About me

Pace Setter Events and the Vitruvian Triathlon are proud to offer its athletes the opportunity to join the first ever ActionAid/Vitruvian community sponsorship team and help build a long term and lasting relationship to help improve the lives of the children and families in the Maharastra district of Mumbai in India.

Sibs and I have decided we wanted to make a long term commitment to a cause that is close to our hearts and as a result we have undertaken to sponsor a little girl who lives with her family amongst the other thousands of slum dwellers in this impoverished district.

Her name is Payal, she if four years old and is one of a family of two children and lives in her Family’s makeshift home with walls and roof made of discarded plastic. As they do not own the land on which their shelter is built they always face the risk of eviction. Education is very limited for children like Payal and many children at some point in their life become rag pickers, hunting through rubbish to collect rags, plastic or any item that may be of some value.

Like most of the families in this part of the slums, Payal belongs to the Dalit community which are considered to be the lowest caste in Indian society. Many families in this area are so poor that they can only afford one meal a day and clean water is not readily available with wells and boreholes polluted by gutters or sewers.

For Sibs and I this is a life time commitment that we are making to support Payal, but we realise that most people don’t feel able to commit to, this but we are hoping to that the additional sponsorship raised by the Vitruvian / Actionaid partnership can be targeted at specific projects in this area which are referred to as “Priority Projects” by the charity.

These projects include providing shelter, food and education for other children in the same communities and all the money raised will go directly to these projects of which we will keep you informed as they progress

Our long term plan is to try and sponsor a number of children in the same area and try to encourage those athletes that feel they can commit to the longer term sponsorship of a child to do so as well as working towards the community projects.

Our support of ActionAid is offering the opportunity for athletes to work in partnership with local people in the slum districts of Mumbai, and to help them to improve their lives. We hope you will be a part of it. What ever you do to help we would like to thank you for your help and support. Every little step makes a difference.

Yours in sport

MARK SHAW & SIBYL ANDERSON