Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra is the gateway to modern India. It has a vibrating and pulsating life. A confluence of varied cultural currents and cross currents has given Mumbai a unique position in the group of multi-ethnic cities of the world. The city, formerly known as Bombay lies in the Konkan coast of western India. Oozing with the cocksure self-confidence of a maverick moneymaker and "Bindass" (carefree) attitude, it boosts as the financial and commercial hub of the country and has a principal port on the Arabian Sea.

In India, two schools and a shelter home were selected for the program's first pilot in February 2008. The selection process for these programs was based upon a Red Dust needs analysis with significant input and direction taken from the local Vodafone India Foundation.

The pilot was highly successful and well received. The children at the Pratham shelter home in Mumbai were among the neediest in India, having been rescued off the streets and from child labour factories.

Feedback from the founder ofthe Pratham NGO was extremely positive and discussions are taking place exploring the potential of a roll-out of Red Dust programs (ultimately) to all 700 Pratham schools and shelter
homes throughout India.

Other schools that benefitted from our pilot program in February were Bharda East Government School and Grant Road BMC Government School, where sporting clinics and music workshops overcame any communication barriers that the language differences can put up. Students learned cricket techniques from one of their idols, R.P. Singh, and many touched a basketball for the very first time, picking up the basic skills incredibly quickly. Classroom activities saw the students readily absorbing all the information the role models were throwing at them regarding healthy eating and how it affects the body, putting together body maps and learning basic anatomy.

Separate debrief sessions with the other trial NGO partners yielded key learning points. Each has invited Red Dust to conduct ongoing programs. The Lifestyle Education Program, built on a balance of sport and music and supported by health education sessions in the classrooms, has been proven 'transferable' and 'scalable'. Of course more research and evaluation must now become part of a longer term study to ensure positive and sustainable changes result.