that evening we went to visit the Heal children at their cottages and everyone wanted to hold your hand or play thumb wars with you ( a game introduced to them by Kirsty) and when they saw the camcorder they all wanted their photo taken then playing back to them. Everyone was trying to talk to us at once all trying to practice their English – as they were supposed to be studying we kept our visit brief and promised to see them all again the next day.

The next day we spent some more time with Hafisa and Ambedkar before they went to school. We then went into the schools again for a while before going to Vijaya & George’s home for lunch. It was nice to be able to sit and chat and look through the photo albums recording various events that had happened at Heal. Before returning to Heal we managed to find a toy shop in Guntur to purchase a couple of tricycles for the nursery children – 500 rupees for two (approx £6 sterling!!!!!!!!) Albert got some strange looks as he walked down the main street in Gunter carrying them. We then spent the evening with Marudhvathi sorting out the gifts we had brought from England for the children as it had been arranged for us to see all the Heal children together before school the following morning to distribute everything.

Our final day at Heal arrived too quickly – after breakfast we went to meet with the Heal children outside their cottages.
They were all sat spick and span in their school uniforms waiting for us. As we arrived they all started waving and clapping the site brought tears to our eyes!

After speaking to the children and encouraging them to continue to work and play hard and take care of each other we then, with the help of Kirsty and some of the older children, distributed small gifts to each child, ensuring each child got a lollipop and then another small item – balls, stickers or puzzles for the younger boys, hair bands, slides and clips for the girls with coloured pens, pencils or crayons for the older children. Marudhvathi then showed the children the books and DVD’s we had also brought for them all to share. The sheer joy you see on the children’s faces when they receive the smallest of gifts is a pleasure hard to imagine without experiencing it yourself. Photos and camcorder footage again taken in abundance and everyone crowding round wanting to see the pictures. Too soon it was time for the children to go to school so we said our goodbyes and arranged for Hafisa and Ambedkar to come to the guest apartment at lunchtime so that we could say our goodbyes to them before we left for our afternoon flight back to Hyderabad.

Through out our stay where ever we went children would be coming up to us wanting to talk to us, hold our hands, show us different things. The House Mothers made our meals brought us drinks and snacks and generally looked after us – we couldn’t have wished to have been better looked after and we were very sad to have to leave and hope to be able to visit again in the future.

Adele & Albert Alcock
21st February 2008