All you need is Scottish Love in Action’s fireworks tickets – Michelle Davitt

Help your local international charity fire up support for the planet’s most deprived children, says Michelle Davitt

Fireworks at a Scottish Love In Action display last year

Scottish Love in Action is your friendly ‘local (international) charity’. We’ve also been described as one of ‘Edinburgh’s best-kept secrets’ – but the one thing people in Edinburgh do know us for is our annual fireworks extravaganzas, now entering their ninth year.

Check out the event on November 3 for yourself by bagging a ticket on our website. Tickets are £8.50 a ticket (with discounts for family tickets).

These family-friendly displays are true ‘community events’ – even all of our helpers on the day are local volunteers.

Michelle Davitt is chief executive of Scottish Love in Action

Why do we ‘fire up’ all of this local energy, initiative and support? To help some of the most deprived children on the planet.

For almost 20 years Scottish Love in Action has been funding and supporting ‘grassroots’ projects in India that look after, educate and empower vulnerable children.

Although India is developing fast, extreme poverty and all the problems it causes are still a big problem. Inevitably, those already struggling are hit hardest.

Over 156 million children in India live in poverty. The country is home to 1 in 3 of the world’s child brides and 21 million primary aged children in India are deprived of basic education. Things as simple as getting the bus to school bring the constant risk of abuse and harassment.

Many of the children our partner projects work with have been ‘street-children’, at huge risk of abuse and exploitation. They may be orphaned. They have often been through very traumatic experiences.

Our partners help to rescue children from situations like these. They support and nurture them, helping children to begin to see a life where they can have a choice in the future they build for themselves.

A future like the girl in one of the homes we support, who recently found out she had gained a place at university to study midwifery and nursing. She was so amazed at this wonderful news, she couldn’t let go of the letter long enough to let staff frame it for her!

Our partners also help children recover their health so they can begin to catch up with other children. Malnutrition can be a big problem, particularly for children who have been living on the streets, which is why we launched our ‘Feed Me Challenge’.

By simply texting FEEDME to 70140 you can donate £3 a month, which pays for 18 meals every month for one child. You can help us let children in India know that thousands of miles away someone cares about them.

The generosity of our supporters in Edinburgh and beyond has enabled us and our partners to make life-changing transformations for thousands of children in India over the past 20 years.

We love hearing from folk in our Edinburgh community and making new friends, so if you’re interested in fundraising for us or in volunteering or would like to learn more about what we do, drop us a line at [email protected] or call 0131 629 9112.

Michelle Davitt is chief executive of Scottish Love in Action