Magic Bus Events

500 Magic Bus supporters ran the marathon!

Tribals fly in their Flight of Fantasy...

May to January 2007

EVENTS

Magic Bus on National TV!

Run for the bus...!!!

Mumbai Marathon, Asia's biggest charity run with 30,000 runners was a perfect example of diversity and unity of India. Magic Bus had an overwhelming response with 500 supporters comprising children, staff, volunteers and our corporate partners, Lehman Brothers, Edelweiss, Cleartrip and Deutsche Bank. A major highlight was when the 7ft. red & white football, representing our programme, was rolled by the team for the entire Dreamrun! All stakeholders carried messages of the Magic Bus goals of promoting gender equality, child's right to play and sport for all. 8 Magic Bus supporters flew down from UK to participate in the full and half marathon.

Sally Barrett from North London joined a few thousand others to run in the full (42km) Mumbai Marathon. She went on to place 1st in the Woman's Veteran Category.

Nearly one hundred Magic Bus girls and boys participated in the marathon, it was a new experience for many to run along with thousands of people promoting a cause. The children were excited and joyous to be involved in such a historical event. They had been training since the past one month and displayed huge dedication in completing the run. The targets for the next marathon are already on the forefront of everyone's minds!!!

We thank Martin Da Costa of Seventy for sponsoring the HUGE ball.

We are extremely thankful to everyone's fundraising efforts with individuals raising anything from Rs. 200 to Rs. 2.5 lakh!

We thank Tara Sharma for participating in a training session with our children and motivating them for the run.

Magic Bus on National TV!

250 children celebrated Independance Day in Magic Bus style... playing football in the rains and rolling in the mud with the Lil' Champs, contestants of a popular musical show, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa on Zee TV. This was an excellent platform for children from different communities to come together and enjoy a game of football without any inhibitions of gender, caste or religion. It was simply a moment of enjoying the spontaneity of childhood.

JP Morgan bring magic to BMC school project

JP Morgan lend magic to our BMC school project by taking an initiative in organizing a fun day for the entire school which houses the Urdu as well as Hindi medium sections. This initiative holds paramount importance to us as it was a stepping stone in realising our goal of 'bringing communities together', as the event was entirely managed by our corporate partner. 280 children from both sections were pleasantly surprised to be spending a day playing various games and watching a magic show. The event brought together children from both schools without having a preconceived feeling of communalism. There was interaction without any hesitation of gender. The school authorities and staff were pleased with the event as it became a platform for both schools coming together for the first time!

Children of construction site workers have a day at Atria Mall....

Deutsche Bank was instrumental in providing an experience of 'play' to children of migrant construction site workers, whose world is confined usually to the harsh construction sites. 90 children from across 5 centers of Mobile Creche, our partner NGO had a day out filled with activities and loads of games at the Atria Mall, Worli.

Dare to Dream....

Magic Bus this time had chosen 20 tribal children living in a village perched on the hills of Peth in Karjat. Most of these children have rarely left the hills; visiting a city is far beyond. They travel by foot to the nearest school which is 5kms away and the nearest bus stop takes nearly 2 hours. Access to electricity and water is a luxury for them, which is rare. Staring at a plane over the hilltop is the nearest they can get in their world. It was beyond their imagination when they celebrated Children's Day (14th November) by experiencing a 30 minute plane ride in the Mumbai skies! The Flight of Fantasy, sponsored by Jet Airways & GE, in some ways sowed the seeds of 'dare to dream'. The once-in-a-lifetime experience continued with the children spending time playing with the waves at Juhu beach.