Magic Bus UK

We were proud to have Gordon Brown and Tessa Jowell vist our programme in Mumbai.

February to June 2007

UK NEWS

Please attend our Summer Party!

Gordon Brown visits Magic Bus

The team and children were very honoured to have the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, now Prime Minister, visit them during one of their sessions in central Mumbai. He said of the programme "You can see here today what Magic Bus is all about - opportunity and community". The Chancellor had planned a fifteen minute diversion from his busy schedule to visit Magic Bus, but eventually stayed for over an hour spending considerable time talking to all the staff members and interacting with the children.

Tessa Jowell volunteers at a Magic Bus camp

We would like to thank Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State for Culture, Sports and Media and Rita Patel for volunteering at a camp held for children who work at the dumping grounds of Govandi, Mumbai.

You can hear Ms. Jowells experiences of Magic Bus on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYjkgByd8N4

Premiership partnership

Magic Bus is pleased to announce a three year partnership with the Premier League. Richard Scudamore, Chief executive of the Premier League, who visited the Magic Bus Centre and an inner city session in January, said of the partnership 'Magic Bus is just the type of partner we should be engaging with….Their model of local development and community ownership chimes with the Premier League view that any contribution we make must be sustainable'.

Mike Gatting coaches the auction prize winners!

Mike Gatting very generously donated an hour of his time to coach auction prize winner Bijan Dhanani and friends at the Lord's Cricket Ground in London. They had a very good session and as you can see in the photo were thrilled to be in the presence of one of the 'greats' of cricket!

Run for the Bus!

The UK runners have raised more than £15,000 for Magic Bus after their amazing efforts in the Mumbai Marathon in January! This is a huge achievement and we are all very grateful! We reported the run in the last newsletter but since then more and more sponsorship has been trickling into to make this fantastic total!

Gareth Davies recently run for us in the 10km Great Manchester Run and managed to cross the finishing line at the same time as Dame Kelly Holmes, well done Gareth!

Hardeep visits the St Catherine's Home girls

The writer and comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli, who has recently been busy with television and radio appearances on BBC Question Time and a number of other shows, on top of all his writing, visited some of the children who are on the Magic Bus programme in Andheri back in January. He was deeply affected by the visit and after compeering at last year's Bombay Banquet for Magic Bus, the visit made him even more determined to continue his relationship with the charity. He has another visit up his sleeve later in the year which we are greatly looking forward to.

Summer Party

We are very busy planning for the Summer Party, which will take place in Stationer's Hall on 10th July, in partnership with the Premier League and The England and Wales Cricket Board. A live sports quiz will be staged, hosted by Manish Bhasin, star of BBC Sport, with a team of cricket celebrities going head to head with a team of football celebrities. All profits from ticket sales will go directly to Magic Bus for the sports programmes.

Click here for more information: http://www.magicbusindia.org/htm/uk.htm