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IntroductionThe main building work for Mango house has now finished, this means that in a couple of weeks the house will be able to officially open. The first of this seasons tourists have also started to arrive in Goa, coinciding with this is the road works making the roads even more hectic than usual. It’s just like England where it seems like they wait till the bank holidays to do the road works. There was also a shock for some of the first holiday makers as the rain kept falling in October, this normally subsides in September and has also hampered some of the work at the Mango house. As we send out this newsletter we think it has finally stopped.
With the success of the building work on Mango house, the only thing that is standing in the way of the ‘Grand Opening’ is the consent of some of the local organisations. This is turning out to be a bigger task than one would expect, with people saying ‘you have to get permission from…..’ no one seems to be willing to be the first organisation to grant their authorisation, and with them all saying the same thing it can get to be quiet difficult, but do not despair everything will end well!!
We hope you enjoy this instalment of the newsletter and if you have any queries or comments then please Contact Us.
WebsiteThere has been a lot of changes to the website this month, including three new sets of pictures of the children. Below is a list of these changes: -
http://www.childrenwalkingtall.com/Pictures8.htm
This set of pictures was taken during one of our late visits to Sinquerium slum. Unfortunately we didn’t arrive at the slum until 6pm when the mosquitoes were out in force, however the shirts and shorts that we had taken to give out were soon snapped up by everybody.
http://www.childrenwalkingtall.com/Pictures9.htm
The first week in October has been crazy for everyone at Children Walking Tall. Not only did we visit the slum every day, but we ended up being doctors, helping the children with all the minor cuts, burns, grazes, and infections they had. What should have been a very short stay one day, turned into a three hour stint continuously tending to the children’s cuts and burns. By the end of the visit all children were happy with their plasters, antiseptic cream and bandages. Sweets were given to everyone to make them smile again, the worst cases were given special ‘make me happy’ lollipops which soon stopped the tears. After tending the children we also gave out spices to the adults. By doing this we were not only helping the adults but also the children, who will now have a little flavour added to their basic food.
Our school in Sinquerium slum has also re-opened so things are slowly getting back to normal again. This set of photographs is from our various visits this week with two of our volunteers, Bhawna and Beth.
http://www.childrenwalkingtall.com/Pictures1.htm
These photos are from a day at the Sinquerium slum when we decided to give the children a small party. We took games, mendi (Tubes of Henna), colourings, music and sweets to the slum and spent time with the children just having fun. The biggest task was to draw patterns of mendi on everyone’s hands, I think a great time was had by all.
http://www.childrenwalkingtall.com/G-Index.htm
Thank you to Claudia, our German volunteer, who has helped us synchronise our German website with our English one. She has worked very hard over the past couple of weeks and requires a special mention. Most of the German pages have been updated, this is a link to the home page where you can access all the others.
http://www.childrenwalkingtall.com/Contact-Us.htm
Our Contact Us page has been updated to include our postal address, phone number and the address of our new drop in centre/home, the ‘Mango House’.
http://www.childrenwalkingtall.com/Luggage.htm
For those of you still requiring excess luggage for your trip to Goa, our pages have been updated to give you the latest information about what is needed by our UK office to get excess luggage on your behalf (Please give us as much time as possible to sort extra luggage out as not to be disappointed.)
http://www.childrenwalkingtall.com/NeedsList.htm
We have added a few items to the needs list and updated the items that have been either reserved or purchased this month. We would like to thank everyone who has helped purchase any of the items and we are glad that the Needs list is one of the most viewed pages.
This months stats from our website :
| |
Page Loads |
Unique Visitors |
First Time Visitors |
Returning Visitors |
| Total |
12,129 |
1,996 |
1,439 |
557 |
| Average |
391 |
64 |
46 |
18 |
The ‘Top 5’ most visited pages this month are :-
1. www.childrenwalkingtall.com – The Home Page
2. www.childrenwalkingtall.com/Pictures.htm - The Pictures Home Page
3. www.childrenwalkingtall.com/NeedsList.htm - The Needs list
4. www.childrenwalkingtall.com/WhatWeDo.htm - Where you can read about how to volunteer for us.
5. www.childrenwalkingtall.com/Contact-Us.htm -The Newsletters Home Page
Fundraising
How to Help with fundraising1. 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 all 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’. 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
A Delayed Thank YouWe are very sorry to say that we forgot to say thank you to Alex and Grace last month for donating the money to make the blinds for the Mongo House. Alex and Grace are the young grandchildren of two of our supporters and love to see the pictures of the children, so we need to say an extra special thank you to them. THANK YOU!
Binnigs Shop CollectionA big thank you to Binnigs shop in Tuxford, and all their generous customers who have been helping to collect money for Children Walking Tall. Binnigs have had a collection tin on their counter for the last few months and when we emptied it this month it was nice and full. Thank you to everyone who helped we really appreciate it.
Parcels Galore!!!Once again our post bag has been full with parcels from Liz Flynn. Amongst the various items that Liz sends out are sweets, baby’s clothes, cards, toothbrushes, felts, jigsaws, pads, crayons, plus much more. Thank you for everything that you have sent us and for your continued support.
Abseil Sponsor MoneyThank you to Jimmy and all of his friends and colleagues who sponsored him to join our abseil. Jimmy managed to raise over £300 for the charity, thanks so much for all your help.
ClaudiaAs we have already said, Claudia has been working hard at getting the website translated into German. If this wasn’t enough she has also been helping at our new school in the slum, on top of this she also offered to help in the garden!! We came back one day to find her and her boyfriend digging and carrying tubs of soil on their heads (Indian Style), carrying them 20 meters and filling in one of the holes in the garden.
Claudia’s MumClaudia’s mother, Doris, was kind enough to send Euros with Claudia which she had collected from a donation box at her bar in Germany. Claudia and Doris also put their own service tips that they received into the donation box. Thank you to you both for all your help.
Shoes for DazThank you to Beth for purchasing shoes for one of the boys in the slum to use for school. Daz is 15 years old and is one of the few children that actually goes to a fee paying school. He has had his uniform for a long time but could never afford the shoes to go with it. He touched the heart of Beth when he showed her his drawings (he is a very good artist) and Beth decided to pay for new school shoes for him. On behalf of Daz, thanks!
Hasland Hall Mathematics DepartmentThank you so much to all the pupils and staff from the mathematics department at Hasland Hall School in Chesterfield for their continued help and support with the charity. The Mathematics department held a collection of loose change and then had a competition to see who could guess how much money had been collected. Thank you to everyone that took part and that has helped.
DonationsDewi, Terry, Jenny and Glenis have been kind enough to donate money towards the charity for the general day to day running costs. Without donations like this the charity would struggle to keep its head above water so thanks!
Car Boot SaleA big thank you to Steve & Lynne for holding a car boot sale and donating all profits towards the charity to purchase the mosquito nets that are required for all the windows at the Mango house, and there are a lot of windows! Our next task to make them!
Gas BottlesThank you to Ann & John for purchasing the gas bottle and connection needed at the Mango House, and to Amanda for purchasing extra bottles needed to ensure that there is a constant supply of gas to be able to cook for the children.
Online DonationsThank you to Elizabeth, John & Ann, Heather & Dave, Paul, Amanda, Kathleen, Lynn and an anonymous donor for their kind support through online donations through the Givenow website
(http://www.CAFonline.org/charityprofile/childrenwalkingtall).
Final FansThe final two fans for the Mango house have been purchased by Kathleen and Lorna. Finally the house will be nice and cool for the children and all of our visitors. Thank you to you both for your continued support.
Rent ProjectWe are very pleased to announce that Paul has started our rent project rolling by donating the first £250. By giving the money through the Givenow website, Paul’s donation was increased to £304 without any extra expense to him. The money will be used towards our final total of £6000 to cover the rent for 5 years on the Mango House.
Suitcases full of ItemsA big thank you goes out to Jane, Sophie, Merilyn, Beth, Bhawna, Jenny, Glenis and finally Dewi. All of these people bought extra bags over full of items for the children. Without people doing this we would not be able to continue giving clothes out in the slums and having enough items to run the house, so thank you all!!!
Kurian – Baga AdictWe would like to thank Kurian for his continued help since he came to visit us at the Mango house earlier this month. He started off by saying ‘Is there anything I can do to help’, the next minute we had thrust a paint brush in his hand and he was up the ladder painting the walls of the reception room. He continued to paint while we had the volunteers meeting and then joined us for a bite to eat. Rob then joined him in the garden pulling out the head high weeds which had grown over the monsoon. He was only here for a few days before he returned to Bangalore, but he is still helping us by finding people to help with producing CWT T-Shirts and also organising the importing of charity items by sea/air.
Giant JengaThank you to Rachael and Daniel for donating the money to make a giant Jenga game for the children to play with. I am sure that everyone including the adults will have hours of fun playing this game. They also generously donated money towards fruit for the children so thank you very much.
Indian EveningA massive thank you goes out to Maureen and all of the people that were involved in the recent Indian evening that she organised. Altogether they raised enough money to pay for the Septic Tanks, the toilet and shower room tiling, the varnishing and sanding of all the woodwork in the house and a baby’s cot. For more information on this evening read below in the What’s been Happening section.
Goan DentistWe received an email entitled ‘Brite Smile for Children Walking Tall’ which got our attention this month. The Goan Dentist (AKA Dr Ambert) wanted to raise funds and awareness of Children Walking Tall and came up with the idea of having a raffle of dental work and products. Many people come to Goa for cheap but good dental work and as it is getting progressively more difficult to keep your dentist in England there many are coming overseas (mainly to India) to get top notch treatment at a fraction of the cost. With this in mind Dr Ambert has decided to help with the promotion and give away about £450 worth of prizes – the top prize being Brite Smile whitening procedure worth 300 pounds. (For those of you who want the Film star smiles). All the procedures will be done in Goa, but don’t let that stop you entering as 80% of the proceeds will go to Children Walking Tall and anyway, if you win, it’s always a good excuse to have another holiday in Goa! If you would like tickets then please contact us. The tickets are priced at £1.25 in the UK and 100 Rs in Goa. They will be available via email and from the Mango house and the Saturday night market in Goa.
For more information about Dr Ambert please visit http://www.goadentist.com
What's Been Happening?
New Baby - 'Jessica'We are very please to announce the arrival of another new baby in Sinquerium slum. Jessica was born at the end of September and is doing very well. All the children in the slum are very protective of her and everyone that visits start cooing at her straight away.
Welcome to all of our volunteersWe would like to give a warm welcome to Claudia, Sophie, Merilyn, Kate, Lisa, Gilly, Mike, Sunil, Issac, Antonella and Kimberley. These are our new volunteers, each is spending a various amount of time with Children Walking Tall, and a few have actually moved to Goa so will be around to help out long term. All of the volunteers are enjoying spending time with the children, are running all of our school projects and helping with the decoration work at Mango House. Without the help of our volunteers it would not be able to accomplish the work we do or manage to help as many children as we do, so a huge thank you all!!!!
New Slum SchoolFinally we have managed to start a school at Karaswada slum. For the past 6 months we have been asking whether they would like us to run a school for the children there but they have not been very keen on the idea. However Rob asked again this month and the answer was YES! We now run a school on four days a week and roughly 30 - 40 children attend each session, although this number fluctuates each day. The most we’ve had so far was 53 on one day. The school is being run by four of our volunteers and the children are learning their ABC’s as well as how to play and interact with other people.
Slum School at SinqueriumThe school in the slum at Sinquerium has finally managed to open again this month after the monsoon rains. Two of our volunteers spend five days a week with the children. The children at this slum are split into two groups with the younger ones learning their ABC’s, colourings and how to play and the older children are learning how to write correctly and English words that they will find useful. All the children seem to enjoy the school; however the younger ones love to play more than they do learn!!!!
New School ProjectWe have continued to help and support the new school project. Throughout the month we have given clothes, stationary, fruit, sweets and various other items to the children. Two of our volunteers also visit the project four times a week to help teach the children. The children continue to greet us with big smiles and hand shakes…… one of their favourite games at the moment is ‘Simon Says’ which they would play for hours (we always get tired first!).
 Bhawna and Beth’s Visit
When Bhawna and Beth emailed us and asked if they could work with Children Walking Tall for one week in October we were very cautious as it normally takes a while for people to settle in. However we agreed for them to come and visit and said we would take it from there. On their first day in Goa, straight from the airport, they visited one of the slums and straight away loved the children’s happy, smiling faces. They then visited the Mango House and proceeded to tell us that they wanted to spend every minute of the next few days helping us in anyway that they could.
 The next few days turned into a whirlwind! Not only did they visit both of the slums and the house a number of times, but they visited the school, and the market as well. On one of their trips to the market they bought 10kg each of chilly powder, turmeric, cardamom powder and jeera. The people in the market looked at us as though we were crazy tourists – ‘why do you want so much spices?’. However when we finally got everything back to the ‘Mango house’ we helped them split the spice up into 100 small pots with lots left over to keep at the house for the children. That night they visited the slums and gave spices to all of the families so that they could add some taste to the cooking. Everyone was pleased to see them!
 On Sunday everyone decided they wanted to spend some time at Sinquerium slum and maybe have a small party for the children. We took music, games, mendi (Tubes of Henna), colourings, balloons, skipping ropes, balls and sweets to the slum and spent time with the children just having fun. Bhawna was in charge of painting everyone’s hands with mendi although as everyone wanted it done we all ended up helping. It was a great day and all the children really enjoyed it but it was also very tiring!!
Indian Evening in Barnstaple – Details by MaureenThe Indian night was a great success, the hall was fantastically decorated and everyone got into the theme of things by dressing up, on top of all this the food was great! Maureen and her friend Jay cooked all the rice and curries although there was a LOT of help from Jays partner Shelley. The Naan and onion bagees were from a local take away and were lovely.
The night continued with belly dancers which obviously kept the men happy, we couldn’t get any ‘proper’ India dancers, but it was all accompanied by Indian music and was a great success. The music was kindly supplied for free, by Gordon of Top Hat Disco. The night also included a prize draw, with the prizes being supplied by all the local businesses and artists. There were other games and prizes, it seemed that everyone was in a great mood.
After the evening had ended there was some food left over. This was collected and taken to a local Poverty action group and as a result we were able to feed well over 90 people (with the PAG provided what was needed to bulk it out)
The night was mainly down to Shelley and Jay who really organised and carried the night. We would like to thank them and the many helpers we had amd not forgetting everyone who turned up and spent their money willingly.
Thank you from Maureen and everyone from Children Walking Tall.
Uniform For SurekaThanks to Kathleen, one of our educational sponsors, a five year old girl from the slum has received a new uniform for school including shoes and a bag. Sureka didn’t start school until the middle of September because her parents didn’t want her to go mainly because they couldn’t afford the uniform and books. But with the help from Kathleen she now attends a government run school. Sureka is now loving her new lessons and proudly shows us what she has learnt so far when we visit.
Future Projects
Volunteer DaysMany people who come to Goa would like to help in a larger project to help the children in India. At present the Mango house is nearly complete but we have hardly touched the gardens. If you have a green thumb or just enjoy making outside areas look and feel child friendly then please get in touch and possibly lend a hand when you come to Goa. At present the back garden is more like a building site with most of the rubble still heaped up waiting to be levelled and walls made from the large stones. As well as this we have lots of space where we would like to make small flower beds or vegetable/fruit patches. The garden is huge and resembles a small forest on one side and it just needs taming. If you’re up for the task then please get in contact with us, either before you come or while you’re out on holiday. If you would like to help directly with the children then a police check will be required. We prefer people who are staying a minimum of a month as this gives the children some continuity. If you can stay 6 months then that’s ideal. We have volunteering pages on our website if anyone would like more information.
ChristmasIt’s only two months until Christmas!!! Still no signs of the Christmas sprit in Goa yet. Although we are starting to prepare for Diwali. CWT is prepared with lots of presents already wrapped and ready to go. We are in the process of collecting more small presents that we can distribute to as many children as possible on Christmas Day. Last year it was a great success and over 150 presents and pieces of fruit were given out. This year we hope to double this figure. If all goes to plan we will stretch out further to help other states. Crossed fingers….
Auction ItemsWe have been lucky enough to receive several items that we are going to Auction off to raise money for CWT. Below is a description of the items we have so far. If you’re interested in any of the item, or wish to donate any other items for the auction then please feel free to contact us.
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| Signed photograph of Arsenal Football Team 2004 – 2005. We have all the official letters to confirm that it is an original picture. Our bidding is at £50 with Alex |
Kylie Minogue Records. Kylie’s production company have donated a number of records for us to Auction. They are all originals and may are limited editions. |
We also have a Signed Photograph of Daniel Bedingfield.
Paintball TicketsDelta Force World Class Paintball Entertainment have donated 10 books of Paintball tickets to the charity to be sold or used for raffle prizes. Each book contains 8 tickets and cost £49.95. For more information please visit our website http://www.childrenwalkingtall.com/Paintball.htm or contact our UK office.
What you can do to HELP!!!Perhaps you could make a difference in the lives of the children, there are several ways to do this:
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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 then please Email Us 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 the Email Us with the subject Cancel Newsletter. Thanks from everyone at Children Walking Tall. |
