Hiya I'am Richard, A second year student at York St John University reading Physical Education, Sports Coaching and Pedagogy BA (Hons) Degree.

I have been fortunate enough to secure a fully funded international work placement to implement sport and recreational programmes at the Centre for the Rehabilitaion of the Paralysed (CRP) in Bangladesh.

The CRP was founded in 1979 by Valerie Taylor, a physiotherapist working at the time with the Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO). Appalled at the desperate plight of people paralysed by spinal injury disease, the centre was founded in a disused cement warehouse with 4 beds. There are many spinal injuries in Bangladesh due to people carrying heavy loads on their heads, car accidents due to lack of street lighting and falling from trees from trying to collect fruit. Many of the people never make it to the centre due to the adverse poverty with earnings of £1 a day for working 16 hours. Some basic statistics support this as there are 66 million people in the U.K. with 9 spinal injury hospitals like Stoke Mandeville. Bangladesh is demographically smaller than the U.K. with 166 million people with 1 spinal injury hospital, the CRP.
Women (equating to approx. 40% of spinal injuries) in particular are ostracised if they have a spinal injury or produce a child with, say cerebral pausey and are often genitally mutilated by the family to eradicate future births.
It would be fine for me to just turn up in May 2012, jump on a plane and do my bit for six weeks, but I don't think this is enough. I would like the opportunity to make people aware of the situation in Bangladesh & gather some funding for such a worthwhile cause in supporting the CRP for the future.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.