What's Been Happening
The Mango House
The Mango House was a residential property when Shermina and Robert first found it at the end of May 2005. It was in a terrible state with holes in the roof and broken windows throughout. For most of the monsoon Robert, Shermina and a handful of volunteers worked tirelessly on cleaning, painting, sanding and restoring the house to its former glory. New bathrooms and a kitchen were installed, an entire new septic system was put in and the house was painted throughout. Lovely murals adorn all of the walls and we are delighted with the colourful and child friendly feel of the house. Recent additions have been a mosaic washing area and a newly landscaped garden with a fledgling adventure playground and a palm covered teaching area. After a little T.L.C. and a lot of hard work, the house has developed into a bright 'home' that will be ideal for the work that we do with the children.
Since the start of November 2005 as many of you are aware, we have been battling to obtain the licence so that "The Mango House" can be a registered children's home. It has been a hard struggle and there have been times when we felt that we would never achieve our objective as yet another meeting was inexplicably cancelled, some new condition would be set or another piece of paper demanded.
The exciting news is that we have finally received notification in writing that our wait for the licence is over. The licence has been as illusive as the Holy Grail but we are now in possession of an order stating that
'it would be just and fair to grant provisional registration for one year to the "Children Walking Tall" to operate a Children's Home in Goa under the Goa Children's Act 2003."
We are so proud of and confident in what we are doing that we will welcome surprise visits and inspections as a chance to showcase our work . The children are desperate to get back into the house - on their daily stops at the garden gate on their way home from school for a glass of water, they are constantly trying to peep in to see what changes have been made since they were last here.
We are all now geared up to finishing the last few jobs that need to be done before the children come back to the house - finishing the mosaic and reconcreting the outside washing area to make it safe, some more tidying in the garden and a general spring clean. We are hoping that this will be within the next few weeks. Hurray!
New Babies
 There have three new babies born at the slum since Christmas, the latest being born just yesterday (Friday 2nd March) as Robert was walking past the mother's shack/home. It came as a bit of a surprise as noise erupted and an elder lady ran out, grabbed a pot of water and ran back inside. The baby sounded fine as it yelled as only babies can. We were at the slum giving out the daily fruit. Unfortunately "The Doctor" (one of our current volunteers) had gone straight back to "The Mango House" after the school lessons so Robert jumped on his bike to get him (just as a precaution). Many of the mothers suffer from anaemia due to low levels of iron in their blood. Andy "The Doctor" assisted by nurses for the day, Preya and Linda, checked the baby (a baby girl) and the mother - both seemed OK. Andy was a little worried about the mother as she seemed quite weak and lightheaded and he urged the family to let her go for a check up at the hospital. They agreed they would if she didn't improve. Just a week earlier, another lady had a baby girl; thankfully we had persuaded this mother to be admitted - she also had a low iron count and required blood transfusions. This involved a very long day for Robert who tried to chase down the right blood type for her. Four visits to Asilo hospital in Mapusa and three visits to Goa Medical College, Bambolim later, we managed to get an extra pint of blood for the mother. Both baby and mother are well and back at home in the slum. Volunteers were eager to see the new arrivals.
Children Walking Tall Health
For the last month we have had a doctor in training with us helping with the medical side of our work. Andy who originates from America has been a great help in getting the medical records up to date on the computer and assisting us with the health of the children. Most volunteers can handle cuts and burns but it is great to have the extra help for the more serious conditions.
Dental
Children Walking Tall over the past few weeks has definitely been busy catching up on a few items with the children’s health from the Karaswada and Crossroads Slums. So far we were able to make two trips to the Goa dental College to see Dr. Steven with 10 of the children. Many of the kids have very poor dental hygiene, and unfortunately even at their young age, their second teeth are already starting to have some serious problems. These first ten children were all able to be seen by Dr. Steven who has been very generous in donating his time to doing check-ups for us. Out of the 10 kids, 8 of them had to go back to the college the next day to have some x-rays done for their next appointment. These 8 kids will have a follow-up with another dentist in Mapusa who will address any and all problems that Dr. Steven was able to find. After March 5th, Dr. Steven will be back from his vacation and we will be able to bring another 10 kids for a similar check-up with him at the Goa Dental College. The goal is to continue these check-ups for all children who have dental problems until we are completely caught up.
Another problem was also addressed with a couple of the kids with a colleague of Dr. Stevens who specializes in the repercussions of paan chewing. Paan, similar to chewing tobacco, causes major mouth problems with both the gums, and it exponentially accelerates up the decaying process of the teeth. Unfortunately some of the children already chew paan regularly; if they continue, this will become a major health problem for them. Many of the kids have easy access to paan since most of the older people also chew this. Children Walking Tall has addressed this issue with the children in the past and we are continuing our efforts to stave off the paan chewing with the children. We are also exploring new ideas with Dr. Steven to find better ways of preventative care of the children’s teeth in the future.
MMR Vaccinations
This previous week, Children Walking Tall was also able to host a MMR vaccination program with the children from the Karaswada and Crossroads Slums. MMR, or Measles, Mumps, and Rubella, is very common vaccination usually given to the children twice. The first jab is typically given when the child is around 12 months old or older, then a second jab is given when the child is anywhere from 7-12 years of age. Even though these three viruses are few and far between in Western countries, many children in India and especially in the Karaswada and Crossroads slums are still afflicted by them each year. Last year as many as 10 children required hospitalisation due to measles since they were not vaccinated with the MMR jab.
In total around 80 children have taken part in the MMR vaccination programme to date, over the next couple of days we hope to give the vaccination to another 10 or 15 children who we missed during the first two sets of injections. As with all the work we do we get prior permission from all the parents, thankfully the parents are very good with the work we do and are happy to be included in such programmes. We are also planning more vaccinations by the end of March to get as many children as possible up to date on their jabs which include: Hepatitis B, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, and Typhoid.
Health Needs
The help that has been given to Children Walking Tall has been extremely generous and it has been able to help address many of the problems that we face with the children’s health at both of our primary slums. But as we all know, when it comes to our health, there is almost always need for improvement and this is especially true for our children. Much of what we crucially need to move towards is the most basic necessities. These include better nutrition for the children, better hygiene, dental hygiene, and lessons of self care for minor problems. Funding for our medical supplies is also a priority that is always in need of help. Many people have been very munificent in giving some medical supplies, but unfortunately this has left us with deficits in some places (oral antibiotics), and extreme surpluses in others (Paracetamol, and plasters). Funding for our medical supplies in the future would allow us to buy the necessities as they are required, and to avoid unused surpluses. Funding for our future vaccinations programmes is also crucial to ensure that future outbreaks are avoided.
On behalf of Children Walking Tall, I would like to extend my warmest thanks to all of those who are supporting our efforts to provide a better future for the children of Goa. With your help we hope to continue our improvements to the overall health of the kids, so that every day is filled with the vitality that everyone deserves.
Wheel chair for girl with cerebral palsy
 One of our old volunteers, Lynne, a nurse from England, was back in Goa on holiday and had arranged a special push chair for one of the girls who lived next to the slum at Karaswada. The girl is hardly seen outside as she cannot walk or move her limbs. Lynne brought the chair to hopefully give the girl a change from lying on the hard floor for hours on end. We hope that the chair will give the family the opportunity to take her outside more, due to its large wheels and strong waist harness to keep her safely in place. Thank you to Lynne for all her help and let's hope the wheelchair will get lots of use and give the girl a new perspective on life.
First impressions from 2 grown up gappers
We seem to be wrapped in some sort of Dr Who time warp at the moment. So much has happened since we arrived in India a week ago that we feel as settled as if we have been living here for a couple of months and there again, the impressions are so raw and vital and new that we feel as if we stepped off the plane a few hours ago. This is my first visit to India (Dave has been to the North once before) and although we have lived abroad before in our youth and done a bit of travelling, India is well, something else. Where else would you be confronted by a rat in your bathroom (apparently we were unfortunate and he was definitely more panicked than we were...) and an elephant going about his business in the bus station on the same day? Or be moved to laughter and tears within a few minutes by a bunch of very grubby, lively and cuddly children, struggling to survive in the most appalling living conditions with irrepressible courage and spirit?
Amidst the chaos of India (which you imagine must be following some strange logic of its own yet to be fathomed), The Mango House is an oasis of colourful calm (if that isn't a contradiction for a place which is full of busy people with a great sense of purpose). It's a real pleasure to arrive in the morning (having survived the traffic of Mapusa which I suspect follows rules which will continue to be unfathomable) and see what jobs might be up for grabs: a bit of work on the mosaic for anyone who might have an artistic bent (not us, as it happens); a spot of cleaning; work in the garden for Dave - maybe the setting up of some raised vegetable plots or building a stone wall; a bit of editing of the newsletter for me; painting The Mango House kitchen a vivid bright orange. It's amazing how tasks which seem absolute chores at home have taken on a new shine and now seem pleasant ways to while away the morning.
Then a yummy vegetarian lunch and down to the slum areas for work with the children. It is, I think, impossible not to be shocked by your first visit to the slums and I think we should be shocked that people in the 21st century are living in such conditions. There are apparently 300 million Indians surviving on less than £1 per day and that coupled with the fact that India stands to be the world's second largest economy by 2050 gives you some idea of the gap between rich and poor. These are people who have been bypassed by India's economic boom and the scale of it all can seem overwhelming. But then there are the children, swarming all over you like a rash ( a very apt simile - there are plenty of rashes to be seen, and sores and boils and lots of other rather nasty conditions), a bit undisciplined maybe but wanting to learn and practise their English and play and just be children. And it seems that this is what CWT is really good at - as it says in its slogan, giving them a childhood worth remembering. For me as (I have to confess) at the moment a rather jaded teacher in the UK, I know that these children will give me back a sense of purpose about what can be achieved by education, what education is actually all about. Which is not league tables and flashy powerpoints and Ofsted inspections and revolutionary new teaching methods. It's to do with that smile on a child's face when you say 'Well done' after they've struggled with a sum and got it right or learnt how to skip or managed to wangle the biggest piece of water melon.
So thank you Children Walking Tall for taking us on. We know our time here is going to be rewarding and fun and busy and different. And of course for weekends, there's always the beach.......
Written By Caroline Harmer and Dave Wright
Education
With the children currently not able to come to the Mango House, lessons are being taken to them in the slums. Teaching conditions are not easy - there is little shade, classes are conducted in small groups on the dusty ground, the wind tends to blow teaching materials away or blow dirt all over them and there are many distractions for the children. Plus it's sometimes quite hard to function with one child sitting asleep on your lap and another couple hanging round your neck....But despite all this, the children are enthusiastic and keen to learn most of the time and we feel that enormous progress is being made - educationally and socially.
The children are divided into three groups - two groups of children who attend school and another group which consists of toddlers, children not yet of school age and those children whose parents will not allow them to go to school who vary in age. At the moment, we are spending two hours every day in the Karaswada slum; the time is divided so that all children spend time on English, basic numeracy and maths, craft and structured play. Our biggest handicap in communicating with the children is obviously our lack of linguistic skills - we've been trying to have some lessons in basic Hindi from one of the Hindi speaking volunteers but it's slow progress and in the busy working day, there isn't always time. Having said that, the children are smart at picking up the basics of language and those who go to school are making great progress in understanding - their own production of language will follow. All the children love playing and we try and incorporate as many games as we can into the formal teaching - bingo, Who am I, dominoes and many others reinforce what we're trying to teach. In some ways, what we are formally trying to teach sometimes takes second place to developing social skills - for many children, home life is difficult and the survival instinct can often take precedence over what we would consider to be normal (i.e western) social behaviour. Involving the children in co-operative games, insisting that they are polite to us and each other and strict rules about not fighting and snatching is beginning to make a real difference. It's a delight to be in a teaching situation where giving the children lots of love and cuddles is a) acceptable and b) pays such huge dividends.
Recently two new children arrived in the slum, a brother and a sister. They had never been to school and had poorly developed social skills. The boy refused to sit down for even a nanosecond, wandered round various groups snatching toys and hitting other children, pushed to the front of the queue if he could be persuaded to get into one and didn't communicate with either children or volunteers. His sister was obviously keen to learn and be incorporated into a group but had no idea how to do it and hung back, had clearly never held a pencil before and was unable to copy even the most basic shapes or lines onto paper. I think all of the volunteers have found the children challenging but patience and perseverance with them has paid dividends. In a just a couple of weeks, they have blossomed. Big sister is the first to rush to the van every day, to help unpack boxes and spread out mats. Her arms are constantly outstretched for a cuddle and she smiles all the time. Her brother still has the concentration span of a young goldfish but will sit down for long periods of time, is learning to play with the other children and yesterday was observed singing lustily - admittedly not the same tune or words as anyone else but what progress! These children typify what Children Walking Tall is all about and what can be achieved. Long may it continue.
Safety at the slum
At one of the slums, there is a large water tank that is buried in the ground. One of the hatches to the tank has become weaker and weaker, so much so that a couple of the volunteers organised for the old hatch to be taken off and a new strong metal hatch to be fitted. The old one had been eaten through by rust and as many of the children used to jump up and down on it, it was decided that it should be fixed. Massimo and Dave took on the job of sorting the metal, getting it cut and then welded onto the original frame. As they soon became aware, simple things aren't always that simple... About a week later a new hatch was welded and secured which will hopefully last for a few years to come. I'm sure it will take away some of the fun the children had as they saw it bend with every jump but it will make the volunteers a little happier that there's one less thing to worry about.
Shelia and Tony
 We were lucky to have Shelia and Tony visit us in February. Both asked if there was anything they could help with around the house so we immediately got Tony repairing a few of the doors that were sticking. Shelia liked to design so we asked her to have a look at the back forest area at "The Mango House". A few days later, she came with drawings of her ideas and a huge plan for the garden. Before we had chance to say thank you, she was already on her way looking for materials and sorting out workers for creating the paths. A team of 8 builders started work on a beach shack structure that was to be used as an outdoor school area for the children. While Shelia was in the garden, Tony had set his sights on cubby holes which the children will use for storing their clothes and personal items. In one day, he had already nearly finished one set of boxes and started on the template for the second. The boxes we designed could be easily made from sheets of 8' x 4' plywood. The cubby holes were sanded, primed and then painted in bright colours. There was a mixed reaction to the colour scheme to start with but they do really look good and now stand proudly in the office. I would like to thank Shelia and Tony so much for all their help and wish them all the best as they also celebrated their wedding anniversary during their stay.
Tourist Season
Now the tourist season has hit its peak, many of the families and children are trying to find any opportunity to get out and 'rag pick' during the day. Some unfortunately miss school and either go out on their own or go with parents or other adults to sort through the rubbish left behind by tourists and locals. There is a much wider choice for the rag pickers as everyone is so much better off during season time and throw items away more readily which is why many rag pickers can be found on the tourist belts, sifting through the bins and rubbish at the side of the road. Luckily only a few have missed school but the need is so every apparent as in one family the older sister (15) used to go out every day to rag pick, but in the last week she fell and badly hurt her arm. As this is the only regular income for the family of 6, the mother's first reaction was to take her other daughter out of school at the start of her exams. Thankfully we convinced the mother to let her continue at school this time. But it's always a worry for the next time...
Swedish Television
We have been visited by several couples who are thinking about starting their own children's homes/orphanages in Goa. There has been Evelyn from Australia who is originally from Goa and hopes to start soon and Ken from Sweden who has actually been working on a project for the last 4 years.
Ken joined Children Walking Tall for the day and brought his one man film crew with him who is documenting his journey through the minefield associated with starting a home in Goa. Ken and his team are at the inspection stage of the application and he is already fully aware of the hurdles that block his way. I am sure the documentary will be hugely interesting and wish we had asked the BBC to do the same for us, even if it was just to document the history of Children Walking Tall. I'm sure it would have been more gripping than 'Eastenders' and I can just imagine the theme tune at the end of several of our more trying days at Children Walking Tall.
We wish both Evelyn and Ken all the best in their ventures. We have been keeping in touch as we hope to be of help to them in the future.
Apna Ghar
We were very lucky to get the chance to visit the government remand home (Apna Ghar) last month. Not many see the inside of the facility as special permission from the Director of Women and Child is required before entry. Thankfully, Children Walking Tall was lucky enough to be given permission to visit the home twice. The first time we visited, we got an idea of how many children were living there and later the same day we visited again with three bags of goodies for the children. Each child received a ball, rocket balloon and cuddly toy. The younger children received clothes and the babies just baby grows and hats.
It was good to see a government home as prior to the visit, we had heard stories about these government homes. Thankfully from what we saw, the home was bright and the children seemed happy. After we left there was a definite change as the children burst into noise playing with their new toys; it was great to hear the children being children.
Many of the children in the home have been arrested as they have committed crimes; the rest either don't have families to look after them or worse are found on the streets alone when they are babies. I hope we'll get another chance to visit the children and to help them have a childhood worth remembering.
Mumbai
We would like to thank all the volunteers for their help during the latest Mumbai clothes giving trip. Shermina, Ali, Raj, Linda, Jake and Lyn took a trip up to Mumbai on the train and spent two days giving out fruit, and around 600 sets of clothes to the children living in the slums and on the streets of Mumbai. Unfortunately it is never an easy job, especially with such huge numbers and I think all the volunteers were glad to get back. We would like to thank Raj for sponsoring the trip. Pictures of the trip can be found on the website.
Shilpa Shetty and Priyanka Chopra - Raj at Zee Carnival
  Shilpa Shetty (Left) from the celebrity Big Brother fame bumped into Raj at the Zee Carnival last month. The stunning and talented actress was kind enough to pose for a photo. Shilpa wasn't the only celebrity to catch up with Raj at the event, the stunning ex Miss World, Priyanka Chopra (Right) also bumped into Raj for a chat about Children Walking Tall. We would like to thank the organisers who were very kind and gave us one of their stalls for free.
Volunteers
Since the last newsletter, we have been joined by new volunteers: Anna and Louise from Sweden; Andy from the US; Caroline, Dave and Ian from the UK and Preya from the UK who is working here in conjunction with the Sussex ADHD Trust and is back for her second visit. Deidre who has settled in Goa for part of the year has also been joining us when she can. Massimo from Italy spent a month here and made a huge contribution on the teaching front as well as showing his Italian artistic flair on the mosaic as did Kathryn from Canada. All have been pursuing their specialisms - teaching, medicine, gardening, artwork etc - here as well as helping with the general day to day tasks involved with The Mango House.
Goodbye and thank you to Alice who has gone back to the UK after spending most of the last six months with us. She is planning to go to university, maybe to do a course in development. And goodbye to Raj who has been a great help over here and also with fundraising in the UK.
The latest volunteers are Kiera and Laura from Scotland will be starting their three month stint next week.
Just in case anyone thinks that life for the volunteers is all work, we should perhaps mention that there have been lots of social activities. There have been birthdays, usually celebrated with a meal out and the younger volunteers have been sampling Goa's varied nightclub scene. Rob has discovered go-karting and is always keen to take on newcomers - his rivalry with Andy has become a legend (and dare we ask who won the other night, Rob??) Last weekend, a group of volunteers made the fairly long trek down to Palolem in the south of Goa and spent a weekend at this idyllic beach in coco huts. Too many cocktails were enjoyed by all but despite an unfortunate theft on the beach - sadly all too common in Goa - a good time was had by all. |
