The New Year is often a time for new beginnings
and its fair to say we are moving forward with our
plans for the future. We have recently given a
commitment to fund a brand new project in the
Indranagar area of Chimbel near Panjim. You can read
all about the project and our partner organisation
the Grace Educational Trust below. Mango Tree Goa
will now support three projects – Mango House near
Mapusa, Children of Goa at Colva in the South and
the as yet unnamed project at Chimbel in Central
Goa. All are worthy projects working to support
disadvantaged children in differing ways and we look
forward to working with each and sharing experience,
advice and ideas between us so that we all can learn
from one another and each do the best job we can.
All charities need money or gifts in kind to
survive and we appreciate every donation and
fundraising effort on our behalf. We are also
fortunate to be helped in many other ways too.
Particular thanks go to Ruth who spent time
documenting work at The Mango Tree recently. As a
result we have a wonderful portfolio of photos.
However, it wasn’t until we were selecting photos
for our newsletter that we spotted the message on
the above little boy’s tshirt. It says “Make Your
Dreams Come True”. We very much hope that with your
support we can at least ensure that children very
much in need enjoy a healthy, educated, respectful
childhood, are encouraged to have dreams and
aspirations and to provide opportunities to make
some dreams come true.
THE CIRCUS CAME TO TOWN
Recently The Mango Tree was lucky to be given over 60
tickets for the Jumbo Circus in Mapusa. The children enjoyed
so many nice stunts including Flying Trapeze, Fire Dancing,
Acrobatics, Cycle and Animal Acts. The children had a
wonderful afternoon not only watching the acts but sharing
jokes and enjoying each other’s company too.
CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS
Christmas celebrations took place last year both with the
Mango House children and the Colva children. Mango House
held a party for around 80 children. Most of the children
helped are either Hindu or Muslim so the day started with an
explanation all about Christmas. A wonderful day followed
with a special meal, cake and icecream, dancing and party
games before the arrival of the Christmas Father. You can
read all about the celebration
here and see a gallery of
photos
here.
At Colva Maria celebrated Christmas by providing a
special lunch for all the children that attend tuition
classes. Maria kindly invited the Mango Tree trustees to
attend and they gave ice cream, cake and fruit. The children
were overjoyed to receive a small gift given to celebrate
their good school attedance and eagerly promised to attend
regulalry in future. You can see the celebrations and the
joy a special lunch and a small gift can provide in our
gallery
here.
GANDYS FLIP FLOPS
We were delighted to receive a generous donation from Gandys
Flip Flops recently - this will cover the costs of a teacher
for the next academic year and provide school bags too.
Gandys is a new company set up by two brothers Rob and Paul
Forkhan who were orphaned in the 2006 Tsunami.
In order to find something positive from this very tragic
event in their lives they set about creating a new brand of
flip flops which would not only be stylish but would have a
real purpose behind them too. As a result, Gandys was born.
The brothers eventually hope to open their own orphanage but
meanwhile have very generously offered to give Mango Tree
Goa 10% of Gandys profits each year to help fund our work in
Goa.
You can read all about the brothers' tragic but
inspirational story
here.
COMMITMENT TO NEW PROJECT AT CHIBMEL
We are delighted to announce that Mango Tree Goa has
given a commitment to fund a new project for disadvantaged
children in the Indranagar area of Chimbel, North Goa. The
project will be run by the Grace Educational Trust (GET) and
will initially comprise a morning pre-primary school for
around 30 children and extra tuition classes for a similar
number of older children each afternoon.
Less than 5 kms away from Goa’s capital city of Panjim,
Indranagar appears as an unending slum – its sheer size is
breathtaking. As of 2001 Chimbel was said to have a
population of around 12,000 with around 15% of the
inhabitants being children under the age of 6. It had and an
average literacy rate of around 61% compared to the average
Goan rate of 87% . Most of its inhabitants are migrants from
neighbouring states who have come to Goa, in the hope of a
better life, only to discover chronic unemployment and
little opportunity to escape a life of poverty.
GET has been in existence for over six years and is
headed by Sister Francis Dass. The Trust currently runs
small informal tuition programmes in 3 slums. In addition to
this work it also organises women’s empowerment programmes
and undertakes family counselling, in the firm belief that
family are responsible for a person’s education, values and
habits and by helping families to have healthy relationships
then children will receive a more stable and respectful
environment at home.
Ten year old Sonia is a child
supported by The Mango Tree Trust. She attends a local
school where she is currently in 5th standard. Sonia is a
smart student but doesn’t always find classroom work easy.
However, she excels in sporting activities and in a recent
inter school competition at the Peddem Ground, Mapusa she
won medals for 100m and 200m running and long jump. She was
also presented with three certificates.
With your help children like
Sonia discover hidden talents and we celebrate her success.
UPDATE FROM MANGO HOUSE
Our daily activities continue to progress well. The
numbers of children receiving day to day support is
gradually increasing and we currently have around 30 Morning
School children and around 75 older children whose parents
have agreed to be involved in The Mango Tree’s programme in
future.
Most of the children we help follow either the Hindu or
Muslim faith but we aim to ensure that children gain respect
for and interest in the different beliefs held in Goa and
celebrate all major religious festivals. Accordingly we
celebrated Christmas with a sponsored party for around 80
children which you can read about below and on January 25th
held a drawing competition on the Muslim Festival of Eid
Milad-un-Nabi which celebrates the birth of the Prophet
Muhammed. We also celebrated Goa Liberation Day and Republic
Day in December and January respectively.
We aim to ensure that children get the chance to partake
in outside activities and we really appreciated that the
Mitsuko Trust gave us the opportunity to take 10 boys and
girls to the Calangute Art Chamber to view the art and take
part in activities and that they are providing weekly music
sessions for a further group at their base in Panjim.
Last but not least we have been privileged to welcome
many local and overseas visitors to Mango House during the
last three months and to have received donations both in
cash and in kind. We really appreciate that people have been
interested in our work and have chosen to support The Mango
Tree. We know nothing is possible without supporters and can
only say thank you for your kindness and hope that you will
be pleased to follow our progress in future.
MEET LENJINA - THE MANGO TREE
COUNSELLOR
Lenjina currently works at The
Mango Tree on a part time basis in the capacity of
counsellor. She has a post graduate degree in pyschology and
is currently pursuing additional studies.
During her first six months at
The Mango Tree Lenjina has counselled individual parents
about their children’s welfare, families about the rights of
children, individual children about issues and groups of
children about their rights, hygiene in their locality and
how to recognise touching which is good or bad. She has also
taught children action songs and attended Child Line
sessions on behalf of the Trust.
Lenjina’s ambition is to empower
children and to help ensure they have a happy and respectful
childhood. Whilst we believe that education is the main
route out of poverty we also believe that children have the
right to be safe from abuse, to respect, to be heard and to
act like children and recognise that role of counsellor at
The Mango Tree makes an important contribution to realising
these rights.
Working with The Mango Tree we are currently in the
process of agreeing the provision of school bags, uniforms
and other school supplies for disadvantaged children in
readiness for the new academic year in June. The Government
does provide one set of uniform and rainwear in alternate
years for primary school children which covers the first
four years of schooling but thereafter nothing is given.
Without the necessary uniform and appropriate footwear
children are not allowed to attend school.
A school bag filled with stationery and hygiene supplies
costs around £10. Costs of uniform vary but generally
speaking are approximately £6, rainwear £3.50 and
shoes/sandals £3.00. These may sound relatively small
amounts to many of us but they are out of reach of many
families and can make a really big difference to whether a
parent will send a child to school. Having decent uniforms,
appropriate footwear, a school bag and necessary stationery
to attend school also make a huge difference to a child’s
confidence and self-esteem and how they feel about attending
school.
Thanks to the generosity of donors around half of the
school bags needed and some stationery and healthcare items
have been provided but we still expect to spend around
£5,000 on school related supplies for the new academic year.
Any support towards funding these items would be very much
appreciated. Please don’t think a small donation would not
be worth making. If you could spare just £3 it could buy a
pair of much needed shoes or sandals or go towards other
educational items which would make all the difference to a
child in need.
WILL YOU DONATE FOR A SCHOOL UNIFORM OR BAG?
Click
here to donate online and don't forget to leave
a message to tell us you wish your donation to go
towards our education project.
ALL ABOUT FOOD
Every day Monday to Friday the Mango Tree provides around
100 nutritious meals for the children it supports. As you
can imagine it’s not an easy task and in fact the cooking,
packing and delivery of meals involves almost every member
of staff at some point in the process.
You can read all about the meals that are provided
here and see
a gallery of photos showing a typical day’s food related
activities
here.
THE BIGGEST LOSERS
We were happy to hear about a group of people who having
learned about the work of Mango Tree Goa have committed to
losing some pounds in order that we would gain some. Sunita,
Julia, Justin, Satveer, Kirtsy and Kim at Comtact have
bravely taken up a weight loss challenge inspired by the
reality TV show The Biggest Loser. Between them they aim to
lose a whopping 120lbs but instead of competing for a cash
prize they have made their challenge a sponsored event which
will turn their lost pounds into pounds gained for the
Charity.
We were very pleased to welcome
21 students and teachers from Sandwell College recently. The
students had been fundraising since October and as a result
were able to donate an amazing 61 school bags together with
local sweets and fruit. The students helped pack food before
heading off to enjoy the birthday party. The children
presented many dances and took part in party games. We
really appreciated that our visitors took part in the
dancing before helping to give out fruit, cake, sweets and
ice-cream and giving presents to children whose birthdays
fell in January. Birthday parties are always a firm
favourite with the Mango House children but our visitors
made sure we had an extra special afternoon and we really
thank them for their whole hearted participation.
GLENMARK LENDS A HELPING HAND
Back in December The Mango Tree was very fortunate to be
joined by some 92 volunteers from Glenmark Pharmaceuticals
who gave their time and talents to help both The Mango Tree
and a local Dr Ambedkar school. Tasks undertaken included
cleaning and sweeping, window cleaning, painting, gardening
and craft and games activities for around 200 children who
were present. The volunteers threw themselves wholeheartedly
into the tasks they were allocated. A special lunch of curry
and rice was enjoyed by around 300. The day drew to a close
with Glenmark distributing some of the 100 school bags they
had donated for The Mango Tree children. Votes of thanks
were given on behalf of the Mango Tree and Dr Ambedkar’s
school both to Glenmark for so generously giving to those in
need and to the volunteers for their hard work and
enthusiasm which ensured the day was a huge success.
DONATION OF CROCS
We are very happy to report that
we have received a donation of 100 pairs of brand new croc
shoes for the children that we help. Our thanks go to Stella
and Jimmy for kindly arranging the donation to the Charity
and for getting the shoes to us. The shoes are very much
appreciated and will be invaluable during the monsoon
months.
We hope you have found our newsletter interesting and
informative. However, If you would like to unsubscribe from
our newsletter mailing list please contact us at
newsletter@mangotreegoa.org and enter UNSUBSCRIBE in the
title and we will ensure that you do not receive further
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Copyright 2013 Mango Tree
Goa : Charity Registered in England and Wales : Charity
Number 1148049