November 2004

Introduction
This year has seen a huge increase in the number of tourists coming to India and especially Goa. These are not only from Europe but many Indian tourists are coming down to Goa, as Panjim will be the host of an International film festival, and Old Goa has many religious guests due to the Exposition of the body of St Francis Xavier which only happens every ten years. Due to the increased number of Tourists and the rejuvenation of Panjim city ready for the Film festival, there are an increased number of families, migrating to Goa looking for work. These families often come from the adjoining state of Karnataka where lack of rain makes it hard for them to make a living. The children end up having to fend for themselves while their parents work round the clock. Some of the children go to work in the markets selling plastic bags, others go and beg in the streets for chocolate (sweets) or money.

We hope you enjoy this instalment of the newsletter, if you have any queries or comments then please contact us at

Registration
All of us involved with Children Walking Tall are pleased to announce that we are now a fully Registered British Charity. It is possible to have a charity in England without registering it, for example if the charity does not meet the minimum requirements of the charity commission. Thankfully, only three months after starting the charity we received the news that we are registered. Our registration number is 1106528.

Website
The website is now being updated every week with news bulletins and photographs, the most recent photographs are ones that Robert took during the Diwali celebrations.

"Many street children were amazed by the huge monsters that roamed the streets during the Diwali celebrations this year. Some stayed up all night to watch the parades and finally the destruction of the monsters. At four or five o'clock in the morning the monsters are burned and all that's left is a pile of ash."

If you haven't seen the website or haven't visited it in the last week then please do. The website is at www.ChildrenWalkingTall.Com

A lot of effort has been made trying to increase the position of the website in search results from Google, Yahoo, Msn etc. This is very important as the higher up the search results we are the more likely someone will visit the site. Most of the top places in search lists are normally 'bought' by companies for hundreds of pounds due to the positive effect it has. Instead we have been reading various books including ones from the ‘for Dummies’ collection and spending hours submitting the site to the various search engines. But our work has paid off and we are gradually moving up the list. Which is great news.

*How To Help* - If anyone can suggest any words (or two/three word combinations) that they would use to search for charities like Children Walking Tall that we might not have already used could you email us, this will allow us to increase the chances of people finding our site through the search engines.

Fundraising
Fundraising is progressing steadily, but we are still on the lookout for major contributors that will allow us to purchase a property that we can renovate and make into a children's home. We have raised over 3,000 pounds towards the project, but are still in need of the boost that will allow us to setup a permanent structure to base our efforts and give continued help to children which are forced to live and work in the streets.

*How To Help*
1. Please spread the word about Children Walking Tall, a simple way is to forward this newsletter to your friends and Family in your address book asking if they could find the time to read it and to visit our website.
2. If you work at a company that might sponsor any of our projects please get in touch.
3. We still have lots of raffle tickets to sell for the Christmas Raffle, there are lots of excellent prizes to be won, if you can sell some tickets to friends and family or at work on our behalf then please contact Shermina at the UK Office.
4) Be a member of our UK fundraising team by distributing leaflets or raising money.

Discussion forums
Many thanks to the everyone who has contacted us through the posts on the discussion forums, we’ve had a good response and it’s great to see that people are wanting to help a new charity like Children Walking Tall. Some have offered their time to volunteer for us next year in Goa and others have offered to bring clothes and Christmas gifts for the children. What ever you have done, thanks, every bit helps in raising our profile and in the long run will allow us to help more and more children in India.

Eight Mile Sponsored Walk
Natalya, Cheryl and Caroline who completed a 8 mile sponsored walk around the Derbyshire Dales last month have raised over £420. They all really enjoyed the walk and the picturesque scenery but had aching legs the next morning due to the steep hills. Thanks girls for all your effort and continued support.

Laptop
A big thanks needs to go to Alan Dean and Mastercare in Mansfield for their kind donation of a Laptop for the children in India. The CHAD newspaper in Mansfield were present when Shermina received the Laptop and photographs were published in the paper. The computer will hopefully arrive in Goa during the next month and I am sure that the children will enjoy using it.

Christmas Raffle
Tickets are still on sale for the Children Walking Tall Christmas raffle. Over 50 prizes have been donated for the raffle including a rocking horse, CD player, cuddly toys, alcohol, remote control cars, chocolate and much more. Thanks to John Elias who has been kind enough to supply us with the majority of the prizes including 2 large Christmas cakes and food hampers. Tickets are £1 a strip. Please call Shermina at our UK office if you would like to buy some tickets, or perhaps you could sell some on our behalf?! Good Luck!

The Fashion Show
The 12th of November saw the first fashion show in aid of Children Walking Tall and the Children's Hospice in Dartmouth. The event was organised by Val Iliffe and was a great success. Many thanks to Val and everybody that was involved for all their help and support on the night. Over £1000 was raised on the night that was split equally between the two charities. We would like to thank the Children’s Hospice and wish them all the best for the future.

C&D Industrial Services in Mansfield
Many thanks go out to C&D Industrial Services in Mansfield who have donated £250 to Children Walking Tall.

The Mystery Man
Are you the mystery man? A man comes and visits the Children Walking Tall car boot stall in Mansfield every week and donates money, DVDs and other things. It is great that someone thinks about the charity enough to collect items every week.

Local Art Exhibition
Pat Lyon managed to raffle off a Dundee cake at her local Art exhibition for a huge £46 in aid of Children Walking Tall, thank you to everybody who bought a ticket and for Pat for all her help. Believe me those cakes are worth every penny!

Christmas for the children in India.
If you buy an extra (small) present this Christmas, it doesn't have to be much, a small toy, or sweets (please nothing that will perish before they receive it). Attach a label saying what it is and your email address. We'll take your label off, and email you a picture of the child receiving your present; this will give you the chance to see what a difference, just a small present makes to a child who probably hasn't had one before. Many things are cheaper in India, so if you would find it easier to just send a cheque or give cash for the amount you want to spend. Children Walking Tall will buy something on your behalf from India. Please remember to add your email address so that you can see the difference it makes. Unfortunately due to costs and time we will not be able to send photos by post only by email. For more information please contact .

What's Been Happening

Children’s day (14th Nov)
There was a special event in this month’s calendar for the children of Goa, yes Children’s day, no it wasn’t a chance for the card companies to make more profits, and it was a special day for children who had events around Goa arranged by families and also the charities based here in Goa. For our part we went with a Indian couple to visit a few families that are struggling to make ends meet. These families lived in various styles of accommodation, from the slum dwellers that only have plastic sheeting or corrugated iron over their heads to families that had stone walls, but still not enough money to give their children a basic education. The couple had already established a group of children, the idea in the future is for Children Walking Tall to help support these ‘volunteers’ to enable the children to go to proper schools and have a chance of a good education and also a way out of the slums in the future.

While Robert has been in India he has been working closely with Childline so that the charity works to the highest standards of child protection in India. Childline is a organisation that has around 55 offices throughout India and their help lines allow children everyday to escape the tortures they are faced. It is a free phone number so the children themselves can ring or concerned friends or neighbours. For those of you who are coming out to Goa for a holiday it is advised to call Childline if you see a child in distress (their number is 1098), rather than taking the child yourselves as Paedophilia here in Goa especially from tourists is highly publicised in the media and people are told to report suspicious activities by foreigners. You might know that you mean well, but other people might not realise that. Childline has trained social workers manning the phones, so please call them if you see a problem.

A suitable house
We are still on the look out for a suitable house where we shall house the children once the registration is complete here in India. We have had chance to look at several properties one of which looks very promising, it would still need a lot of work doing to it as it seems to have been vacant for probably a year or two, if not longer. But in general it is in solid condition; with a good floor, roof and walls which as it is around 90 years old is a good sign for the next 90 years. Unfortunately it all depends on funding, but the building would make a solid and permanent base for the charity to grow from. It has several outbuildings that could be made into offices or rooms for staff, so has lots of potential.

Two tourists
Two tourists who bumped into Robert got introduced to our charity and decided that they wanted to know a little more. Robert had the idea of taking them a tour round the markets and shelters for the children who live and work in Panjim. Armed with a few sweets the girls went to the fish market in Panjim where they were met with eager excitement once the children knew they had ‘chocolate’. We then took a tour of the city and met up again with some of the children at one of the shelters. The girls had a great time and realised what warmth the children have, One had a boy the same age as many of the children she met, so I’m sure it hit home how lucky the children are in England. Hopefully they will get a chance to come back and possibly work here for a charity in the future.

Do you have any comments about the newsletter? Would you prefer a shorter version? Would you like to see pictures in the newsletter? (Email with be larger if pictures are added)

Please let us know what you would like as we are always wanting to improve what we do.

And Finally
If you would like to receive these monthly newsletters by email then please contact us at with the Subject Join Newsletter so that we can add your address to the mail list (please send from the email address you want to receive the newsletter). If you have received this email by mistake, or wish to cancel your monthly newsletter then send an email to with the subject Cancel Newsletter. Thanks from everyone at Children Walking Tall.