Hello everyone and welcome to the charity section of my blog!

I decided to include this section not only in this blog but also to my personal athletic journey where I hope I can invite more people to realize generosity beyond their own passion, triathlon.

I find this multi-disciplinary sporting event a destination sport. Having the opportunity to visit places I have never seen before not only allows me to appreciate the beauty of hidden corners, but also appreciate opportunities I’m blessed with.

That is one of the main reasons why this drive is put in place: to help the local community I will come to visit for my main triathlon event of next year (2012).

When friends ask me ‘why this?‘ or  ‘why you?’ I like to list the following points that drove me to start this fund-raising:

- I realized that one does not need to be a celebrity, an elite or professional athlete to help other people.- I would like to think that all of us have a calling to make this world a better place, but that doesn’t come easy, or that may not even be true at all. This is more of a personal goal I have set for myself which is to do something that will benefit others more than it will benefit me.

- More often, we try to aim for big goals that might seem very overwhelming or even ambitious at first. I wouldn’t say thinking that way is wrong but in this case, I’m would like to achieve a smaller goal that is aimed at a specific program where our help can really make a difference in people’s lives.

- The idea of merging my passion for triathlon, and at the same time being able to extend a hand to less privileged groups makes this a greater, personal and enriching experience altogether.

In this regard, I have chosen my target race happening in February 2012 which is Ironman 70.3 Sri Lanka and I have chosen the Biodiversity & Elephant Conservation Trust (BECT) as my chosen non-profit organization beneficiary for my fund-raising drive.

Formed in 1998, The Biodiversity & Elephant Conservation Trust is an active initiative in the conservation and biodiversity of elephants in Sri Lanka. One of their strategies is to create awareness through school children in the rural areas who are affected by Human-Elephant Conflicts.  Apart from the many needs of the people in this community, it is proper housing and education that we can help support.

The BECTcarried  out a survey of the families that had the father or the mother killed by a wild elephant. The initial compiled list was of 94 families and 72 children who needed help the most. Many of these children were not able to go to school due the lack of basic necessities like school books.

This will be the fourth year that BECT is carrying out this exercise. Now the list has increased to 154 children.

(You may read further on The Biodiversity & Elephant Conservation Trust at http://www.elephantsinsrilanka.org/about.htm)

I hope you can join me to achieve this goal and make it happen. Thank you so much and I look forward to have you join me in this adventure!

Many thanks in anticipation for your support!

Edu

*Mark of Authenticity

-  All contributions and donations will be tracked by a PayPal donation application found on the main page of this website. At the same time, constant updates on this fund-raising initiative will be written in detail for everyone’s knowledge.

-  I will personally visit BECT a few days prior to my race to spend a bit of time with our beneficiary and get to know them better.  In this way, I will be able to find out and eventually share with everyone how our little help has gone a long way.