I travelled to India recently to do some work with the charity I am involved with called Healthy Kids Happy Kids. This charity was established by a fashion designer Satish Sikha in 2007 in Toronto, with the aim of setting up centres that would educate, house, feed and give medical treatment to street children and physically challenged children in various parts of India.

During our stay we visited New Dehli, Agra, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Chandigrah, Mumbai, Narahaynpur and Hyderabad trying to do whatever we could for the children in the centres in the short time that we were there.

I will try to share some of my experiences with you in the best way that I can, but oftentimes, as I have found when describing it to friends and family over the phone, it is difficult to verbalise the emotions and experiences, as they are so deep and so different to what I am used to that finding the words doesn't come as easily as I would have expected.

However, I will do my best!

I began my journey with my good friend Fanney Ingvarsdottir, Miss Iceland 2010, who I met in China at Miss World. She had been in India before with HKHK and spoke highly of her experiences but also expressed her anxiety about the forthcoming events as she said they are ‘difficult to digest.'

We landed in Dehli having had only an hours sleep!!!

We were whisked straight to a press conference where we talked about our plans for HKHK. We talked about the huge margin between the rich and the poor and the extremes we saw just as we drove from there airport, where large, lavishly decorated houses were juxtaposed beside a tent where a whole family would live. We talked about creating a culture of giving in India, where previously, because of the caste system, there was none. We met with many government officials, politicians and local partners for global charities and tried to spread our message. Then it was CHOW TIME!! It was my first experience of authentic Indian food...and it was DELICIOUS! 

We then planted a tree, there is a two-fold meaning behind this, so that our visit would be remembered but also to encourage people to plant trees, as trees take in carbon dioxide and give fresh oxegyn! Dehli is one of the most polluted cities in the world.

The reason we travelled to India was both to meet the children, but also to raise the profile of the organisation and thus in turn raise funds for the charity. So it was a mixture of business and personal

which sometimes was difficult because sometimes it felt like we wanted to be with the children more and it was so hard to leave them..but at the same time we had to remember that without us

playing our part and raising funds the centres wouldn't be able to run..! :)

That night we went to beautiful gala in the city so we put on our bestest dresses and hit the town! 

We were given the most beautiful plaque that read 'Beauty with a heart of gold' which epitomises our group's ethos, we used our title's to raise awareness about an important issue, so this plaque meant a lot to us..

I would love to share with you some of my experiences of my recent travels to India..I will do it in sections so I don't overload you with information! I hope you enjoy reading, I would love to hear your responses and about your experiences too..Feel free to post them below!

Love,

Emma

xoxo

Long green dress from Camille Boutique

Jewels and bag are from Crystals and Co.