By Katharine Rogerson | Marketing & Communications Officer
Atlas Asia was set up to continue the work of The Nicholson Memorial Fund. The Nicholson Memorial Fund was set up by Ben Nicholson in memory of his wife Anita and their two children Alex and Annabel who tragically lost their lives in the Sri Lanka bombings on Easter Sunday 2019. Anita was a hugely popular member of the Atlas Foundation family. She set up and ran our first ever fundraising dinner with a Halloween themed event at the Singapore Cricket Club on 31st October 2018 with Jason Leonard there to promote Atlas’s work in the Far East, raising over £20,000. We remain eternally grateful to her and are all devastated to have lost her.
Projects:
The need to support vulnerable children in Asia continues, and we remain committed to that goal. We are determined to keep expanding our reach and maintaining support to thousands of children, helping with education, health and wellbeing through our partner programmes in Asia.
Operating in over 30 communities in Kolkata, and having expanded to other townships including Saraswatipur, North of West Bengal, Bengaluru, and Jarmundi while supported by Atlas, Khelo Rugby uses the sport to provide the children with education, support, and a safe space. For 20% of children in Khelo, their lives are clouded by the difficulties of living in extreme poverty; Khelo Rugby hopes to ease such difficulties. In an area where schools are often poor, with absent teachers and no equipment, Khelo rugby is changing lives, as is clearly evident by the rise in graduation rates from 18% to 80%.
Recently, with Khelo Rugby, the success of their rugby programme highlights the importance of the sport within the community, and hence the knock-on success in boosting education, inclusion and health. Future Hope Harlequins won the Kolkata Rugby’s Centenary Cup, 54-5! On top of this, a player within the project has been selected for India's Rugby Squad for the Asian Games Rugby 7s.
The work of Future Hope and Khelo Rugby is paramount, and recently our ambassador Max Courtis visited to understand and capture their monumental impact.
The work of Lanna Rugby Club focuses on the children facing socio-economic difficulties in the area of Chang Mai. Through support, empowerment, and change, Lanna Rugby Club is inspiring hope and helping to build a brighter tomorrow for Thailand's children, one game at a time.
In the run up to the Asia 7s and the Asia Games, Lanna Rugby Club were visited by both the men's and women's teams of Kazakhstan rugby. Through clinics and coaching, rugby was used to connect the two teams, with words of wisdom being passed on. Following on from this, 4 teams within Lanna Rugby Club were then selected to represent at the National 7s.
What started off as 240 clean water systems in schools has turned into a partnership with StudyCat and Atlas resulting in a teaching initiative in Cambodia.
Updates from Kampuchea Balopp brings news of the success of the purpose-built language lab. Through WAH and StudyCat, the children have access to an interactive whiteboard and 25 tablets, providing new access to digital literacy. A new initiative to bring a mobile classroom to rural areas of Cambodia is currently being piloted to bring education in areas that do not have stable access to it. We are excited to see how this progresses and give updates.
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