Peterborough family all set for Everest challenge
A family from Peterborough are attempting to climb to Everest's base camp to raise money for a school in India
A Peterborough family are hoping to raise £50,000 for underprivileged school kids in India, by taking on a massive challenge.
Vikash and Madhurita Jayaswal and their kids Tarannum and Vivaan, who're just fourteen and ten years old, will climb 18,000 feet to the Mt. Everest base camp in November.
They've been training as a family for the last 100 days, and even summit Yr Wyddfa in Wales or hike up the Yorkshire Dales every weekend as preparation.
It's all in the hope of raising £50,000 to develop the Galaxy Gurukul School in Kolkata, India, so more underprivileged and marginalised children can access education.
The school, set up by Vikash and Madhurita through their company's charitable arm the Galaxy Foundation, has around 300 students already - but the couple want to expand so they can help more families.
Madhurita said it's a shame that poorer families in India have to send their children to work instead of school:
'To earn a daily wage, because (families) are mostly below the poverty line, they would rather send their children to earn in a factory than send them to school.
That's why we're providing free education, books, uniforms, even meals. A lot of these children don't get two meals to eat a day.'
She added: 'Every time we go to India, my kids see children working in factories or children on the streets begging for food. They feel really terrible that they can't go to school...
...that was a big driving factor for us.'
Vikash said the whole mission has brought the family closer together:
'It's about the whole journey. The last four months has taught us a lot of things in life. The quality of time we've spent as a family together with a common goal has been an amazing experience.
We've probably not spent this much time in the last two-three years together.'
You can find out more about the Jayaswal's Galaxy Gurukul mission via their fundraising website: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/vikash-jayaswal