In January I am going to Mumbai, India for a month to volunteer at OSCAR International, which is a UK registered charity which works closely with their partner in India, the OSCAR Foundation. The OSCAR Foundation is a community based Sports for Development (S4D) as well as provides a variety of resources to further support the children.

In rural Karnataka, underprivileged boys and girls face daily 10km walk to get to the nearest school. Consequently many of them rarely go, missing out on vital education that will help them break out of the cycle of the poverty that entraps their communities. With the help of the OSCAR Foundation, which supports children living in low income communities across India, the money raised will be used to provide bicycles to encourage students and facilitate their journeys. At £50, a single bicycle shared between 2 children is a low price to pay for the freedom and access to education they represents.

Further ASHA ("hope" in Hindi) is the name for OSCAR's disability programme. All funds donated support children living with hearing and visual impairments as well as other special needs. In the last few years OSCAR has transformed the lives of children who frequently live with multiple life altering conditions. Providing hearing aids, glasses and other medical support profoundly changes the lives of not just the individual but the whole family. Hearing assessment and hearing aids costs in the region of £500. A small price to pay to enable children to actively join in all OSCAR initiatives.