16 learning January/February 2009
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SPONSORED ARTICLE
S
port
England
has just
announced an
investment of
�480 million
across England
to deliver
grassroots sporting opportunities
and a lasting Olympic legacy of
one million people playing more
sport.
Forty-six sports, including all
2012 Olympic and Paralympic
sports, have been awarded
funding on the basis of their
ability to increase the number of
people playing and enjoying
sport, and to create development
pathways for those with talent.
It is great news for Cumbria,
and will lead to an improvement
in a number of sporting facilities.
This, coupled with the new
five-hour offer that will see
school children increase the
amount of sport they do to five
hours a week, means that great
leaps are being taken to put a
stop to our increasingly
overweight society.
Fourteen sports, including
fencing, wheelchair basketball
and taekwondo, are receiving
funding for the first time.
Sport England's chief executive
Jennie Price said: "Sport
England has worked hard to
ensure that this investment
delivers value for money and,
most importantly, results.
"We believe that our
partnership approach with
national governing bodies, and
other parts of the sporting
landscape, will capitalise on
London 2012 and leave the first
ever grassroots sporting legacy
from an Olympic and Paralympic
Games."
Amy Clement, marketing
officer for Cumbria Sport
Partnership, said: "We have a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to
get more people participating
regularly in sport.
"This will be a tough challenge
but with this huge investment in
the broadest range of sports we
believe it can be done."
Many exciting sport projects
will be funded including
improvements to over 100 park
sites to get more people involved
in tennis, expansion of the `Go
Running' campaign by British
Running, and expanding the
successful `Go-Ride' network of
child-friendly clubs.
Cumbria's `Active Cumbria'
newspaper campaign, the new
`Change for Life' campaign from
the NHS, and this new
investment in community sports
will help the county become more
active, healthy and successful.
Olympic-sized,
�480m goal
Cumbrians are helping to educate some of the poorest girls in a remote
part of India. Kelly Eve talks to the founder of a remarkable school
O
n July 4, 2004, Joanna
H�rm�'s dream came true
when a school in the village
of Charkarsi, about 130
kilometres from Delhi,
opened to educate 126 girls.
She and her boyfriend Gaurav, to
whom Joanna is now married, had seen
the plight of children who were unable to
go to school because of gaps in
government provision and because fees
were too much for those living in poor,
rural areas.
At the time, the pair were working for
an organisation call Global March
Against Child Labour when they decided
they wanted to do something to help
those most in need.
Gaurav's father Rajvir was retiring
and wanted to give some of his large
farm over to helping the community in
Uttar Pradesh. Together they raised
�35,000 and created the Free Schools
India charity to build the school and
ensure it had enough funds so it could
provide free quality education.
More than four years on and pupil
numbers have almost tripled and the age
range has been extended to cater for girls
up to the age of 13 before they must move
up into high school.
There is at least one teacher in each of
the eight classes and occasions of
Building a school �
and hopes � in India
Making it possible: Joanna H�rm�, left, founder of Free Schools India, and her mother Rosemary, who lives in Carlisle
and helps run the charity from home JONATHAN BECKER
A place to
be proud
of: Top,
pupils
make their
way to the
class-
rooms
after
assembly.
The
school,
with its
newly
painted
exterior,
below, is
in the
village of
Chakarsi,
in Uttar
Pradesh,
about
130km
from Delhi

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