• September / October 2009 » |
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 Introduction
Children Walking Tall has been on overdrive recently as we have done even more with the children in the slums each day, in the last few months we have also celebrated Diwali, Eid and are now getting ready for Christmas. (It's actually Christmas Day as I write this).
I will hopefully send out another newsletter in the first couple of weeks of the new year which will include all our Christmas stories... Let me take this opportunity to wish everyone a very merry (belated) Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
We hope you enjoy this month's newsletter. If you have any queries or comments, then please contact us via the website http://www.childrenwalkingtall.com/Contact-Us.htm. To provide extra safety to the children we have changed or removed their names in this and will in all future newsletters.
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Introduction |
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What's Been Happening |
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Website |
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Fundraising |
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What Can You Do? |
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And Finally |
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What's Been Happening
Babu and the Mango Tree
With the festive season fast approaching, our thoughts once again turn to our foray into theatre. After the resounding success in 2007 of Cinderella, the pressure was on to put on a production bigger, better and even more humiliating for everyone involved. To make it as engaging as possible, Steve came up with the idea to perform some in Hindi, which initially was greeted with enthusiasm, a task which proved more easily suggested than performed.
Having carved himself a reputation as being very much the man of the Mango House; building, fixing, acting masculine, Matt revealed a completely secret side by suggesting a number of his favourite pantomimes. Although hard pressed to choose, he convinced us that Jack and the Beanstalk was the one.
Whilst at home, we are all very aware of Jacks environment; giants, giant beanstalks and golden eggs are a bit less common in this particular part of India. So before we knew it, Jack had metamorphosed into Babu, the giant into an ogre and the beanstalk into a Mango tree.
With our semi Hindi panto decided on and all amendments made, all that was required was to cast. When looking around the Mango House, some of the roles seemed obvious. Whilst I would dearly love to see Matt dressed in drag, being a mean, bad tempered ogre seemed like the natural choice. Besides, the ogres wife could only ever be played by Rob!
Another role was for a dodgy, drunken, scoundrel who sold the magic beans, and slowly all eyes drifted onto Steve. In the few rehearsals we have had so far, he plays a convincing character.
Jack had aspirations to play the lead role and lets face it, he qualified by sharing the same name, at least. He has since been talking to his agents in London (and will not let you take his photograph without written consent from the them!)
 A tremendous amount of effort has been made by everyone so far, none more than Heena, playing a convincing yet giggly market trader. She has made a fantastic cow costume for the Dynamic Duo ‘Lizzy and Steph’. who are trying to translate ‘Moo’ from English to Hindi as we speak!
With the recent departure, of the, ‘A is for Apple, Barbara’, Anna has bravely stepped in to take on the role of Babu’s mum. She has shown particular enthusiasm when she gives Babu a good beating and clearly rules the house with an iron fist, so far we are yet to hear Sangee, (played by Paulina) speak. That could be sibling rivalry though!
The pantomime really has opened our eyes to many of The Mango Houses secret talents. None more so than the angelic voice of Mareike, whose rendition of Jingle Bells will bring a tear to the eye of the most hardnosed scrooges amongst us. Rumour has it, that Matt has even been found sobbing in the shed, leaning against his shovel after rehearsals.
You may remember, in the performance 2 years ago, one of the cornerstones of The Mango House, Ali, played the prince. In keeping with the royal theme, this year Ali convinced us that he could play an equally elegant Princess! With all those beautiful flowing locks, and sexy swagger he has been attracting intriguing glances from men and women alike! Be careful what you wish for Ali!
Goodness knows what newcomer Ingrid must think, after 1 week of volunteering she’s found herself pretending to be a market trader, in a pantomime, in a tree house, with a troop of cross dressing weirdos!
Just another week in the Mango house!
*Unfortunately Robert had to step down as the Ogre's wife in the charity panto due to illness. We are happy to say that Jonnie Irwin was kind enough to stand in for the role. Jonnie, the presenter of "Place in the sun" on Channel 4 and the up coming BBC TV Series "To buy or not to buy" will undoubtedly fill the Ogre's wife's shoes and provide a stunning performance.
Slum Dog Millionaire
One of our supporters visited the slums in Bombay and now has a fantastic claim to fame. He was lucky enough to meet up with child stars from the blockbuster film "Slum Dog Millionaire". Martyn was even given a signed copy of Rubina Ali's (Latika) book "Slumgirl Dreaming". Below is a photo of Rubina and Martyn not far from her home in the slums of Mumbai and inset a photo of the young Jamal, Ayush Mahesh Khedekar.
The Lonely Planet
We are happy to know that Children Walking Tall is mentioned in the latest Lonely Planet guide. The Lonely Planet is one of the main resources for travellers worldwide and we are delighted to be included once again in their volunteering section for Goa.
Leprosy
 As some of you might remember one of the children we look after was diagnosed with Leprosy in 2006, he finished his course of medicine but the disease left him with a disfigured hand which resulted in a lack of use of several fingers on his left hand.
During the following year we tried several ways to straighten his finger, but they had little effect and his condition worsened. The local health centre in Mapusa informed us about a special leprosy camp being held at The Goa Medical College (GMC) where he could receive an operation on his hand.
Later that month he was admitted into GMC for the operation and his elder sister stayed with him for the week of treatment. The operation was a great success and a plaster pot protected his lower arm and hand for several weeks and has now been removed. He has been attending physiotherapy sessions to improve movement and has been progressing well. We are happy to say he has now got around 90% movement back and is well on the way to recovery. The government has also provided financial assistance, which his family is very grateful for.
 Diwali and Eid Presents
During October we celebrated Diwali and Eid with the families in the local slums by giving out a 'care package' to the families. Heena our sewing teacher with the help of other staff worked hard to prepare 60 beautiful stitched cushions to give out to each family, each care package also contained, Rice, Tea, Rava, Flour, Sugar, Oil, Beaten Rice, Dal, Toothpaste, Shampoo, Soap, Clothes washing bar and scrubber.
The children also enjoyed an extended school holiday. Some of the families went to their native places in Karnataka and Marahastra for the celebrations. There were still lots of children in the slums so for these we treated them to several trips including Mayem lake, the beach and one of their favourites, Baga water park, which the children enjoyed tremendously.
Last Month Updates
We are happy to report that the family of eight who were sleeping in the doorway of a shop have finally found a small room where they can sleep at night, the room is very cramped and has no space outside to socialise but does provide the family with a roof and walls to keep them safe at night. The room is around 9ft by 6ft and has just about enough room for them to sleep, there is a small cubicle in the corner which doubles as a shower and a sink to wash their pots.
We are so happy that they have finally somewhere to live as their children deserve so much as they are truly some of the nicest children we know.
Anil's Burns
  Anil has had a hard time of it recently, it started when he burnt his finger with rice water, as you can see from the picture the burn was very deep and it took a few weeks for it to heal over.
Adding to his injuries while in his village he got a second larger burn on his leg, nearly four inches long and 2 inches wide the burn was very severe and when we first saw it very infected and was weeping badly.
It has been 3 weeks now of daily fresh dressings and it is looking much better, the last bit of infection was taken care of with antibiotics when we took him to see Dr Uma and we will continue to clean and treat his burn until it is fully healed. Burns are one of the most common injuries sustained by the street and slum children we look after. * Three more weeks have passed since I wrote this and Anil has continued his treatment every day and the burn has slowly closed with intensive cleaning and medication and dressing. He is now able to have it fully open and has dried out and although there's a large scar it has fully healed.
Health Camp with Dr Archana Gaonkar
We would like to say a huge thank you to Dr Archana Gaonkar and her team for putting on a health camp at the end of September, they provided their time, expertise and also provided sponsored medicine for the children. |
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Website
The Charity Website was attacked
Some of you might have become aware that our website was hijacked last month. Thankfully we sorted the problem out within 24 hours and all is back to normal, although the Bing search engine is still reporting the status inaccurately. To remove any chance of problematic code the whole website was replaced. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.
We now have a dedicated page for the weather of Goa, we will hopefully add a little more content as time goes by to give visitors a more detailed idea of what it's like during the year in Goa.
Taxi Prices - Mapusa
We have added a new list of taxi prices from Mapusa, this is probably the most useful list for anyone who wishes to visit us - as we're based on the outskirts of Mapusa. The board can be found at the taxi rank opposite the Bombay buses in the town.
Pictures
The last few months I have unfortunately been without my camera, but thankfully some of the volunteers have been kind enough to let me use their photos. I have chosen a few children's portraits from Anna's collection as they really capture the children's emotions well.
* ( Photos courtesy of Anna ) |
The Diwali holidays have provided us with the opportunity to return to Mayem Lake in North Goa. We took a group of the children earlier in the year and the children loved getting out onto the water in the pedal boats. The latest trip allowed us to take even more children with a total of 45 children going. The children had lunch in the park and then split into groups for the boats. The children also played in the small park at the lake and finished off the day by having fruit and then returning home. Thank you to all the volunteers and staff for their help.
* ( Photos courtesy of Matt and Lucy)
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Another treat for the children was a trip down to the local football pitch. We took some of the older children to watch a match as a prize for winning the Children Walking Tall football tournament during the previous week. While at the match the volunteers spoke to the honorary chairman of the club who offered for the children to go down and play whenever the pitch wasn't in use. So a week later we packed all the morning school children into the van and headed off to the football pitch. All the small children were kindly given footballs to use and enjoyed a fun kick around. Thank you to Anna for the fabulous photos.
* ( Photos courtesy of Anna ) |
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Fundraising and Donations
The "Do Good Dames" are participating in the Winter 2010 Rickshaw Run as the Team : "How Low Can You Goa". The race commenced on January 1st 2010.
The three girls are driving an Indian rickshaw from Pokhara, Nepal to Cochin in Kerela stopping along the way at Children Walking Tall to deliver a pile of donated goods, The race starts on 1st January 2010 and they will be driving a rickshaw with a whopping, 7HP. They are not the only ones, they will be joined by around 60 other teams driving similar rickshaws To sponsor them and to find out more please visit their My Charity Page at (http://www.mycharitypage.com/DoGoodDames/).
The Good For Goa Trust & Casa Colvale
We would like to thank The Good for Goa Trust and Casa Colvale for setting up a regular donation to put towards providing meals for the children in the slums. In the last two months they have provided around 1150 meals for the street and slum children. A special thank you goes to James Foster for his continuing help.
Thank you for the Christmas Presents and Clothes
A huge Thank You
to the Butlers & the Roberts, Cleobury Mortimer Primary School, Water Scan and everyone for all the donations we received before Christmas.
Financial Donations & In Kind
We would like to make a quick thank you to Exquisite (tanning salon), the Shah family from Califonia, Mr Jay Behl, Thompson Taraz (Chartered Accountants), Caroline Adams, Worldwide Energy Logistics ltd, Pauline and Friends, John and Malc, Bohus Biotech, Richard Butler, Peter and Frances Mattock and everyone who has supported us with donations recently.
CAF Online Donations
Our apologies if you have donated on our website using the CAF option and we have not thanked you. Unfortunately CAF are having a problem with their reporting tool so we are only receiving partial information a month after the donation. This has been a problem since April and we have been onto them for the last six months and as of yet there does not seem to be a solution in sight. We are still receiving donations but until the online system is fixed we are finding it difficult to thank those who have donated.
UK Donations With Gift Aid
If you would like to make a donation (or have in the last 5 years) and you would like to give that little bit more then do think about filling out one of our Charity Gift Aid forms.
The Gift Aid scheme allows charities to claim extra money from the government each time you make a donation to charity. Under the Gift Aid scheme Children Walking Tall is able to claim back the tax you would have paid on the donation this means for every £1 you donate to us we get an extra 25p from HM Revenue & Customs.
Gift Aid declarations only cover money that you have donated yourself it doesn't cover money you've collected from others such as when you're doing a sponsored event. However we can still claim Gift Aid if you get your sponsors to fill out your sponsor form correctly.
Please Note : You must pay an amount of Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax for each tax year (6 April one year to 5 April the next) that is at least equal to the amount of tax that the charity will reclaim on your gifts for that tax year.
A meal for the children
We would like to thank Subha Anand who is originally from Tamil Nadu. Subha got in contact with us and wanted to organise a meal for our children. He arranged a lovely veg thali containing, rice, dal, 3 veg, puri, pickle, rice pudding and pedeas (Indian sweets), the meal came to The Mango House in large metal containers where Subha, helped by staff and volunteers packaged and distributed the food in the slums. The children loved the food and we would like to thank him for his kindness.
Medical Help
We would like to thank Jock and Seca UK - Medical Scales and Measuring Systems for getting in touch with us recently. They kindly offered two handheld blood pressure measuring instruments which have been taken for use in Goa. One will be used at the Mango House and the 2nd will be given out to either the local health centre or hospital.
Darren Smith - John ‘o’ Groats to Lands End (JOGLE) ride
We would like to thank Darren Smith who very kindly did a sponsored cycle ride from John of Groats (Highland) to Lands End (Cornwall) - 837 Miles on a Fixed Wheel (Single speed) Bike. He managed around 80 miles a day for 10 days which took a huge amount of stamina and will power.
Every Click
Want to Search the internet and raise funds for Children Walking Tall for free? If you use the Every Click search engine by book marking the following link then everytime you search you will help raise frunds for Chidlren Walking Tall.
http://www.everyclick.com/children-walking-tall/658399/638145
Easy Search
Use Easy Search and raise funds for Children Walking Tall at the same time... Just Bookmark this link (http://cwt.easysearch.org.uk/), or make it your home page. Easysearch Version 2.0 is a new 'super' search engine, which cleverly combines the strengths of several search providers together - Yahoo!, MSN Live Search, Ask.com and many more. So, when you use easysearch to search the Web, we'll track down only the most relevant and accurate results, which means you'll find what you are looking for quickly and easily every time - all in one 'easy' search!
Also, are you buying insurance, applying for a bank card or just playing the national lottery? - Perhaps you can help by using one of these offers to raise even more money for Children Walking Tall
Thank You to Everybody
We would like to thank everybody who has helped to raise funds and awareness over the last two months. It is becoming increasingly difficult to write details about all the donations we receive due to the amount of work involved. If you are kind enough to arrange an event for Children Walking Tall and would like your event to be included in the newsletter, then please write a small paragraph about how the event went and who was involved and send it to us by email. The newsletters are very time consuming to put together so this would be a great help to us and allow more time to be spent helping the children. |
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What Can You Do?
Add a Link to our website
 Do you have your own website, blog or have a say on a company website? If the answer is yes then please add a link to Children Walking Tall. We have a collection of links that you can use, or if you want something designed for an offer, 5% goes to charity, or £1 for every order goes to charity then do let us know and we will make a link that fits your website.
Join our Facebook Cause
 Children Walking Tall now has a facebook cause which you can add to your profile on the social networking site Facebook. Unfortunately we can not link in to the donations side of the facebook application as this is restricted to charities based in the US/Canada but it does allow people to support us by joining and sharing us with others.
If you are on facebook then do join our cause and become part of the group to show your support. You will join others who also want to support us and it's a great way to keep in contact with volunteers (old and new) and to keep up to date with the charity.
Follow our Charity Blog
 Children Walking Tall now has a shiny new blog, it was started a few months ago, but we kept it quiet to make sure it was sustainable. The blog is home to all the news stories before they make it into the bi-monthly newsletters. So for those who want to keep up to date with everything before it reaches the pages of the newsletter then why not follow our blog on http://childrenwalkingtall.blogspot.com/.
Spread The Word
An easy way to help Children Walking Tall is to just 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 a link to our website, as this and our older newsletters are always available on our website www.ChildrenWalkingTall.com |
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And Finally...
Newsletter By Email
If you have received this email by mistake, or wish to change your newsletter subscription then please fill in the online form on our website ( www.ChildrenWalkingTall.com/Newsletters.htm ).
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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