On September 11th, a group of 21 individuals from the United Kingdom started to trek Stok Kangri, the highest mountain in the Stok Range of the Himalayas in the Ladakh region of northwest India. They aim to reach the summit at 6,150 meters on the 17th of September.

The trekkers are all volunteers, and the purpose of their challenging undertaking is to help raise awareness and funds for the Food for Life Vrindavan Society (FFLV), which had been serving needy people, especially children by providing free food, health care and education in the Braj area for decades. 

The raised amount would go for the construction of the third wing of FFLV’s Sandipani Muni School, which provide absolutely free qualitative education to street children in Vrindavan. 

The group of volunteers at the beginning of their journey to Stok Kangri

The group aims to raise 50,000 pounds / 80,000 USD or more to enable FFLV to continue with the construction of a school building.

The trek finishes on September 19th. Rupa Raghunath Das (Pietro Paolinelli), founder of FFLV is also trekking with the group. “I chose to be a part of this trek because every step up there brings one more brick on the school construction’s wall,” he said before leaving. “It is a tough challenge but it is rewarding to know that the group is raising funds to help and support more than five hundred girls living in villages near Vrindavan to get education, which, at the moment, is still inaccessible to them”.

Rupa Raghunath Das (second from the left) with other guests at the Delhi press conference just before the trek

Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi also participated at the press conference organized by FFLV on the 7th of September, 2013 in Delhi. To enthuse the trekkers Vivek said, “everyone says that I am a hero but I believe that people like Rupa and those supporting this cause are the heroes in a real sense.”

Anyone wishing to help the mission of the trekkers and that of FFLV, please visit the organization’s donation page: http://www.youcaring.com/nonprofits/trek-challenge-for-a-new-school/71318

Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi with Sandipani Muni School’s students, some of whom had been street beggars previously.