As we started to prepare
this newsletter we realised it was almost a year
since we took the decision to form Mango Tree. We
had high hopes but never imagined the progress we
are reporting now. In this edition you will read
that over 400 uniforms and filled school bags have
been provided to the Mango House children, those at
the Colva project and the local Dr Ambedkar school,
that our new partner, Grace, has set up the Mango
Tree funded project at Chimbel which will support
about 170 children and that Mango House is
supporting a similar number on a Monday to Friday
basis.
We also received the best of news this quarter –
the Mango House team had been granted permission to
open the House as a pre-primary school and to hold
tuition classes for school going children. Around
60/70 pre-primary children will attend and around 70
older children in the afternoon. Incredibly around
170 children are supported Monday to Friday which
means it’s unlikely all those wanting a place at
Mango House can be given one. Places will be filled
by the youngest children first and those who can’t
be given a place will still be provided with a meal
and external tuition classes will be paid for if
children want the additional support.
As ever we are mindful that without supporters
nothing would be possible and we really do say thank
you for being part of our team.
FIND US ON FACEBOOK
We recently set up a Facebook page to enable our supporters
who use Facebook to follow our news and to share it with
others. You can find our unique page at
www.facebook.com/mangotreegoacharity
If you do use Facebook please visit our page and hit the
Like button so you will automatically receive our news as it
happens in future.
LIONS CLUB MILL HILL
A huge 'thank you' to the Lions Club Mill Hill or donating
£1,000 to be spent on uniforms and bags for the Mango House
children.
THE MANGO TREE PRE-PRIMARY
INAUGURATION
It is with very great pleasure that Savita oversaw the
inaugural function of the Pre-primary school at Mango House
on the 10th of June. Mr Sudir Kandolkar, the Chairperson of
Mapusa Municipal Council officially opened the school and
later did the honours of giving out school bags to the
children. The Mango Tree was represented by the trustees, a
teacher and a parent. All gave a speech and it was
especially nice to hear one child’s mother advising other
parents about the value of schooling and to be sure to send
their children to school regularly. Later, the students were
provided with raincoats, uniforms and other items of school
requirements. It was a very proud moment for all concerned.
We say thank you to Jaime, Betsy, Harriet, Alice and Alice
who are 6th form students at Arnewood School. The recently
entered a Dragon’s Den style challenge run by the New Milton
Lions Club in a bid to win funds for Mango Tree Goa. We are
pleased to say they walked away with a much appreciated
£100.
CONGRATULATIONS SKYE
Congratulations and thank you to 9 year old Skye who after
visiting Mango House wanted to help the children. She
recently completed the Brighton Mini Mile and raised funds
to buy 6 school bags for Mango Tree children. Well Done!
THANK YOU NAIYA
We also wanted to say thank you to Naiya who regularly gives
her birthday money to help disadvantaged children. There are
so many things a girl could choose to spend their birthday
money on and we are really impressed that Naiya still chose
to donate money to Mango Tree Goa to help towards the costs
of food.
TIME FOR AN OUTING
During the long summer school holidays in Goa many of the
children and their families head back to their villages but
for the remaining children it was time for an outing. 34
children and the Mango House staff recently travelled to the
edge of the Western Ghats in North East Goa. They took a
picnic and visited a local farm which grows plants used in
Ayurvedic products. The children had a special picnic and a
great time playing in the water. When it was time to leave
many of them asked "when can we come again"?!
HAPPY HOLI
Holi is a favourite festival in
the Hindu calendar. It is also called the Spring Festival as
it marks the arrival of spring the season of hope and joy.
The gloom of the winter goes as Holi promises bright summer
days.
The Mango Tree celebrated Holi
with the children from Crossroads and Karaswada Slums. The
staff distributed the colours and the children and staff
took special delight in colouring one another and spraying
colours with their pichkaris (water guns). It was a really
fun day.
An optical camp for 85 children was conducted at Mango
House recently. Imagine if just one child who had a problem
was identified and we could do something to help– it could change a
child’s life. Thankfully no serious problems were found, but
a small number of children do need further
examinations which will take place shortly.
We say a huge
thank you to John and Umarani for carrying out the camp and
to Gill for introducing them to Mango Tree.
EXAM SUCCESS
One of the ways that we are able
to measure the impact of the Charity’s work is to look at
the number of children successfully answering their school
exams. We were thrilled to learn that almost all Mango House
children passed all papers at the first attempt. Two
children have since resat one paper each. Sadly, one father took his children
out of school before the exams. The children are expected to
be readmitted into school at the start of term.
We were also delighted to hear
that all 21 children at the Colva project successfully
passed their exams with many of them doing very well indeed.
The results are outstanding by
any measure and we congratulate the children and all of
those involved in supporting them.
CHIMBEL PROJECT UPDATE
We are very excited to announce that the Chimbel project
also went live on 10th June. We received the following
report from our new partner the Grace Educational Trust:-
“There was such a large no. of children seeking
admissions that we had to excuse ourselves and turn down
some of the applicants due to space and staff constraints.
On the last day the parents were called at 4 pm and were
waiting up to 8 pm. I had to force them to go away. We had
400 forms for the admissions but we had to limit the number
of students to whom we gave admissions. So now we have given
admissions to 36 children in the pre-primary section and
about 140 in the tuition classes. We are all set to start
our school on the 10th June.”
We congratulate Grace on their determination to get the
new project off the ground and look forward to reporting
more about the inauguration in the next issue and on the
website News page.
BACK TO SCHOOL GALLERY
Over the last couple of weeks well over 400 school bags
and uniforms have been given out. It’s a lot of work for the
Mango House team to coordinate the Bags4School and
Back2School Schemes but the end result is that very many
children have decent uniforms, school bags, stationery and
an umberella which makes attending school much easier.
Bags and uniforms were given out to the Mango House
school going and pre-primary children, the Colva children,
all of the children at the local Dr Ambedkar school for
disadvantaged children and a small number of other children
in need of support.
We have put together a gallery that captures some
activities over recent weeks. View it
here.
GIVING OUT SCHOOL SUPPLIES -
MANGO HOUSE
Government schools in Goa started the new school year on 5th
June. Many families had returned to their native villages
but all head back to Goa in order to ensure their children
are admitted into school for the new school year.
On the 3rd Savita invited over 100 school going Mango
House children and a parent to attend Mango House. No-one
was sure how parents would respond to the invitation but it
was a very good turnout. Not only was it the occasion to
give out school supplies but also for parents to see inside
Mango House and to ask questions. It was a hugely successful
day.
POST EASTER FUN PARTY
The Mango House children were treated to a post Easter fun
party on 1st April courtesy of a local Zumba Fitness group.
They got lots of treats and then did face painting, zumba
dancing and had an Easter egg hunt. A special chicken
biryani lunch and chocolates were also provided. As you can
see It was a joyful afternoon.
CRAFT WITH ANNU
Although Mango Tree focuses on education it’s important that
children have some recreational activities too. The Mango
House children love taking part in craft activities and we
are fortunate that our teaching assistant Annu loves
teaching craft. She always manages to entertain the children
and has recently made masks, flowers and various pictures
too.
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
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Copyright 2013 Mango Tree
Goa : Charity Registered in England and Wales : Charity
Number 1148049