  Fran Bennett
Grabbing a bus to the bustling town of Mapusa (pronounced Map-sa) and finding our way to Vrundavan was surprisingly easy, and there we found The Mango House. The light, airy building, home to the charity Children Walking Tall and aptly surrounded by mango and jack-fruit trees, is where we will be working until the end of June. The charity's slogan is based around giving India's poorest children a childhood worth remembering, and after having reached the end of our second week I would say they're doing pretty well in achieving their aim.
After finding a flat in nearby Calangute, stocking up our fridge, and cleaning it from top to toe, we had a weekend of getting our bearings and enjoying the beach before we began work on the Monday. To be honest, the past few weeks have been a whirlwind of excited, shining faces, new names and learning to think like a child all over again. Never thought I'd be the kind who pulls faces at kids through bus windows and be lying in the dust playing all day, but turns out I am! In the mornings the volunteers arrive around half 9, and we take a mix of bikes and a mini-bus down to the nearby Karaswada slum for around 10am. There, we have a morning school with songs, the alphabet and counting for the younger ones, and after juice and biscuits we clean teeth and generally keep everyone happy. At the moment, our main role as volunteers is the muck in, get messy, play and try and keep some kind of order. We come back to the Mango House around midday, pack up over one hundred rice and curry lunches, prepare craft activities and organise everything again, before another afternoon in the slums. The volunteers divide between Crossroads and Karaswada, and because its school holidays at the moment we play, do craft activities, give medical care and of course give out the most important things - rice, curry and fruit. The kids all line up with their pots clean from the day before, and call out for 'vitamin vitamin' because we give them these Vitamin C tablets that they think are sweets The slums are less shocking than I expected, but this is probably because we had already travelled around in the North where the poverty is far more pronounced. For me, the scariest part of the slums are the social issues; although many parents are doing the best they can to get their children into school, and have to have made a degree of effort to get the kids registered with CWT at all, it's shocking how neglected many of the little ones are. Sometimes they just need a cuddle, but many of their parents are alcoholics, who beat their children until they get bald patches on their heads and neglect them until they're steps away from serious illnesses. It's distressing, no doubt about it. I had the pleasure of seeing 'the claw' on my first day. (One of the fathers is an alcoholic, and was passed out in somebody's doorway so they threw acid over this arm. Since then, he hasn't bothered to go to hospital so he has a gaping wound on his arm that is slowing rotting in the heat and dirt. You smell him before you see him, and our leader Ali says it's only a matter of time before his whole arm falls off. With the pain combined, he drinks progressively more and becomes an increasing burden on the family.) Domestic violence and a general lack of education are rife amongst the parents.
Some highlights so far have been when the children look at you with beaming faces, running to show you their pictures or shouting 'Hello, me!' when they want you to watch them doing something. I gained some acceptance this morning when all the older boys high-fived me as they came in, and little Manjita now says 'Good morning Hannah and Frances' everyday - aw! Ella (another volunteer) and I have been busy getting some craft activities ready for them. On the first day, we've got loads of animals cut out on coloured paper for them to decorate, and then we're making big scenes of the desert, jungle and underwater, where the children can stick and name all their animals. They all made t-shirts today and loved it! We all went to the beach yesterday, and the kids went wild. I had two slumped asleep on me on the way home, and it knackered out the volunteers just as much - we were all in bed by about 8pm! I played in the sea pretty much all day, jumping the waves and chucking water everywhere. The little girls covered their beautiful dark hair in sand, but were somehow spotless again this morning ... I don't know how some of them do it. Others, on the contrary, are filthy and we have to personally wash them otherwise they'd never see water. Today I made friends with Rajesh, who I won over by playing skipping with him, and before I knew where I was he was taking the boxes from me and carrying them himself! The older teenage boys come down to play sport, and it's so sweet how respectful and friendly they are. It's a contrast to the leery impressions it's so easy to gather out here, but I suppose the volunteers are in some ways appreciated. We're also starting to learn some words, (a lot harder than you would think) - a mix of Hindi, Marathi and another language they speak here. 'Panni' is water, 'atcha' is good, 'chapels' means shoes and 'musti' is the prefix for naughty. Hinglish like 'Home-going', 'sharing' and 'fruit no coming' are universally understood threats too! You do have to draw the line with the little ones otherwise they run rings around you.
 Maggy Ritchie
I arrived at CWT fresh from closing my London based charity down after lots of hard work and difficult decisions. I was looking for a totally new experience, the chance to give something back and gain fresh inspiration and direction for work and life.
When I first arrived at Mango House I was greeted by a very friendly volunteer and staff team and was almost immediately taken off to the slum for my first day teaching. We were greeted that first day, and every other day, by the children running towards us full of smiles and hugs. The children live in appalling conditions, but from the start found them to be bright, affectionate and full of character, and was really impressed by the way CWT looked after all their needs, providing education, medicine and food.
I often struggled with how different the set up was to the way we work in the UK….particularly the lack of health and safety and formal structure. However, I enjoyed sharing my expertise with that of the staff and volunteers to bring more structure and discipline to the setting, and felt we made progress.
Volunteering with CWT was a very special experience for me and I loved working with the children. Particularly special experiences include taking the children to the beach for the day, singing with the little children at morning school, craft time, parties and dance performances at the field, crazy bus rides on our way to day trips and dancing in the rain with children, volunteers and parents for Diwali….
All round it was a fantastic experience – thank you!
 Shontelle Williams
Since doing a brief stint abroad volunteering I have always wanted to do it again, but this time with children, catering to those most in need, for a decent amount of time and after much research I settled on Children walking Tall in Goa. I started volunteering early September 2010 during my first few months of travel. It took a while to find a suitable apartment, but if your easy going and willling to have a bit of patience and ask around for help (current volunteers especially and the tuk-tuk drivers) im sure anyone will admit its not that daunting!
A typical day at the charity involved getting in early (well not always) at about 9:30 and doing either pot washing or getting the snacks or learning resouses ready for the morning school or discussing with the other volunteers ideas and begin progressing the craft activity. Come afternoon it was all systems go with food packing (I loved packing rice!) and then off down to one of the slums (crossraods or Karaswada) to meet the kids, get to know what was the latest in their community, school day, help with homework and of course lots of singing and play especially with the young ones. I would describe my afternoons as the best and looking back its amazing how much you get involved in their lives and getting to grips with the communities goings on like you would back home.
It wasn't easy for me to begin with- not because of the culture shock or anything like that because at the end of the day kids are kids no matter where you encounter them and they do live in communities like anywhere else- they all want to know your name, where your from, if your a volunteer or visiting, where you've been before,where you got your anklet and so on- but I got the bonus of being spoken to in Hindi by all the parents who were around and for me that was extra special as it felt like I was being immediately adopted into the community.
For me, the highlight of my trip was during a gloomy morning when Akash finally said 'yes sir' and then later on when he grabbed my hand and pointed to say 'teacher Kiran musty' which is 'Kiran is being naughty' translated from a mix of English and Hindi. Having been there for over two months he had barely said a word. We learned from Ali (cwt teacher) that Akash and his family along with two other families had come from another village not speaking any Hindi, Marati or konkani- the local languages of Goan people let alone English which was spoken by all the volunteers during my time. So to hear him stringing a few words together Hindi and English combined felt really special as it proved that not only were CWT's time and efforts with the children making a difference and in doing so being apart of an organisation like CWT I was also making a difference and impacting upon Akash and other kids I worked with - with hope to be positive lasting effects.
In addition the staff and the other volunteers really made the work easier to complete and we really made a good community and it was great to spend even more time with each other in the evenings or at weekends. Volunteering with CWT is not easy and can all be quite tiring as its a long day and there is so much to do and get involved with, but once you've been around the kids and seen their lovely smiles and been hugged and followed around by a few of them you i hope like me will realise its all worth it.
Im still travelling Asia at the moment and despite all the things that I have seen and experianced I have to admit that I hold my 3 month + volunteering experience with CWT in India close to my heart. Therefore if your ever looking for volunteering opportunities in India with a well organised charity and a loving bunch of children and the chance to make new friends, then I would recommend Children Walking Tall.
Shontelle williams
 Chris Hall
When Katie and I started way back in last year's monsoon season, the charity was performing all of its work out in the slums, which gave us a really intense introduction to the children's way of life. After a couple of weeks, most of the volunteers reached the end of their time, and we took it upon ourselves to do as much as possible with as few people as possible! I found myself drawn to the afternoon craft activities, where we were given the scope to do pretty much anything we wanted. It became clear that the children (of all ages) really engaged with this kind of activity, and there was always huge amounts of enthusiasm and appreciation for using paper, glue and especially glitter! Riding up the rocky road to Karaswada on our moped, we were always met by groups of children, waving their empty food pots to be exchanged for whatever delights had been cooked up by Saroja that day. After just a few weeks, we became closely involved with the lives of the children and their families. After being invited into their homes, we really felt as though we had become part of their community, not just visiting Westerners. When you work for Children Walking Tall, the 'Monday morning feeling' simply does not exist. Every morning you can't wait to see the children and spend all day with these amazing people. We met some truly great people during our time in Goa, not least of all our fellow volunteers. From the moment you start work at the charity, you are supported by a group of people with all kinds of experiences who can help you find anything you need. I made some fantastic friends at CWT in the six months I was there, and the experiences you go through together are like nothing else in the world. The more you put into your time at CWT, the more you get out of it. Go in with an open mind and you'll have an amazing time. Easily the most satisfying job I've ever had.
 More Volunteers Experiences From 2010...
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