Nick Gowers, the Vicar of Holy Trinity Old Hill, will becycling 100 miles in the Birmingham and Midlands Velo on Sunday 12 Mayto raise funds for Koshish, a mental health support charity in Nepal. He isparticularly aiming to complete their online appeal to provide emergencyservices to 100 Nepalese woman and girls per year that have suffered fromviolence and who have subsequently been abandoned in the streets due to mentalhealth issues.
Nick says:
Our church has had strong links with Nepal over the years.Following a visit to our church in March by Matrika Devkota, the director of Koshish,I wanted to use my 100 mile ride in the Velo to raise funds for these peoplewho have no mental health support whatsoever. For me the Velo is apersonal challenge to do something Ive never done before. It has forced me to bedisciplined with regular sustained exercise which I find so helps with ministry,life and well-being. In the build-up, I really enjoyed the head-space,prayer-space, and freedom of cycling on the roads.
KOSHISH plans to provide emergency services to 100 Nepalese woman and girls per year that have suffered from violence and who have subsequently been abandoned in the streets due to mental health issues. This project will provide counselling, therapeutic services, legal support, food, medicine, and housing to these woman and girls that have experienced trauma which has lead to mental health illnesses and ultimately their abandonment in the streets.
If you would like to support Nick or find out more details,please visit www.globalgiving.org/fundraisers/29098/.
Nick will be joining 17,000 other riders on the Velo 100 through Birmingham, Warwickshire and the Black Country. David Morris, Vicar of the Bowbrook group of parishes between Worcester and Droitwich will also be cycling, but is not raising money for charity. David said:
When you have cycled together with people for 6 or 7 hours, thereis a lot of time to chat. People are often surprised that you are there andalso that Christians can be quite normal! Just by simply being present allowspeople to talk about faith-based things that they would usually feeluncomfortable to express. For many, sports go deeper than what they do,they speak to who they are.
Good luck to Nick and David and to all those taking part in the Velo 100.
