April 2005

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

Website
The website has had to take a back seat again this month. We know that you like constant updates but unfortunately (for those who enjoy the updates to the website) we have had to spend more time working with the children and their families. We are sure everyone will agree, this is definitely more important.

However we did manage to add two new sets of photos (one of which was already in stock). The first set was chosen by Shermina out of a selection of photos taken at various slums and at different times. The collection is called serious faces and shows the children with more on their minds than playing. The second collection was from one of the more recent Hindi festivals called Holi. Holi, for those who don't know is a Hindi festival of colour. Not an expert with what it all means but it's lots of fun. It gives everyone of every class a chance to let their hair down and celebrate by showering friends and family with powder paint. From experience (after being mobbed both years) it seems a touch of colour looks much better than overdoing it. Our photos were taken in one of the slums near Candolim. We only went to say hello, and were not expecting such a colourful display and such a warm welcome.

Fundraising

*How to Help* with fundraising
1. Please spread the word about Children Walking Tall. A simple way is to forward this newsletter to your friends and family asking them 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 with us.
3. Be a member of our UK fundraising team by distributing leaflets or raising money. A good way is by finding something that you enjoy doing and have a fundraising event.
4. Have a look at the fundraising pack for ideas about how you can help.

Thank you to everyone!
We have a huge number of people to thank this month for their kind donations of items for the children; we’ll try to remember everybody, but if we have missed you out, then please send us an email to remind us.

We might be the ones working with the children here, but nothing we do could be done without your support so everyone that helps plays there part in helping the children we visit, teach and support.

Books Galore
Thank you to Rhys Morgan, Karen Clague, Pete Turner and Lorna Wallis who decided to donate a number of books for the charity to use. I’m sure all of the books will come in handy, especially the paper aeroplanes book which, if nothing else will keep all the staff entertained whilst learning to do them for the children.

What a Birthday Gift
Firstly we would like to say a very Happy Birthday to Heather Holland. When Heather’s daughter Melanie asked her what she would like for her birthday, she could not think of anything so instead she asked if the money could be donated to Children Walking Tall. Melanie’s friend, Pipp Garland, also didn’t know what to buy Heather so instead they clubbed together and brought a shoe rack for the children. Thank you all so much for thinking about us!!!

Football Mad
As you are probably aware, most children nowadays are football mad and that includes the ones in Goa. Max and Wendy kindly donated enough football shirts to kit out a full match although it may be hard for them to know who's on which team as they were shirts from a huge selection of teams.

School Project
After reading last month’s newsletter, Danny Gray decided to donate money towards our school project. The school in the slums has really taken off and all the children are enjoying learning new things.

Monthly Donations
Thank you to Peter Palmer and Mark O'Sullivan for setting up standing orders to regularly donate funds. This gives us scope to plan our activities with more certainty. Hopefully in the future you will be able to receive regular updates on what your money is being spent on.

Around the World
Ms Viveca Franklin has kindly offered to distribute our leaflets in MALAYSIA and try and spread the word about Children Walking Tall. This is very good news as we are trying to raise the charities’ profile around the world so thank you very much!

Gardening Galore
A big thank you to Andrew Huntley who kindly donated the money to buy equipment for the garden. Hopefully when we get our new house we will be able to cultivate our garden and eventually grow our own vegetables so the tools will be of great use.

Friends of Iris Ainsworth
Mr Ivan Connolly, Mr G Gabriele and Jackie and David Ormston kindly donated money in memory of Zara Ainsworth who sadly passed away last month. We are very grateful for your donation but are very sad to hear about your loss.

Leaflets
We would like to say a big thank you to Valerie Iliffe and the Restored Charity Shop in Dartmouth for funding the printing costs for the leaflets. We now have leaflets available in both the UK and GOA. If anyone would like to help distribute the leaflets to people who might be interested in our work then please contact the UK office via email.

Continued Support
Lorna has been a huge help since we first met before Christmas. With help from friends and family she has made many contributions by buying items from the needs list and those people making the trip to Goa have brought out educational items, toys and clothes. We are so grateful for all your help. I’m sure the children will be very happy when they’re playing with the toys, reading the books and using all the items you have given.

Visits to the slum
Rob Berry joined us during one of our school days at the slum, and kindly donated money towards the project. The money will go, in part, to buy fruit for our daily visits. A special thank you goes out to Helen and David and also Lorraine who are willing to support us further. They all have previous experience with charities and fundraising so we will hopefully have more news for you soon.

Gifts Galore
Martyn, Jayne and Thomas brought a huge range of gifts, thank you so much for everything. Karen Clague & Family also brought out some great toys, books and clothes plus lots of other goodies. Another visitor to the slum was Pete Turner with his friends. They donated cuddly toys, games, puzzles, jigsaws and educational books (which will be ideal for the drop in centre that will soon be established). But a special thank you goes out to him as a lady hand knitted a jumper for a baby which was given to Akshay (see story below). It was good to go a couple days later and see him wearing it curled up in bed.

John Elias and Friends
Again John has been so helpful by collecting and sending items through the post to us. On one day we received about 6 parcels from him. As well as medical items like plasters, bandages, vitamins and iron supplements he has also sent torches, old mobile phones and items for the school. We would like to thank Mauren Bridgewood who was kind enough to buy 50 boxes of Multivitamins; some of these have already been given to the expectant mothers in the slums. Special thanks go out to Marco Bloomer, Jacky Mercer and Rene Aldridge who have been supporting us and also John over the past few months.

Curry Night in Dartmouth
A huge thank you goes out to Val Iliffe and Restored Charity Shop in Dartmouth for organising a curry night to raise awareness about Children Walking Tall. The night was great fun and all the food was kindly donated by Mr Shaha Lascoe and his team at the Spice Bazaar Restaurant. Thank you all for your help and support and Mr Lascoe, the food was lovely!!!! Thanks.

Educational Help
Kaye, a friend of Shermina’s who trained to be a teacher at the same time as Shermina was kind enough to help us out in the school during her 2 week holiday. She had a great time and so did the children as they played simple games while waiting for their lessons. Kaye and her daughter Sarah also helped out by sorting through the clothes that had been donated (by her and others). The clothes were split up into age groups that will hopefully make it easier to give them out in the future. Sarah also spent time (by the pool?) folding leaflets for us. If that wasn’t enough, they were also kind enough to leave a donation that will be used for metal shelving to store items donated to CWT. Thank you both for all your help

Friends of Kaye Cramp
Along with donating money and many items herself, Kaye brought money to Goa from some of her friends. We would like to thank The Community Rehab Team at Walton Hospital in Chesterfield for their kind donation. Also we would like to say Happy Birthday to Patricia Taylor and thank her for thinking of Children Walking Tall when donating her money. Thanks.

Accounts
Thank you to Yve Amor who is a qualified accountant and very kindly offered to check that our accounts were all fine. Yve also advised us on some of the standard practices and things that we needed to do.

Online Donations
Lots of people are now starting to support us with online donations. We have received 5 in the last month although as of yet we have jot received many contact details. A big thank you to Mr A Hampton and Ms S Blyth for their contributions and to anybody else that has contributed but for which we have not yet received details.

The Ganatra Family
Thank you to Raju and Muni Akalley, Babu and Sila Ganatra and Savita Ganatra for their kind donations of money and thinking of us during their sad time.

Donations
Pat Lyon, Joanna Robinson, Dawn and Billy, Lorraine and Malcom have also been very kind and donated money towards the project in general. Without people like this our project would not be able to go ahead with many of our projects so thank you very much.

What's Been Happening?

A suitable house/flat
We have continued to look for properties which we could use to start our home for the children, and hopefully we have now managed to find a suitable one. All we are waiting for is to sign the documents. The ideal solution would be to buy a property, but we still need more support before we can afford to do this, therefore we have decided to rent. The property is ideally situated to be a drop in centre for both the slum children and the children that have to work in the markets. We will let you all know as soon as we have any news but for now we will keep our fingers crossed

School in the Slums
The school in the slums has been going well with the lessons split up into two groups relating to their ability. Each lesson lasts around an hour and and the children do not often want us to go, which makes it so enjoyable although doesn’t help with the heat….???

‘Indestructible’
Recently we visited Karaswada slums to deliver fruit to the families who live there. After we arrived and had given out the much appreciated (and relished!) oranges, we were approached by a young boy. He was coming to say hello and also mentioned to us that his mother was 'in trouble'. When we asked what he meant, he took us to see his mother who we discovered was pregnant and ill and lying on the floor of their small, unlit shack. She was not eating or drinking and would hardly speak to her relatives who were gathering around her and us, trying to convey her situation to us in hopes that we could help somehow. Her son, who had told us of her condition, helped translate and so we learned that she was indeed nine months pregnant and in a lot of pain. She also had a fever and we decided it best that she be taken to the hospital immediately.

This idea was not embraced by the family, since they felt that due to their position in society the doctors would turn them away. We offered to pay for the services needed, which included an ambulance to take her to the nearest hospital and they agreed. When we arrived, the doctor on call discovered that the lady had been in labour since the previous night and had contracted an infection due to the unsanitary conditions where she was living. She had also lost a lot of blood and was severely anaemic, but they were unable to give her a transfusion as neither she nor her family knew her blood type. This was probably due to the fact that she, like many other women living in slums, did not consult a doctor during her whole pregnancy and was therefore generally unaware of how her pregnancy was progressing.

The consulting gynaecologist told us and her family that her condition was 'touch and go' due to only having only 4 percent of haemoglobin which is dangerously low compared to the normal 12 – 14 percent. We were told that the situation was so serious, had she stayed at home she would have had major complications and most likely she and the baby would not have survived. The best option although still risky was to try to deliver the baby normally and as soon as possible. Thankfully, she was very well looked after by the gynaecologist and her team, who made sure the family was aware of her progress throughout the night.

After waiting for three excruciating hours with her family, we were told that the young boy's mother had delivered a healthy boy weighing 3 kilos, and although she was very weak, she was stable. Needless to say, her family was relieved, as were we. The older son, who had told us about his mother's condition, deserves so much credit for recognising she was unwell and telling us. We are glad that we just happened to be visiting that day!

Mother and baby are home now and doing well. The mother and father gave us the huge honour of naming the baby. We scoured the internet for suitable Indian names and decided on the name Akshay, which means 'indestructible' - a fitting name for this baby!

Update - It has been over a week since the baby was born and both the mother and baby are back home doing well. We have visited several times to check up on the new arrival and to deliver a few essentials like talcum powder, baby clothes and baby bottle. We have also given the mother some of the vitamins and Iron supplements that have been kindly donated through John Elias.

Doctors orders
It just seems to have been one of those months. We have helped treat various cuts, bumps and skin problems. The main one (other than the mother and the baby) was a 12 or 13 year old girl who had a very nasty burn on the bottom of her foot from accidentally standing on the fire while cooking. It started to swell up badly and we took her to hospital to get it cleaned up and dressed, she was put on antibiotics and pain killers by the doctor and it was great to see her the next day smiling instead of crying. We went again and refreshed the dressing. A big thank you should go to John and his many friends who have helped so much with medical supplies, many of which have been used in the last month. One of the lighter sides of this is once you treat one, the others feel left out so they come over and show you a two week old cut and say ‘I need plaster’.

Thank you to our Volunteers
This week Rachel made her last visit to the school she started as her and her mother return to England. We would like to say thank you on behalf of Children Walking Tall and on behalf of the children for everything she has done to make the school a reality.

Sadly, Matt’s time as a volunteer has also just come to an end. Matt has been a fantastic help in the slum school after taking over from Rachel. Although he had never done any teaching or spent much time with children before, after a few pointers in the right direction, Matt has successfully run the school on his own for five days a week and all the children have enjoyed his lessons very much.

Matt has taught the children basic English and Maths skills and I am sure that the children have also taught Matt a thing or two. Thanks for all your help with the charity Matt and the very best of luck for the future.

What you can do to HELP!!!
Perhaps you could make a difference in the lives of the children. Make a donation to Children Walking Tall. If you have a preference on how the money should be spent then please tell us, and we will try and make the money work the way you want it to.
Other ways to help are to donate clothes, books, pens and toys. This can be especially helpful if you’re planning a trip to Goa and can bring them with you. The easiest thing that you can do is tell others about what we do. The more people who know, the greater the chance we have of supporting children like these.

Do you have any comments about the newsletter? Would you prefer a shorter version? Would you like to see pictures in the newsletter (Email will be larger if pictures are added)? Please let us know what you would like, as we always want to improve what we do.

And Finally
If you would like to receive these monthly newsletters by email please contact us at Please put the subject “Join Newsletter” so that we can add your address to the mailing list. Send us the email address you wish the newsletter to go to. If you have received this email by mistake, or wish to cancel your monthly newsletter then please let us know by email at with the subject “Cancel Newsletter” Many Thanks from everyone at Children Walking Tall.