June 2005

Introduction
The rains have finally come to Goa , they started properly on the 15 th June with heavy showers throughout the day. It had rained before this but only in short bursts or through the night. It is the charities first monsoon and also ours so each day normally brings a new challenge. The first challenge that we have to overcome is how to get from our home in Calangute to our new house without feeling like a drown rat. Although it only takes us around 20 minutes from one place to the other our only transport is a motorbike which has no protection from the daily flood water or torrents of rain that start without warning. Many of the locals just hide under a tree at the side of the road until the rain passes but time is always against us as we prepare 'The Mango House' (a name which seems to have stuck to our new house) so we just have to ride through it.

The monsoon has brought blankets of greenery to the fields and wasteland, most of the fields are now being worked by locals to plant rice or other crops, it's so strange to see Calangute as a farming village rather than a tourist center as nearly all the fields are being ploughed by hand or cow.

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

Website
Once again the website has had a few new additions this month, starting with two more new sets of photographs. The first set is called 'It's too hot!' and were all taken at the end of May in the slums. Just before the monsoon the heat builds up and gets very sticky, in the slums it's even worse as there's little shade from the scorching sun! The second set of photographs are from our first school trip to the beach. Please see 'School trip' below for more information.

Over the past five months we have had a number of volunteers come out to Goa to help us. Other people ask us what to expect if they did come out to volunteer for us, so we have decided to put our volunteer's view and photographs up for everyone to see. Our first couple of Volunteers (Matt and Rachel) unfortunately left before leaving their comments, but will hopefully receive this newsletter and be inspired to write something for us. . To find out about what are volunteers have to say then take a look at www.childrenwalkingtall.com/Volunteer-Experiences.htm . Without the help of volunteers, our job in Goa would be nearly impossible. We are very grateful for all their help.

The needs list has also been updated this month, as well as a couple of items that have been purchased we have added a few new items that will be required for the new house before it can be used as a drop in center and home for the children so please have a look and see if there's anything you'd like to sponsor.

Since starting our website we have had a huge number of visitors, in the last month alone we've had 1,013 visitors, see below for extra detail. A couple of the surprise visitors this month have been from Hong Kong and Uruguay .

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!
If we haven't thanked you then please let us know! Our supporters are the ones who really do the magic, without the support of everyone then none of what CWT does would be possible. If we haven't mentioned your name this month and you think we've forgotten you then please accept our apologies, we are so grateful to everyone for all they do, the best thing to do is to send us an email and say 'Hey! Can you put my name in the newsletter for ...'. Either that or just have a look at the smiles on the faces of the children in our photos, you'll see they think the world of you! Thanks

Thanks Again
John is never out of the newsletter as he is a huge supporter of Children Walking Tall. He is constantly helping, if it's by sending things to Goa via the post, spreading the word to his many friends or by going on to the street to raise money. This commitment is amazing as John is quite ill and constantly in and out of hospital. We are always telling him to take it easy, but he never listens to us. Please take things easy and thanks for everything!!!

John's Helpers
Marco, Jackie and all the people who know John have pulled together to support him in his up coming tombolla, cake stall and Lucky dip which will be happening on Saturday 25 th at the Woodingdean Carnival (see below for more information). Thanks.

Calow Women's Club
Many thanks to Kaye Cramp who organized a speech about Children Walking Tall at Calow Women's club in Chesterfield. Talks like this help spread the word about the charity and also raise the profile of the work we do. We would also like to thank all the people who visited the event for donating some of the proceeds from their 'bring and buy' sale for the children.

Games
A traditional game that people like to play in Goa is 'Carrom'. It's sort of like playing pool, well in as much as you use a 'white' piece to knock the other two sets of coloured pieces into the pockets at the corners of the board. They use a flicking action to strike the white piece. Thanks to Melanie and Laura the children now have two boards to play a few 'friendly' games with each other, although we're also hoping to get an odd game in, here and there.

Music - Goan Style
Many thanks go out to Liz, who volunteered for two weeks this month, she was kind enough to bring out a music system for the children to use in the slum. Many of the slums have no electricity, so thankfully this system runs on batteries; it has already been used during the school lessons. I never remember being allowed music on when I was at school!!! The children love listening to music and one of their favourite songs seems to be 'I Love You Baby'.

Clothes
Thank you to Deborah Edlman and all of her friends for donating clothes for our volunteers to bring over. Tom arrived in Goa with a big bag of children's clothes but not many for himself so we might have to try and stretch a few if he runs out of clothes. The children in the slum will think it is their birthday and Christmas rolled into one when they see everything. Thanks.

Gifts sent via Jo and Ruby
When two of out volunteers came over they were kind enough to bring a few items that friends and family had collected together, they included Eye baths, plasters, jigsaws, chalk slates, and books. We would like to thank everyone who helped collect the items, names that we know about are :- the ladies from E factory Nestle, Halifax, Bev Helliwell and family. The plasters will be very useful and we have quite a collection now, but the children are always slipping and grazing their knees, cutting their feet on stones and generally getting up to mischief.

Online Donations
Thank you to everyone who has supported us with online donations through the Givenow website ( http://www.cafonline.org/apps/Charities/CharityProfileLink.aspx?MainId=658399&SubId=638145&Source=CAF ). The Givenow website provides an easy way for small charities to accept credit and debit cards over the internet, it is run by CAF ( Charities Aid Foundation, Registered Charity Number 268369 ) who is a well known organisation who have done lots of promotion for charities in the last year.

What's Been Happening?

The Mango House
We seem to have settled on the name 'The Mango House' for our first home/drop in center. The name comes from the locals who call it the same, mostly due to a large mango tree in the front garden. Many of the locals jump over the wall and pick the huge number of mangos that have fallen. Hopefully there won't be many spare next year as the children get their hands on them. The house is a lovely old Portuguese building which was in disrepair when we first saw it, we have been working hard on the house ever since with very few days off for good behaviour. We had the whole roof refitted last month, and again had a few bits of work done on it this month as it still had bad leaks when the rains came. Unfortunately, we still have a few leaks, but the workers can't go up due to the slippery tiles. We're hoping for a break in the rain to finally fill the gaps and allow us to work drip free..

Shermina and Rob have been working so hard to get the house ready, and without the help of volunteers would have probably gone mad by now due to the amount of work which has been required. Rob says 'The building is great and when it's FINALLY finished it will be lovely, the volunteers have been great, none of them have really been DIY enthusiasts but that hasn't stopped them from giving their all. The first ones to help were Jo, Ruby and Liz who helped in the mornings before school and for the past few weeks Emma and Catherine 'The Varnish Ladies' have taken a 'shine' to the house. They have been great, in nearly every day, Sanding, Cleaning, Painting and Varnishing. They have been fabulous! If that wasn't enough Emma got her brother and friend to come over to help us too (Tom and Tom). Thank you so much!'

The property is now finally coming together and we've had a deadline of the end of the month to finish things, although we still seem to be a long way off. Hopefully by next month we'll be able to say 'We've done it.'.

The house has it's own well where most of the water will come from for showers and washing, when we arrived it was over grown and really not clean. Water is so important in Goa as it rarely rains for 6 months of the year, so in March, April and May there is often a shortage therefore the well really had to be cleaned. The well was emptied of rubbish and most of its water. The cleaners they had to take an oxygen cylinder to help them breath as the oxygen stopped about half way down the well. The well is a huge 25 meters deep and is now looking much better with clear fresh rain water at the bottom, we're hoping it will rise to half full, but we'll have to wait and see.

During the days spent varnishing, painting and cleaning at the house we've found three snakes, one scorpion and a few frogs. We're hoping that the noise will keep them away when we start to use the house. So we won't complain too much at the children if they're noisy.

We've still got the builders in and they've got their hands full with the kitchen and bathrooms which needed the most work on them. Thankfully the kitchen should be finished in the next few days and will only need a final clean and fresh coat of paint. We're hoping everything will be finished by the next newsletter but we'll have to see.

A big thank you goes out to our Electrician who has done a fabulous job at laying out all new cables and sockets for the whole house, seven of the rooms are finished and he's just waiting for the kitchen and bathroom to be finished before starting the two final rooms.

Our first member of staff
We would like to introduce Novidade and welcome her to Children Walking Tall. Novidade is the charities first full time member of staff and will be living in the children's home to help with the day to day running of the home. Presently Novidade is helping with the renovations of the home, she is a huge help as she speaks the local language and makes sure that we get the best prices for everything when we take the trips to the market!!!!

School Trip
The school in the slum has taken a break as the rains have been so heavy but we will resume it as soon as we can. For a special treat for the children we decided to take them all on a trip to the beach. Although the children spend a lot of time outside playing simple games, they do not very often get the chance to have fun in the lovely sand in Goa .

On the 3rd of June we took 17 children on the twenty minute walk to the beach. The children walked in twos and arrived safely. Once at the beach the children played games like pass the parcel, cricket, twister, Frisbee and small ball games. The children had a great time and joined in with all the activities. At the end of a very long day the children ate their Ice cream on the beach before walking back to the slum. The journey back also included a pit stop for a nice cold fizzy drink.

The trip was a great success and all the children had a good time. Thank you to Joanne, Ruby and Liz for organizing the trip and to Emma and Catherine for helping to ensure everyone reached the beach safely.

Goodbye!
Once again it was time to say goodbye to three of our volunteers at the beginning of this month. Joanne and Ruby have been running the school in the slum for the past month. The children loved the lessons although I am not sure who learned the most, our volunteers or the children!!! Liz also came over to join us for two weeks and share some of her experience of being a primary school teacher. Thank you to you all for all of your help during your time in Goa.

Welcome to our new Volunteers
Catherine and Emma have come to volunteer for us after spending the last four months travelling around India . Both girls have been a great help in the house sanding, cleaning and painting. As Emma herself says ' Until now the words "Emma" and "sanding" would never have found themselves in the same sentence.'!!!! Each day is a competition as to who can stay the cleanest, although no one ever manages to stay clean for long. We hope their time with us is enjoyable and that we don't work them too hard.

The Boys
We would also like to welcome Tom (Emma's brother) and Tom (his school friend) who have come to join us for two weeks whilst visiting the girls. They have been a great help with the painting as they have the advantage of being over 6ft which definitely helps with the high up corners, however it's a little dangerous to leave them in charge of paint as more seems to be on the floor than on the walls!!!

Future Projects

Woodingdean Carnival
One mans dream to help the children of India , John Elias has had terminal cancer for several years, but still manages to find the energy and life to help the children. He has had a few scares since Christmas and but this does not stop his generous nature. On Saturday June 25 th (Today!) he will be running a Cake and Tombola stand at Woodingdean Carnival in aid of CWT, the event starts at 11am and will run till 5pm. So if you are in the area please support him.

Abseil
We are planning to have a sponsored Abseil, it will hopefully be taking place off the Millersdale bridge in Derbyshire, it's an 80ft drop but from the top looks much higher. We are hoping to get as many sponsors as possible and Robert will hopefully join in on his return to England (Robert has a fear of heights :o). We don't have any firm dates as yet but are hoping it will take place in late July or early August 2005. If you are interested in joining in and walking backwards off a perfectly good bridge and can find enough people to sponsor you and are physically up to the challenge (as there's only one way to go once you've stepped over) then please contact us via email.

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.

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