Charity

The Lotus Children's Centre Charitable Trust - The Lotus Children's Centre Charitable Trust is dedicated to providing care, accommodation support and education to orphaned, abused, and abandoned children in Mongolia. The Lotus Children's Centre was set up in 1993 by Australian Didi Kalika, who started simply by giving food and basic medical care to children living on the streeets of Ulaanbaatar. She soon realised that more was needed, and with the help of friends built a small home for the children in the ger district of Yarmag, on the outskirts of the capital. Harsh economic conditions in Mongolia resulted in more babies and children being abandoned, and the project grew. In 1997 Didi founded a kindergarten, and this was then followed by The Lotus Primary School. Since then Lotus has cared for and educated up to 150 children at any one time, in small family units each looked after by a housemother. As the children have grown up there has been an increasing emphasis on vocational training programmes to prepare them for adulthood. Lotus also runs a Guesthouse in Ulaanbaatar staffed almost exclusively by ex-Lotus children, which not only provides employment as the older children leave school, but also generates profits which contribute towards the running costs of the Centre. In 2009 Didi Kalika was awarded the Order of Australia for her services to the street children of Mongolia.
The Lotus Children's Centre Charitable Trust
The Lotus Children's Centre Charitable Trust is dedicated to providing care, accommodation support and education to orphaned, abused, and abandoned children in Mongolia. The Lotus Children's Centre was set up in 1993 by Australian Didi Kalika, who started simply by giving food and basic medical care to children living on the streeets of Ulaanbaatar. She soon realised that more was needed, and with the help of friends built a small home for the children in the ger district of Yarmag, on the outskirts of the capital. Harsh economic conditions in Mongolia resulted in more babies and children being abandoned, and the project grew. In 1997 Didi founded a kindergarten, and this was then followed by The Lotus Primary School. Since then Lotus has cared for and educated up to 150 children at any one time, in small family units each looked after by a housemother. As the children have grown up there has been an increasing emphasis on vocational training programmes to prepare them for adulthood. Lotus also runs a Guesthouse in Ulaanbaatar staffed almost exclusively by ex-Lotus children, which not only provides employment as the older children leave school, but also generates profits which contribute towards the running costs of the Centre. In 2009 Didi Kalika was awarded the Order of Australia for her services to the street children of Mongolia.

Event details

Mongol Rally 2012

14 July 2012

An adventure car rally London to Outer Mongolia. For further information please go to The Adventurists web-site http://www.theadventurists.com/the-adventures/mongol-rally


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The Inglorious Drivers's fundraising page

Fundraisers: 
Olivier Spaenjaers, Jean-Loup De Reymaeker

My page: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/theingloriousdrivers

Hi, thanks for visiting our page. Through Virgin Money Giving, you can sponsor us and donations will be quickly processed and passed to charities. Virgin Money Giving is a not for profit organisation and will claim gift aid on a charity's behalf where the donor is eligible for this. We really appreciate all your support and thank you for any donations.

BUT...

So what's all of this nonsense about? It involves driving a clapped out old granny car around the world from Belgium to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia during July / August. It is being 'organised' by the Adventurists and has been running for a number of years. As always it has a bit of a loose plot but we will be heading east from Belgium through Eastern Europe, past Chernobyl (Ukraine), Russia twice (a double entry), Kazakhstan and finally Mongolia. The route, plan, and our general safety and wellbeing are in our own hands as the Adventurists basically just see us off at the start line and hope to see us again at the finish line, where we will be rewarded with cakes.

The roads are likely to vary somewhat along the way from holding up traffic at 100 km/u on the autobahnens in Germany to being stuck behind a mule caravan in the Gobi desert.

We are team 'The Inglorious Drivers' - one of nearly 200 teams taking on the challenge and consist of Olivier and Jean-Loup.

We are likely to experience pot holes the size of mine shafts, the extreme heat of the desert, people who have no comprehension of English but do their talking by carrying AK47's with them, Dysentery, breakdowns, Mongolian death Worms! and policemen who like to be bribed. We are likely to stay in 'hotels' with bathrooms that you wouldn't consider washing your dog in, camping in the middle of nowhere hoping we aren't killed by bears or robbed in the middle of the night and may even spend the odd night in a cave.

So why are we doing this? Well basically life is too boring without adventure and there’s a lot of world out there to see, and there’s no better way of seeing it then being down on the ground driving through it.

f we are going to do something this stupid then let's do it with a good and clear conscience. For this year 'Mongol Rally 2012' we decided to help the charity: 'The Lotus Children's Centre'. It’s the charity picked by the event organisers.

The Lotus Children’s Centre is a Mongolian non-profit, non-government organisation working with vulnerable children and families to provide the basic human rights of shelter, food and education. We care for up to 150 abused, orphaned and abandoned children at any one time. Initially set up to provide basic needs for survival for just a handful of children in one apartment, Lotus has developed a kindergarten and a primary school to provide educational foundation, and is developing vocational pathways for employment opportunities.

 

You can keep up to speed with our progress here:

http://mongolrally12.theadventurists.com/the-inglorious-drivers

You can read more about the charity here:

http://www.lotuschild.org/

 

Thanks for your support,

Team ‘The Inglorious Drivers’

aka

Olivier & Jean-Loup

Fundraising has now finished, but thanks for visiting this page.

Recent donors

29.08.12 mabrouk!

05.07.12 Have fun and enjoy!

24.06.12

24.06.12 Best wishes from me and Danny!

19.12.11 test

19.12.11

£140.00

Running total

Target:
£1,000.00
Total raised incl. Gift Aid:
£156.25
Total donors:
6
Biggest donor:
Daniel Pan - Masterpiece (****P)
£50.00  
Last donor:
tessa
29.08.12  
Offline fundraising:
£0.00