International lawyer Chris Parsons cycles 4,500 km in 45 days to raise funds for widows in India, on behalf of The Loomba Foundation

Varanasi: Chris Parsons, Ambassador of The Loomba Foundation (TLF), a UN-accredited global charity, has taken on a challenge of cycling 4,500 km in 45 days across the length of India to raise US$ 4,50,000 for widows and their children. The cycling campaign kicked off with Kanyakumari in the South and will terminate at Srinagar, Kashmir. After covering cities such as Bangalore, Nagpur and Hyderabad, the current stop for the expedition is Varanasi. The Loomba Foundation aims to empower over 5000 beneficiaries in India with this project, who will also be provided vocational training in tourism, hospitality, health, tailoring and food processing.

Excited to be on this venture, Chris Parsons shared, “Unfortunately, many widows in India are abandoned when their husband dies. This is where The Loomba Foundation comes in. Through their empowerment programmes, the charity provides skills training and other support to help widows become self-sufficient so that they can support themselves and their families. The journey has not been easy with many challenges in the way, but I am going to try my best and hope to raise much-needed funds for a cause that is very close to my heart.”

 In 2015, Chris had raised $3,00,000 for the Loomba Foundation by walking 1,260 km in 30 days to support 5,000 widows in Varanasi.

 Talking about the need to raise awareness for this social cause, Lord Loomba CBE, Founder, The Loomba Foundation,  added “According to UN Women, there are 285 million widows around the world and over 500 million children who, through no fault of their own, have faced discrimination and destitution at a time when they are at their most vulnerable. The Loomba Foundation has made huge strides in supporting widows, but we have so much more work to do. We are extremely happy to have Chris on board to support this cause and we have already achieved 70%of the target.”