Anne Desir, Chair of Batemans Trustees, worked with former Batemans student Michael O’Brien to put together a short video about the Open School and girls’ hostel.
Author: admin
The boys' hostel… in 90 seconds
Watch Jacob David introducing our short video showing life at the boys’ hostel.
Come to our 2016 Spice Lunch
Why not join us at our 2016 Spice Lunch and find out more about everything that is going on in Chennai!
It will be taking place in Steventon Village Hall, near Didcot, in Oxfordshire on Sunday September 25th, starting at 12.30pm.
Adult tickets are £14 each, with all children under 10 able to come for free!
Apply for tickets by downloading this form or pay online at www.justgiving.com/batemanstrust and then please send us an email to batemans.events
Batemans alumni say thank you
Watch our film featuring some of the hundreds of young people in Chennai, India, who have benefited from our support and gone on to forge successful futures.
Read all about Batemans in our Winter 2015 newsletter
The latest issue of our newsletter updates you on what’s been happening in Chennai, highlights the great work being done by our staff, volunteers and supporters and provides an update on our ambitious plans for the future.
Download the latest newsletter here.
Earlier newsletters:
Give a little sparkle this Christmas with the Batemans Wish List
Each year the Batemans Trust wish list helps us to support the children we care for. This year, to allow us to ring fence contributions to the school building, we are asking for your help cover some of our core costs like clothes, food and teachers’ salaries.
How does the wish list work?
We will send gift cards containing a small Christmas tree decoration to anyone donating more than £10 to The Batemans Trust Wish List. These cards can be sent to friends and family to let them know that you have made a donation by way of a gift to them.
To order one or more gift cards, donate via our Wish List page on JustGiving then email mail@batemans.org.uk with your name, address details and number of cards required.
Alternatively, download the wish list here, print it out, complete the form and post to the address on page four as soon as possible.
Why I am running a marathon for Batemans
Mike Sewell, chair of the Batemans Trust and managing director of Cambridge-based communications agency CPL, explains why he has taken on a marathon challenge.
On Sunday May 25, I will be running my first-ever marathon in Edinburgh. Unsurprisingly, quite a lot of people have asked why I’m doing it – so here’s five of my reasons.
It’s for a cause that’s close to my heart
In 2006 my family spent a year volunteering for the Batemans Trust in Chennai, south India. We had a true once-in-a-lifetime experience, not least my three children who picked up a bit of Tamil and experienced the joy of going to school in a four-seater rickshaw crammed with eight people. More importantly, our eyes were opened to the way Batemans’ work helps to transform the lives of youngsters from some of Chennai’s poorest and most disadvantaged communities. The training has been hard but, without wishing to sound too trite, it would have been a whole lot harder if I hadn’t been able to draw on my own experiences to remind myself what it was all for.
I wanted to run a marathon before I’m 50
My fellow CPL directors Mark and Jonathan sometimes refer to me as TSTO – the“tall, skinny, tense one” – and they have a point. I’m the right build for long-distance running and have always thought I’d run a marathon at some stage. But coming to it without having run more than three miles in one go for about 30 years, the training has been rather harder than I’d expected.
I really don’t like losing to my brother
25-plus years ago my brother David, who is 11 years older than me, ran the London Marathon in 3hrs 23mins. When I signed up for Edinburgh I’d hoped that I might be able to beat that time – but since I’ve started training, I’ve accepted that this ambition is naïve at best. Whether or not I decide to run another marathon may depend on how close I get to his time this time round.
It’s (sort of) fun training with my son (and my dog)
My 13-year-old son Ollie sometimes runs with me. In principle, this is a good thing. But, annoyingly, he’s quite a good runner so it can be dispiriting to have him casually chatting all the way round while I struggle to keep up. The dog is rather more sympathetic, although I doubt Mo Farah has to carry poo bags during training.
I wasn’t meant to be doing it alone
Last December, my friend Patsy and I promised to run our first-ever marathons in 2014, and Edinburgh is the result. Patsy trained really hard and was on target to record a great time until, sadly, she injured herself a couple of weeks ago – leaving me to run the race solo. Having said that, she’s already helped to raise thousands of pounds for Batemans and will definitely be running a marathon within the next 12 months – and, depending on how Edinburgh goes – I may join her.
The Batemans Trust is CPL’s official charity and, over the past few years, the company has provided Batemans with thousands of pounds worth of pro bono support.
Support Mike’s marathon efforts by donating here: www.justgiving.com/patsyandmikemarathon
Kent event raises £2,000
Batemans supporters in the Kent area raised around £2,000 for the charity in the latest annual lunch hosted by the Sheila and Gerald Wilton.
We apologise for omitting to mention this in our latest newsletter, particularly as this group of people have been such loyal and consistent donors to Batemans over the years.
Many thanks to Sheila and Gerald and everyone who supported the event.
Help us buy a plot of land with our 2013-14 Wish List!
The Batemans Wish List is a great way to donate to Batemans – and give a Christmas gift to your friends and family.
This year, the money from the Wish List will go towards our fundraising drive to buy a plot of land in Chennai where we will eventually be able to build our own school and boarding home.
Complete the Wish List here and we’ll send you a handmade gift card to pass on to the recipient of your choice.
If you would prefer to donate online – and do not require gift cards – please visit our Just Giving page at www.justgiving.com/BatemansTrust
Batemans announces project to buy land for its own school and boarding home
The Batemans Trust has announced exciting plans to buy land to develop our own primary school and boarding home in Chennai.
This major project forms the key part of Batemans’ strategic plan for the next five years, which revolves around ensuring the charity can continue to effectively meet the needs of Anglo-Indian and other deprived young people in Chennai.
By buying land to develop the charity’s first permanent home of our own, we will be in a much better position to control the ever increasing costs of some of our projects. The building would include a school for children aged between five and 11 and a boarding home for five to 16 year olds.
The charity has made some great strides forward in recent years, with an all-Indian management and teaching team running its key projects, which between them support more than 100 young people.
But there are significant financial challenges. The cost per child has almost trebled in five years, with spiralling rent and school costs. It’s great that we are running more projects but they are on different sites and this inevitably leads to higher costs.
Our ambition to buy land and then build our own modern and sustainable home – in a less expensive part of Chennai – will mean that, in the long term, our day-to-day running costs will be significantly reduced.
The Trust is undertaking a fundraising drive with the first milestone being to raise the £70,000 required to identify and buy a plot of land, ideally before prices increase too much more! This year’s Batemans Wish List gives you the chance to help kickstart the process.
To support this – and to help ensure Batemans’ ongoing projects continue to be effectively supported – the trustees are also advertising for a part-time fundraising expert, who will focus on applying for grants from public and private bodies. See more about this role here.
