Countdown to the MPC India Trip in April 2013!!

For most of us, a year seems like a long time. It’s two semesters, three week-long holidays, and four report cards but when you have a year to fundraise $3600 the time can still seem short. The sixteen monarch students going to India next year have until April 8th, 2013 to canvas their neighbourhoods, hold bake sales and carwashes and, if all else fails, get a part-time job.

The money goes toward the schools latest trip with Free the Children, a Toronto-based charity founded by the Keilburgers. Free the Children was established when Craig was 12 years old after he read an article about children’s rights activist Iqbal Masih. Since then the Keilburgers have been working to stop child labour in the developing world by providing other sources of income, sanitizing water, and building schools. Monarch has been to Kenya three times previously with the organization before and is trying something new this year by going to India.

The experiment begins when the students fly overnight from Toronto to Delhi were they will spend three days. During this time they will tour the city, see the locals, and visit the Taj Mahal. They’ll have the opportunity to shop and see the sights before starting work on the school. On day 5 the group travels to Udaipur where the school is located. For the next five days they are immersed into Indian culture. Along with building the school the students will interact with the community through hikes and yoga and will experience many daily chores in the lives of the locals such as carrying water from a well on your head. When the students come back, they will have experienced a new part of the world, a new culture, and will have helped better the lives of many people. Anyone who is going can start counting down the days to an amazing trip.

By Sean Pitre-India Trip 2013