As we reviewed the photos
and news from Mango House over the last quarter we
almost had to pinch ourselves. As you will see the
project has been transformed with the start of the
pre-primary school and the afternoon tuition
classes. It’s a noisy and busy place these days –
just as it should be and we can’t wait to see it in
person.
There have been so many
changes in the last few months we have spent a lot
of time upgrading our website to reflect the current
level of activities. Do take a look – particularly
at the
Our Projects section and our new
galleries to see the changes for yourself.
All of the trustees are
excited to visit Goa and see the progress of all our
projects and as we leave the height of summer behind
us we are conscious that some of our supporters will
also be turning their thoughts to visiting Goa too.
If you are thinking of visiting Mango House and are
considering taking gifts in kind to Mango House we
are fortunate that Thomas Cook, Thomsons and Qatar
do usually grant an extra luggage allowance. You can
read all about the items which are needed most at
our gifts in kind webpage
here.
Savita and her team at
Mango House are very proud of what has been achieved
and are very much hoping to see as many visitors as
possible this season. If you are in Goa and can
spare the time do pop along and visit. We’re sure
you won’t be disappointed.
CHILD
SPONSORSHIP SCHEME
Recently we introduced a child
sponsorship programme. All the children sponsored are at our
Mango House project making it easy for donors to follow the
progress of the project as a whole. We ask that donors make
a regular contribution of £15 per month if they would like
to sponsor. If you may be interested in sponsoring a child
please visit our web page
here to
read about the scheme in detail.
THE MANGO TREE PRE-PRIMARY
SCHOOL
It would be fair to say that the first couple of weeks of
school were somewhat noisy. It is a big shock being picked
up by strangers in a minibus and taken off to Mango House.
Absolutely everything is unfamilar and also “big” compared
to the single room which is most likely to be home. Some
children were afraid of the animals on the Mango House walls
and one little boy thought there was every chance one would
eat him! There were lots of tears. As the days passed tears
eventually stopped and some of the worst affected were soon
taking every day in their stride.
You can see a gallery of the Pre-Primary activities
here.
CURRY LUNCH
We say thank you to Alison who kindly offered to fundraise
for Mango Tree. Her first event was to cook a curry lunch
for her colleagues at Scottish Power. As anyone knows
cooking several Indian dishes is quite a feat but Alison had
the misfortune to do this on just about the hottest day of
the year. Undeterred the event went ahead and was a great
success raising £100!
THANK YOU FRANCES
We also say thank you to Frances for creating a wonderful
stall, complete with personalised Mango Tree cloth, at her
local church fair and raising funds for Mango Tree.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
At Mango Tree we focus on education but recognise nutrition
and good health also help children to succeed. As a
consequence we provide a daily meal and fruit for all
children being supported at Mango House and a snack at Colva.
We expect to spend over £8,000 just on ingredients, cooks,
and helpers at Mango House but of course there are many
other incidental expenses such as gas, cleaning materials
etc. We also expect our cooks will provide over 30,000 meals
each year. Most are now taken at the House but as there are
more children than the House can hold some meals are still
delivered to the slums.
Fortunately for us we received a
very generous donation towards our feeding programme from
the Herrod Foundation, a not for profit Swiss organisation
which supports initiatives to alleviate the suffering of
children or for the betterment of their lives. We still need
to raise funds to ensure all of the costs of the programme
are covered but support from the Foundation is a huge hand
up and on behalf of the children we say a huge thank you.
CELEBRATING EID AL-FITR
Eid Al-Fitr is one of the most
joyous days in the Islamic calendar and marks the end of the
holy month of fasting observed by Muslims. This year it fell
on 8th August in India and Mango House celebrated the
occasion with an art competition and the giving of packets
of sweet rice.
INDEPENDENCE
DAY
India celebrated its 67th
Independence Day on August 15th. Mango House
marked the occasion with a drawing competition in art and
craft time.
CHILDREN'S BANK
An Mango House we believe that by making it fun to learn
about money, budgeting, saving and spending from a young age
children will gain knowledge to help them make sound
financial decisions later in life. We encourage all school
going childen to save by operating a children’s bank. Each
week children line up to deposit or withdraw their few
rupees. To encourage saving a whopping 10% interest is paid
on balances every 6 months which is largely funded by
recycling cans etc. Hopefully the scheme will really help
children think about money carefully in future.
SCHOOL ENROLMENTS
Without assistance it would be a
difficult job for some parents to set about enrolling their
children into school. Some don’t have birth certificates or
any other document which establishes age. Without this
schools will not enrol a child. Mango Tree helps with
enrolment and with arranging necessary affidavits for those
children without birth certificates. This year the Mango
Tree staff enrolled 23 children into primary school. You can
see some of the 1st standard children proudly
showing off their uniforms here.
OVERCOMING THE MONSOON
Throughout the monsoon school carries on as normal. Each
day children queue for the bus or walk to school in
torrential rain. Imagine for a moment being a child and not
having a rain coat. You would arrive at school soaking wet
and sit in your wet uniform till home time. It’s unlikely
your uniform will be dry for the next day. You can’t
attend school in anything but your uniform so you may well
keep missing school and fall behind. You would probably feel
embarrassed and might not want to go to school at all. Most
likely you would get sick from the constant damp and miss
more school. Eventually you might not go at all.
Our
provision of raincoats and umbrellas to help children cope
with the Monsoon can change all of this. It’s a small thing
but they can make all the difference.
See opposite what one little girl said when asked what
she liked most about Mango Tree.
THE RHAKI
FESTIVAL
Celebrated on August 20th
the Rhaki Festival celebrates the special bond that brothers
and sisters share. Sisters tie a band (rhaki) on their
brother’s wrist as a mark of love and honour and the
brother, in return, promises to look after her. The Mango
House children spent time making rhakis to be given on Rhaki
Day.As you can see they were well received.
ASHA'S WORDS
COLVA UPDATE
Above you can see some of the Colva children proudly showing
off their new school uniforms, bags and rain macs. Most of
the children’s families are beach sellers and having headed
for home during the long school holidays were a bit later
returning to Goa. Fortunately, schools are fairly lenient
and re-admit children provided they turn up within a month
of the new academic year. There are now 20 children
receiving afternoon tuition Monday to Friday and on Saturday
mornings. We were delighted to hear that all children
present who attended last year had passed their exams and
some had done exceptionally well. We look forward to
visiting the project again in the coming months.
THE MANGO TREE TRUST - OUR
WORK IN PHOTOS
Check out our new gallery
here
showing all of the work that The Mango Tree Trust carries
out.
HOW WE CELEBRATE
Also check out our latest
gallery
which shows all the things Mango House celebrated in the
last 12 months including all major religious festivals and
important state and national days too.
SUPPORTING MANGO TREE
There are lots of ways to help Mango Tree to transform the
lives of disadvantaged children. You could
Donate
Sponsor a Child
Organise a Fundraiser
Shop Online using the Give As You Live Scheme
Spread the Word
You can make a one-off or regular donation by visiting our
Virgin Money Giving page here. Please do not be put off by
thinking you can only afford a small contribution. Every
little helps, so be assured that if you can make a gift of
any amount that gift will make a difference.
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
issues.
Copyright 2013 Mango Tree
Goa : Charity Registered in England and Wales : Charity
Number 1148049