Racing an autorickshaw down the coast of India isn’t everyones idea of cruisy annual leave but its a brilliant way to get some new perspectives on the world and, for us, was the ideal outlet to help promote education in the developing world.

The official cause for our race was the “Freedom Through Education” initiative, which raises money to build schools in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Through our friends, family, and with the help of the Deloitte intranet, we managed to raise over $6000. What made this fundraising particularly exciting for us was the opportunity to visit schools that have been built with FTE money and interact with the children - we even spent one full morning teaching 8-12 year olds geography classes in a Mumbai slum! I don’t know how much of a future I have as a teacher but my funny accent and appreciation of cricket meant I could hold their attention long enough.

The kids are amazing. Despite having so little, they are happy, intelligent, and incredibly eager to make the most of their opportunites to learn. To put it all in perspective, education in India is still far less developed than countries such as China. 40% of the population is illiterate and only 15% of students reach high school. Investment into educational infrastructure is crucial to changing these statistics. By providing a new generation with the right to education you are taking the first step towards a long term improvement in living standards. It was good that we could do a little bit to help this process and we’ll keep looking for new ways to apply ourselves to this cause.

10 days in an autorickshaw provides plenty of time for thinking. In the next blog I’ll put on my consultant hat and share a few questions I grapled with on both the opportunities and issues provided by economic growth in the developing world.