« July / August 2006 » |
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IntroductionWe have had some huge success stories in the last two months, but also some of the hardest times since we started the charity just two years ago. It has been a real mix of emotions: pride at managing to get the majority of the children into school, to heartbreak when we thought we would have to close 'The Mango House' for good. Well, you can read all about it in this month’s newsletter....
| Introduction | |
| What's Been Happening | |
| Website | |
| Fundraising | |
| Future Plans | |
| What Can You Do? | |
| And Finally | |
We hope you enjoy this instalment of the newsletter and if you have any queries or comments then please Contact Us. |
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What's Been Happening
Ups and Downs at Children Walking TallOn the success front, we managed to get the majority of the children into school, which is necessary and rewarding for them.
The hard times, unfortunately, affects how we can currently work with the children. Recently The law in Goa has changed relating to licensing of children's homes and this has made it increasingly difficult for us to help the children in the 'home' environment. We had to take a tough decision to close the doors of The Mango House to the children whilst we are working to meet the demands of the new legislation. As you can imagine, this has been heartbreaking for the children, staff and volunteers.
We applied for our initial licence at the start of November 2005 and passed the inspection during February but, mainly due to the new legislation, we still haven't been granted a license. Please be assured that we have been actively pushing forward for a positive outcome every step of the way, but it is being a very laborious and frustrating process. Several times we have thought that we were almost there, only to find that we are no further along.
We had hoped that we would have some good news for this months newsletter but are sad to say this is not the case. For the time being we will continue to do out-reach work in the slums. Our work started in the slums, so we are fully aware of it's benefits and pitfalls. The Mango House will remain closed until permission from the Government is granted.
Giving out clothesThe positive side of our current situation is that we have much more time to do outreach work at the various slums around Goa. Having decided to do a clothes-run, we began sorting the huge piles of clothes kindly donated to us. Most of the present volunteers had never been on a clothes run and probably didn’t realise the amount of work that goes into sorting the clothes before hand. In order to do the trips volunteers spent two days organising clothes into different ages. The new CWT Van was then put to good use and filled to the brim with clothes. Shermina set off in the van followed by five scooters in tow and toured round the slums giving out clothes to the children that have stayed in Goa during the monsoon.
The smiles that we received from the children and their families made it a special experience and for the volunteers who had not given out clothes before it was a great trip. In one afternoon we gave out over 200 items of clothing. Later the same evening Shermina visited the Karaswada slums and gave clothes out to all of the new babies. Some of the clothes that were too big for the children were given to the fathers in the slum.
Building Saira’s House Shermina and Aloysuis were doing outreach work in the slums one afternoon when they visited Saira who is one of the newer children to attend The Mango House. When Shermina and Aloysuis saw her family’s living conditions, they were horrified. The home consisted of a basic shell with one side and a roof made only from cardboard. There was no protection from the wind and rain that was coming in from all sides. The roof was at the point of collapse due to the damp cardboard and the children had to sleep in the rain each night.
Shermina and Aloysuis returned to The Mango House to tell the volunteers there was a big job that needed starting the next day. However, nobody quite realized just how big it would be!
 The following day Shermina, Aloysuis, Kym, Dave, Marlene, John and Becky arrived at the hut to see what work needed be done. It was decided that the first thing to do was to empty the hut completely so we could assess the situation. This was a huge task. After some items had been removed, piles of rotting clothes were exposed beneath and the floor was rotting and uneven. When the roof was removed, water flooded down onto the volunteers. The damp cardboard made an ideal home for huge infestations of various insects and gave some of the volunteers a fright. By that time an audience of around 50 locals were looking on to watch those mad foreigners dismantle the hut.
Luckily, the rains stayed away for most of the day and as soon as everything was emptied we were able to decide what needed to be done. The floor was a complete mess with only a very small level space. The rest of the floor consisted of rubble and collapsed when walked on. Kym started work on making the floor level, but decided that sand would be needed to make the floor an even height and a safe place to use. As always in Goa, it took three hours longer than expected for the sand to turn up. Work did not come to a halt though.
When Shermina first saw the hut, she had not realized the extent to which it needed repairing. As time went by it was obvious that a full new roof was needed and that plastic sheeting would not be strong enough to resist the winds and the rains, so the decision was made to buy corrugated iron to remake the roof. However, this was where the fun really started as no-one had any experience in building a hut and did not have a clue how to fix everything together! There were still lots of people around watching, but nobody seemed to want to offer their help until Dave blatantly asked someone, ‘Are you going to help then?’!
 The man turned out to be a great help and the roof quickly went up and was fixed to the hut. Plastic sheeting was then placed around all of the sides and the roof to make it as water tight as possible. It started to get dark. Work could not be completed that day, so some volunteers returned the following day to add the final touches. As we were leaving, we asked the children if they liked their new home and the older three children loved it, but we had a critic in the youngest family member (2 years old) who wondered what we had done to her home? It was so sad to know that all she had ever known was her old home. The volunteers asked the children what they would be having for their evening meal, as the volunteers had not seen any food during the process of emptying the house. It was heartbreaking to hear that there was no food and that the children would be going to bed hungry. As you can imagine, we could not let this happen so later on that evening food was taken down for them and they were very happy to go to bed on full stomachs for a change.
The following day several of our volunteers returned to put some more plastic on the sides, roof and floor. Plywood sheets were laid over the plastic on the floor so that the children had a hard dry place to sleep and finally some mats were laid on top of the wood.
The house building had been a very tough job but definitely a great success. We have visited the house since and it is lovely to see that they are finally living somewhere that is dry, safe and clean. Thank you to all of our volunteers and everyone else who gave a helping hand. It is great to know that the family can finally sleep without getting wet.
New VehiclesMany of you might remember that in December we were lucky enough to have a motorbike donated to the charity. This was our first vehicle, a sort- after Enfield Bullett. Unfortunately, such vehicles are not designed for nipping around Mapusa at rush hour! The doctor who had given it had always said we could sell it to buy another vehicle, so we have been able to buy not one, but two, vehicles this month. Instead of the Enfield we have purchased a small Scooter that is more practical and reliable for the streets of Mapusa. This will enable Shermina to travel independently and spend more of her time doing outreach work at the slums. The second is a ‘taxi’ van that is to be used to help transport the children to and from school and give us the ability to transport food and goods to the house. Hopefully, it will be the last time that we will need to carry 4ft x 6ft sheets of plywood on the bike again! The van is a great success and ensures that the children are not walking along the dangerous highway. Thank you to the local Mauruti dealer who gave us a few extras FOR free!
Annual General MeetingThe Annual General meeting of Children Walking Tall took place in July at our UK base in Mansfield. The meeting was an opportunity to focus on what had been achieved in the last year. This year we have been given a great deal of support from volunteers, fundraisers, visitors and the local population, which has increased our ability to help the children of India. So projects put on hold twelve months ago can now be undertaken. We are still a small charity, but manage to provide so much for the children. Thank you to everybody who has helped in the last year.
New volunteersAlthough we are in the midst of the monsoon here in Goa we have been very lucky and not had a shortage of volunteers. Thank you to Dave, Geoff, Marlene, Nadine, Becky, Jonathan, Maria, Jules and Kym for all your help over the past few weeks. As well as volunteers in Goa we would like to thank everybody in the UK who has helped with office work and fundraising. We now have fundraisers who are doing their own projects in the UK and abroad. In the UK there is Maureen and Penny who are based in the south, Raj is based in London, Melanie, Heather and Dave in Bristol and of course Denise, who is still in our UK office. Everyone who helps does so voluntarily in their spare time. It is great to know we have such a good team helping us in the UK to support the work we do with the children in India.
Doctor for KieranKieran is a boy who could hardly walk and rarely smiled before he came to The Mango House. With the help of volunteers and staff we have seen a huge improvement in his mobility. Unfortunately, Kieran is still battling with poor health and was admitted into Vrundavan Hospital with pneumonia during June. We provided assistance and encouraged the family to take part in his well-being. His mother went to the hospital each night to stay with him and staff and volunteers covered the daytime. Kieran was later discharged after 5 days on the understanding that he would continue his care at The Mango House. Kieran required continuous care and attention and had to be put on the electronic nebuliser every 4 – 6 hours. We did this for three weeks, but then his family decided that they wanted to take him home once a week for the night. However, he has continued to grow stronger, even though he still has to use the nebuliser every six hours and is on a cocktail of drugs. Hopefully when the house re-opens and Kieran returns to stay with us he will eventually make a full recovery, although his health always takes a couple of steps back at the weekends when he returns home…
PremiPremi has always been a girl who sticks out from the crowd as she is full of energy and never one to sit in the shadows. We have been increasingly worried about her during the last couple of months though. Premi’s mother is dead and Premi lives with her aunt and uncle. They make here work: cooking, cleaning and looking after her younger cousins - one 3 years old, and a baby of about 6 months. We then heard more stories about Premi being beaten and tales of her being thrown across the room, as well as situations where she had to catch the baby when it was thrown after her aunt and uncle came home drunk. We were fortunate to meet her father one day and asked if we could look after Premi: he could not look after her as he also drank heavily. Hopefully, in the next few weeks, Premi will be able to live at The Mango House.
School
 The new school term started in June and we were adamant that we would get as many children as possible into the local schools. We thought it would be a relatively easy job, but this proved not to be the case. We visited a local school with about 20 children and soon found out that the school head was not very interested in helping. Firstly, she said all the children required birth certificates (which they don’t have), then said there were no places, not enough teachers….. the excuses went on and on. Thankfully, our persistence paid off and we managed to get five children into school, and then another couple, then six more, and then some in to another school. In the end, after a lot of running around, we managed to get a total of 43 children into school.
A huge thank you goes to Aloysuis for his hard work and Kirsty and the other volunteers who helped. Education is free in Goa, but the last month has shown us why not many children go to school as we had to buy uniforms, books, bags, shoes, equipment, tiffin tins etc for all the children. The cost definitely adds up. Some of the families have nine children and it would be impossible for them to have them all educated and a struggle to have even just one in school… We will continue with our drive to promote education and hope that we can give more children the chance. The best part is, the children love it and are so proud of their uniforms. Some of the children walk past The Mango House in the morning on the way to school and shout out at the top of their voices, Hello Robert, Hello Shermina, Hello Sir (Aloysuis), Hello Didi (Sangeeta) – It’s lovely to hear them.
Helping Other Children's HomesWe are very lucky in the number of items we receive from our supporters. Nothing goes to waste, everything is always used and in the last two months, we have been able to extend the help not only to local slums, but also to other organisations and children's homes around Goa and also India.
Clothes, shoes and baby items were given to local charities in Goa. Darian took warm socks, coats, jumpers, hats and scarves for children who live in a village in the Himalayan Mountains (North India, near Tibet). Below are the items that were taken to Andra Pradesh (East Coast of India) by Pablo for another children's home.
The Monsoon When we started Children Walking Tall we always thought that six months of the year would be nice and quiet and a chance to catch up with work, but this hasn’t been the case. The monsoon has brought its own jobs, the most obvious of which is the garden which is bursting into life again. Thankfully, a couple of our volunteers have spent some time in the garden. We would especially like to thank Geoff and Kim for their work. Geoff spent hours sat out in the rain taking up the weeds by hand. There will be lots more work to do by the end of the monsoon and, as well as the garden, the paintwork will have to be completely redone.
Little ‘Hair’ FriendsWe continue in our effort to try and improve health at the slums and we have recently been trying to at least reduce the number of children with little friends in their hair. Actually, some of the little friends aren’t that little! Spencer and Tricia from the USA came to visit us during June and they brought us some fantastic head lice kits that we have been using on the children. The volunteers have spent hours combing through the children’s hair trying to remove the lice. Spencer and Tricia were also kind enough to bring over shampoo, an electric shaver and a bag of goodies for the children.
Indian celebritiesThanks to help from Raj we have introduced Children Walking Tall to some rather famous celebrities within the Indian community. See below to see how many you recognise…
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Mayor of Greenwich
Cllr Harpinder Singh BSc |
Bad Man of Bollywood
Gulshan Grover |
Pop Sensation
Raghav |
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Website
UpdatesWe have been working hard in the last month to improve the information and look of the Children Walking Tall website. Nearly every page has been updated in style and content. As well as giving it a face lift we have also added new forms that will enable supporters to contact us with comments and questions, extra baggage allowance requests, or even to send details about volunteering or requesting this newsletter.
Below is a list of the areas and a description of the updates.
Home PageOnly a few small visual updates, the details of the most recent updated pages can now be seen at the bottom of the page, just click on the pictures to visit the updated pages. The menu has been changed to provide quicker access to web pages.
Help UsThe Help Us Menu has changed slightly, as volunteering has been removed and placed on the main menu.
Needs ListThe needs list has been updated with the current needs and purchases. Please visit this page if you would like to donate towards something from the needslist.
DonationsThe donations page gives people a wider choice when donating to Children Walking Tall.
FundraisingThe fundraising page has been redesigned and now gives simple steps to get your fundraising event off the ground. It also has a new form where you can send details of your event to Children Walking Tall.
EventsPreviously we had a webpage for the All Spice Bike ride, but in the last two months we have had a few events taking place. Due to this we have created a page to show all the events that are happening.
SponsorshipThis is a new page that gives a run down on how supporters can sponsor a child. The sponsorship project should be up and running in the next couple of months. But if you're interested please read about it here..
LuggageThis page has been made easier to apply for extra luggage allowance for charity items to be brought for Children Walking Tall. The updated page now provides an idea of what to bring and also provides a form where supporters can fill in and send the flight details so we can ask the airlines for extra luggage on your behalf.
About UsWe have combined ‘What we do and Who we are…’ into About us.
NewslettersThe newsletter section has had a small facelift and now includes a form that users can use to subscribe or unsubscribe to the newsletter. All the previous newsletters can still be found here.
PicturesThe pictures section has had a few small changes, as we have a larger capacity on our website it is currently allowing us to keep more pictures up. All the previous picture collections can still be found. The latest update is from giving out clothes to various slums during the monsoon.
VolunteerThe Volunteer section has now moved to the main menu.
GeneralThe page has been updated slightly and provides volunteers with a step by step guide of how to become a volunteer for Children Walking Tall.
ApplicationThis is a new page which makes it easier for volunteers to send us the necessary information we need as part of the acceptance process.
CRB CheckAs we are a British charity we want to keep the highest standards when it comes to caring for the children at The Mango House'. All volunteers will now be required to apply through NDF Associates for their police check. It also provides a check list of what steps are required.
PositionsPositions is a new page showing the different roles a volunteer can be involved in at Children Walking Tall.
GoaAllows volunteers who haven't travelled to Goa before to get an idea of what to expect. This also links through to the Taxi Price List.
IndiaThis gives an idea to volunteers of what is available beyond the borders of Goa.
ExperiencesFor those wanting to volunteer it's always good to have an idea of what other volunteers thought of the placements. We continue to update this with new comments from the volunteers as they leave to return to the real world.
Contact UsThe contact us page now includes a questions and comments form added to enable users to immediately send us general queries about the charity. |
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Fundraising
Mastercare really does careA very big thank you goes out to Mastercare in Nottinghamshire for donating two laptops for the children. Shermina was laden down with luggage on her return from the UK, but managed to squeeze both laptops into her hand luggage. The laptops will let the children play educational games and access educational information. We now have a number of laptops and hope that we will be able to give proper computer lessons to the children. We do however require an IT professional to set them up. If you are such a person, or know anyone with the skills who plans to visit Goa in the next few months, then please get in touch as the laptops need making ‘safe’ before the children use them.
Joint effort from SunGard and IntelUntil this month the charity had been using Robert’s personal laptop for all the office work and it was getting to the point that it needed replacing. We were overjoyed to meet up with Ian and Lisa from Sungard. Ian was visiting India to give presentations for the Indian banking fraternity which Intel were sponsoring. Ian thought it would be a great idea to ask Intel to support his local charity (CWT). As such, Ian and Lisa organised a brand new Dell laptop for the Goa Office. The laptop is a great help as it allows us to do more tasks at once because of the increased speed and power. We would like to thank Ian and Lisa for organising the laptop, and SunGard and Intel for their support. Lisa has also helped by organising collections of toiletries from all their employees who travel around Asia. A package arrived at The Mango House this week filled with shampoo, soap and other toiletries… Thank You for all your help!
Bombay Night FeverWe would like to thank Raj, Reena, Rina, Renu, Neal and everyone who joined in the very successful and fun Bombay Night Fever evening held at the Pitcher & Piano in London. Raj joined us in Goa earlier in the year and has been working hard to promote Children Walking Tall, especially with the Asian community in London since his return. Raj who likes to party thought that it would be a great way to raise money, so he went about organising the evening.
While Robert was in the UK he joined Raj and his helpers for the evening, although he was a little late after getting slightly lost driving around London for 2 hours! The evening went on until 2am and no one wanted to leave as the party atmosphere was still going strong. We were lucky to have a great DJ, DJ Sanj-j, who kept everyone dancing as he played all the Bollywood favourites, Bollywood Old Skool, R&B, Arabic and a touch of Bhangra. He ended the evening with some old classics, which everyone except Robert knew the words to…
By the end of the evening Raj had raised a fabulous £1,863 for Children Walking Tall. Some of the guests wondered if it could be a regular event, so Raj, if you’re listening…. :o)
All Spice Sponsored Motorbike Trip around IndiaMany of you who come to Goa might be aware of the two lads from the All Spice Restaurant in Arpora. For the last month and a half they have been travelling around India on a mammoth trip to raise money for Children Walking Tall riding an Enfield Bullet. There have been some difficulties, all of which you can read about in their trip-diary. You will be glad to know they have returned home safely and we would like to thank them for all their hard work. They managed to complete 9,164 miles. To give you an idea of the distance-travelled, London to Goa is about 4,600 Miles as the crow flies so Vinny and Girish nearly drove the distance there and back to complete the trip! We would like to thank Vinny and Girish for making the trip and also Alan who drove the support vehicle during their trip.Vinny and Girish’s Last Diary Entry : "“This was definitely a trip of a life time. Nothing, no other journey or any adventure I have done so far can compare to this. Its like conquering Everest in the Ganges as Sir Edmund Hilary did and described the greatest conquer of all time. It took 48 days 14,748kms of riding a bike through 20 different states in India, from -15 degree temperature to 50 degree temp,100% air density to 29% air density, covered 90kph and could only cover 9 kph, drove 0 feet from sea level to 18380 feet. It will go on and on and on.”
For those who do not know, Vinny has returned from the trip to get married. Everyone at Children Walking Tall wishes him and his wife all the best for their future together.
London to Brighton Bike Ride The London to Brighton bike ride has been very popular this year with no less than four of our supporters taking part. The ‘boys’ (Ralph Ginn, Gareth Ginn and Chris Everett) managed to complete the London to Brighton course in 4 hours and nine minutes. Sara Cutting also took part and wrote a paragraph about the event.
 "It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for a pink fairy fundraiser to cycle from London to Brighton to raise a few pennies for CWT - The biggest challenge of the day was cycling all the way up Ditchling Beacon, my partner says it's one of the most physically challenging things he's ever done and he's the type of chap that does triathlons. So when I made it to the top I cried - I think a combination of joy and pain. A great day and quite a few pennies were raised - a big thank you to all those who sponsored me.
This fairy's tinkering with possibly trying for the London Marathon next year - depends how her wings bear up during the winter months - watch this space"
Fish-a-thonAndy and his family visited The Mango House in April this year. He was really touched by the experience and decided to organise something to help. He thought as he was a keen fisherman he would do a sponsored Fish-a-thon. The aim, to catch as many different species of sea fish as possible during 2 days in North Wales.
Andy spent two days, the first was on a glorious sunny day in Rhyl, about 5 miles offshore and he straight away got stuck into the Mackerel which were plentiful. One of the highlights of the day was reeling in a 6lb Bull Huss which gained him 10 points for the match and another species for the fishathon.
By the end of the two days he had managed to catch 8 different species. We would like to thank him for all his help and look forward to seeing him when he comes to Goa next.
Online DonationsWe would like to thank everyone who has donated online. In the last couple of months we have had the following donations
Monthly/Weekly NeedsRiceChris Dean, Ann and John Martin, Ian and Loraine Scoffings; Fruit - John Bennett, James and Cathy and The Singing Days ; Nappies - Mandy and Neil; Nappies, Milk and Medicine - Veronica and Nick Anrisano.
One off items School Uniforms – Catherine Constant; School Bags – Teresa Holmes, Heather and Dave; School Shoes – Daisy and Poppy Gregory, Veronica and Nick Anrisano, Tiffin Tins – Grace And Alex; Well Cover, Cleaning and Washing Stone Area - James and Cathy and The Singing Days; Kitchen Items - Veronica and Nick Anrisano.
Other DonationsThank you to Gareth Tweddle, Andrew Miller, Keirsten Miranda, Simon D'Souz, Mr Studd, Natasha Edwards, Patricia Abbitt, Helen Carter, Anna Vinkenoog, Shanaz Mason, Stuart Wood, Fiona Slessor, Sophie Mitchell, Simon Turner, Nick Andrisano, Elena Cirillo, Adela Goodwill for their online donations.
UK DonationsThank you to everyone who has supported us in the UK, by sending cheques or paying money into the Children Walking Tall bank account. A special thank you to everyone who is supporting us by giving monthly donations. It does make such a difference and has allowed us to rent the 'The Mango House' and also provide hundreds of children clothes, fruit and health care. We hope that all our Uk supporters will soon be coming to see us as the tourist season is only 3 months away. |
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Future Plans
Out Reach ProgrammesWe are hoping to start more outreach programmes in the near future. These will provide more areas with small informal schools and distribution points for fruit and clothes. It will also enable us to interact with the children from more areas and improve our knowledge of any issues affecting them.
Can you hear the Christmas Bells?It is early, but as soon as the monsoon finishes we will start organising this years Christmas presents. We are hoping to make at least 1000 children that little bit happier this year as we go out and about to the local slums around Goa. If you can help by bringing out small presents then we might reach our goal of 1000 wrapped presents. |
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What Can You Do?
Big Charity BoxWe are currently rocking 'The Big Charity Box', as we are easily the highest rated charity in their database! (Twice the number of votes of the second place charity). Thank you to everyone who has voted! We are still trying to raise votes though, if we get twice as many votes we'll get twice the donation so please continue to vote for us... It's free and simple, all you need is to create an ID and vote each month for Children Walking Tall - If you have a couple of email addresses then you can vote on each one :o) Click here to see the new Charity Box web page.
Most Voted (As of 06/08/06) |
| Children Walking Tall |
8.6% |
| Hospital Radio Bedside | 3.8% |
| Karenni Student Dev... | 3.1% |
| The Disabled People's... | 3.0% |
| Association of Young... | 2.9% |
Spread The WordAn easy way to help is to spread the word, just let more people know about what we do! If you've received this newsletter by email then simply forward it to your friends, otherwise send the link to our website as this and our older newsletters are always available on our website www.ChildrenWalkingTall.com
Monthly SponsorshipWe have grown so much since we started, so it's more important than ever to keep a solid base to work from. With this in mind we are looking for people to give monthly donations so that we have a core fund we can reply on each month. We currently have people donating from £2 to £20 per month. The money would help feed the children each day by helping provide a morning snack, a main meal for lunch, and a second snack in the afternoon, it would also help to provide vitamins and basic health care and allow us to keep money set aside to pay the rent, electric and water every month.
Information : http://www.ChildrenWalkingTall.com/Donations.htm
DonationsPerhaps 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, 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.
UK Fundraising TeamBecome a member of our UK fundraising team by distributing leaflets, raising money or organising events. A good way to help is by finding something that you enjoy doing and get people to give you money for doing it! For example, you could organise a night out, an Indian evening or just have a party, there are lots more ideas in our Online Fundraising Pack |
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And Finally...
Newsletter By EmailIf you would like to receive these monthly newsletters by email please Contact Us. 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 with the subject “Cancel Newsletter” Many Thanks from everyone at Children Walking Tall.
Contact Us Children Walking Tall,
'The Mango House',
H.No 148/3,
Near Vrundavan Hospital,
Karaswada, Mapusa
,Bardez, Goa
Web : www.ChildrenWalkingTall.com
Tel : (0091) 9822 124 802 |
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