The Mango House

Education / Arts and Crafts

As well as getting the children into school, we continue to help by providing homework classes for the school-going children and also provide informal education for the other children. Another main aspect at The Mango House is Craft and Art work. This is often overlooked at other schools, but our volunteers produce a huge range of activities for the children. We are also starting sewing classes, computer training and, in the near future, access to other vocational training.

Food and Health Care

We have a varied menu that includes fish, chicken, egg and vegetables. The main meal is given after the children come from school to Mango House at 1.00 pm. As well as the children on the register, we invite other working children to join us for a meal during the day. In the mornings, for the younger children we provide juice and biscuits. In the afternoon we provide all the children with milk, fruit and vitamins.

Keeping Cleen

The Mango House provides the children with the facilities to wash themselves and their clothes. A large bathroom was designed and made with ample toilets and showers, giving them the chance to wash thoroughly. Many of the children are used to washing outside their homes from buckets of water and a lucky few that live next to a river may use that to bathe in. Their usual toilet is also a small pot of water and a spare piece of land. Giving them the chance to wash properly promotes good health, as many of the diseases are passed through dirt under their finger nails and unwashed hands.

Each child is given three sets of clothes, a towel, nail brush and toothbrush. All their items are kept in their own boxes. Every couple of months the children are given a new set of clothes in exchange for an old set.

Stars

We have a star system to reward good behaviour. Each child has the chance to earn stars for being helpful, working hard and helping others. These stars are 'banked' at the end of each month and can be used to buy items such as pencils, pens, clothes and toys.

Education

Our main objective is to give the children a chance to have an education and provide a way out of the slum. Each year we provide all the requirements to attend local government and private schools. This year alone we have helped over 100 children with all their educational needs. We provide uniforms, shoes, bags, raincoats, books and stationery, and support them all through the year. We also provide constant incentives to keep the children in school (eg rice supplements for good attendance). If the volunteers available at the time offer a good skill set and we have enough of them, we also carry out small classes in the slums.

A Childhood Worth Remembering

The Mango House gives street and slum children a chance of a childhood worth remembering. We want them to study hard, but we also want to provide a safe and fun environment at The Mango House. The School and Play Room has a large selection of toys and games and the volunteers organise great arts, craft and other activities for the children.

Health Care

Health has become a major part of what we do. Most of the work started by providing first aid to the children in the slum who often get cuts, burns and skin conditions due to the environment in which they live. The injuries themselves are often minor but the chance of infection is high. These cuts and burns keep our volunteers busy as the children always show the volunteers each and every cut they have.

As well as these minor requirements, we have had to deal with cases of Leprosy, Malaria, T.B., Rabies and third degree burns, with one 12 year old girl receiving burns on 75% of her body

Bank

To encourage the children to save we have recently started the Children's Bank Account. This is a way for the children to save any money they are given or they earn from rag picking. The children love to deposit their 1 or 2 rupees. Sometimes the older ones who have worked over the weekends bring in 20, 30 or 50 rupees. We currently provide an interest rate of 10% for the children’s savings which is funded by the money collected from the sale of plastic bottles, bottle tops and recyclable rubbish that is donated by volunteers and visitors.

Fruit

Many of the children survive on the most basic diets. To help we provide daily fruit to around 150 children every day. Each evening the staff and volunteers drive out to the slums and give out seasonal fruit, such as bananas, watermelon, apples, oranges, pineapples and even fruit salad. The children love receiving the fruit which provides vital extra nutrients.

Outreach Work

Most of our outreach work is done in two local slums near the market town of Mapusa in North Goa. The two slums contain about 150 children and are based around rag picking activities. This entails families walking around the local towns and beaches collecting glass, metal, plastic and cardboard. An average day’s scavenging brings in about Rs 50 to Rs150 (65p to £2). This job is not only done by adults but children as young as 4 or 5 who go out with their parents and dig around the rotting garbage. At these two local slums, we provide access to Education and Health Care, and Nutrition through the distribution of fruit.

Clothes, Toothpaste, Soap Etc..

We are often given good quality clothes, toothpaste, soap, etc. As well as giving these to the children who attend The Mango House, we also distribute as much as possible in the local slums. Most of the children we meet are wearing inadequate clothing that is either being held together by a safety pin or is five sizes too big, or perhaps not wearing anything at all. Giving out clothes is quite a difficult task as the clothes need to be sorted into size order and then matched up to the children. But to see the smiles and the difference a set of clothes can make is amazing.

Celebrations (Diwali, Christmas, Eid, Holi...)

As well as the more serious side of the work we do we also like to give the children a bit of fun and celebrate most holidays, Hindu, Muslim and Christian. A couple of our favourites are Holi (The Hindu festival of colour) and Christmas.

Holi

During Holi we go down to our two local slums and celebrate by handing out 'colour' (power paint) and water bombs to the children and then run as the children cover each other (and the volunteers and staff) with bright colour. The children enjoy it as it's messy and allows them to run wild for 30 minutes.

Christmas

Each year we try and give out as many wrapped presents as possible. Visitors and supporters provide the presents that we then sort through and wrap up. We then dress up in festive attire and drive around Goa distributing the presents as we go. Last year we gave out wrapped presents, fruit and sweets to over 1000 children. This is all dependent on the amount of items we are given throughout the year.

Who We are...

Robert