JUNE 2024
It's always a little strange to write the June newsletter as
it reports the activities up to the end of the academic year
in April and yet at the time of writing teachers are back at
Mango Tree House getting ready for the start of the new
academic year in June. We hardly seem to have started the
long Summer holidays before we are back in full swing. That
said, we are really looking forward to our first full year
at Mango Tree House. So much hard work is now behind us and
we look forward to the future. Our trustees will be meeting
shortly to confirm our objectives and to make plans for the
future. We look forward to updating you next time but, in
the meantime, we have lots of happy news to report.
MEET DR MANJITA - SHE
SMASHED IT!
Many of you may remember a young girl at Mango House who had
a dream to be a cardiologist. Amazingly, she beat off very
stiff competition in the all India NEET exams and was ranked
highly enough to be given a place to study for a MBBS degree
- Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in Goa. We
are thrilled to tell you that, in the middle of April,
Manjita learnt that she had passed her final exams. To
further put her success into more context, around a third of
her classmates were not successful. Manjita is now a
registered doctor and is currently completing a one year
internship. Few people would have had the single-minded
determination to do whatever it took to succeed but Manjita
never faltered. Not content with this success, Manjita plans
to commence further studies once she completes her
internship. She came to see us shortly after she received
the news. She radiated joy and was very keen to express her
thanks to Mango Tree and the lady who has funded her
studies. She said it would never have been possible to take
up her place without such support. We could not be prouder
of Manjita's achievements and will be forever grateful to
the lady who stepped up to meet the not inconsiderable costs
of Manjita's degree course.
THE HOME MINISTRY RENEWS
MANGO TREE'S FCRA PERMISSION
You may well be wondering what
we mean by FCRA. In brief, FCRA stands for the Foreign
Contributions Regulation Act. By law any charity in India
must seek permission from the Indian Home Ministry in Delhi
to receive funds from overseas. It's a criminal offence for
an organisation to receive funds without it and any
organisation doing so will face huge fines and will most
likely be closed. To receive permission a Trust operating in
India must apply and subject itself to a rigorous reporting
regime and a series of investigations and interviews by
representatives from India's Intelligence Bureau. Successful
organisations are then granted a Certificate authorising
them to receive funds in India for a five year period. Only
a relatively small number of organisations successfully
achieve a positive FCRA Status and the majority operate
under the radar. We've never been an under the radar kind of
Charity. We believe in meeting the stringent Government
requirements which ultimately means we all conduct ourselves
to the highest standards and have nothing to fear. The Mango
Tree Trust's certificate ran out at the end of March and
although we know the requirements have been met, it is
always nerve-racking. We are delighted to say that our
colleagues at Mango Tree House received their renewal just
before their last certificate expired. We are immensely
proud of what they have achieved and very happy that all
operations can continue without interruption for the next
five years.
SCIENCE DAY AT CHIMBEL
National Science Day is celebrated across India on 28th
February. It remembers the discovery of the Raman Effect by
physicist Sir C V Raman in 1928. Celebrated in most schools,
the day aims to inspire youth towards careers in science and
to celebrate India's rich scientific heritage. This year the
team at the Chimbel project really put their heart and soul
in to the celebrations. They decided to hold an exhibition
and asked children to submit projects on any scientific
matter they wished. Help from family and friends was
actively encouraged and all were invited to visit the school
at Chimbel on the next couple of days to see the exhibition
and vote for their favourite. Around 30 projects were
submitted which covered topics ranging from the solar
system, solar powered irrigation, India's rocket to the
moon, the respiratory system and so many more. It was a
credit to the Chimbel team, who made a great celebration
even better by encouraging the wider community to take part
in and to view the completed exhibition.
OUR END OF YEAR OUTINGS
By the time end of year exams are over children are tired
and looking forward to the Summer Holidays. Our last
pleasure of the academic year is to take all afternoon
children on an outing. There are so many of them, and they
span such a wide age range these days, that we held three
days out. The youngest were taken to the movies to see
Godzilla v Kong and followed it up with a visit to Corjuem
Fort. They were gripped by the movie and then happy to warm
up after the chill of the AC by exploring the length and
breadth of the Fort. 5th to 9th Standard headed off to a
farm in North Goa where we had exclusive use of the whole
property which included a pool and gardens (photo above).
Children pretty much stayed in the water all day, only being
coaxed out briefly to enjoy a Biryani lunch. Our 10th and
above students who were facing Board exams didn't complete
their exams until the middle of May. They were under a lot
of pressure and by the time they finished, it was baking hot
throughout Goa. They literally couldn't wait to go out.
Those whose families didn't immediately go to their native
villages joined us on a trip to Sharvraj Aqua World - Goa's
largest Amusement Park. They had an absolute blast and it
was another lovely way to say goodbye to children as they
headed off to enjoy the Summer holiday.
OUR EASTER ACTIVITIES
Its part of our Mango Tree tradition to hold a grand Easter
Egg Hunt in the garden at Mango House. Things were a little
different this year as we don't have such a huge garden at
Mango Tree House, nor do we have the many mature trees,
shrubs and hidey holes. Undeterred we ploughed on with our
Easter Egg Hunt plans as normal. In the morning all the
pre-primary children sat together and painted eggs ready for
the afternoon session but, in the afternoon for a change,
each class enjoyed party games before heading out into the
garden. As children cover such a wide age range we had to
have one Easter Egg hunt for the younger children and one
for the older ones. We had prizes for the most eggs found
and for the all important gold and silver eggs. It was
chaotic and great fun. Thanks to our teachers' enthusiastic
digging, we may also find eggs appearing for some time to
come.
SCHOOLS OUT - PRE-PRIMARY
CHILDREN ENJOY A WEEK OF PLAYTIME
As the end of the academic year came around, and
pre-primary children had completed the term's work, we
stayed open for a further week for children to come along
and play if they wished to. Lots of children did, and it was
a joy to behold. All over the place were groups of children,
engaged in whatever they chose, but no matter what that was,
children were cool, calm and cooperative. They shared,
shifted groups and fetched bricks to help their friends to
build the tallest towers. It's such a simple thing, but
demonstrates what a good job the Mango Tree House team have
done over the year. One of their most important tasks is to
help children to bridge the gap between home and primary
school and ensuring children have the necessary social
skills to help them do so. Play time couldn't have been more
pleasantly sociable and we know children are ready to take
the next step.
A FLOWER FILLED
HOLI
Holi remains one of the favourite festivals that Mango
Tree celebrates. This year, however, our celebrations with
the afternoon children were great fun but as the festival
fell during Ramadan and directly before end of year exams,
although you might not think so from our header photo, it
was a little more subdued than normal. We can't say the same
about our pre-primary celebrations. As usual, since children
are too small to safely throw coloured powder, we used
marigold petals instead. At first children were a little
cautious, but as we turned the volume up, they soon threw
themselves into it. It was a new experience for many
children but, as you can see, it was fabulous fun.
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OUR THANKS TO NICKS PLACE AND
LOVELY CUSTOMERS
Throughout the tourist season in Goa, a
fundraising quiz night has taken place every
Tuesday night at Nick's Place restaurant. At the
end of the season we were very pleased to
present Nick with a card from Mango Tree to say
thank you to everyone who had supporting the
fundraising. Amazingly, the quiz nights raised
the equivalent of around £1,200 and we thank
Nick and his lovely customers for their
kindness.
IT'S MAGIC
The afternoon children had a wonderful treat just before the
end of term when one of our friends sponsored a magic show.
In an absolutely packed hall children were mesmerised
watching one trick after another unfold. There were lots of
gasps and clapping and some "no, no, nos" when one of our
trustees volunteered to have her hands cut off. It was
fabulous and its fair to say that some of the adults are
still trying to work out how some of the tricks were done,
including the trustee whose hands are still firmly attached
to her arms.
SISTER FRANCIS RECOGNISED ON WOMEN'S DAY
Women's Day is
celebrated on the 8th of March each year. We
always make a point of celebrating it at Mango
Tree but this year was rather special. Since our
first days we have always supported a project
for disadvantaged children at a place called
Chimbel. The project is run by a lady called
Sister Francis (seen above with our Mango Tree
House manager Vindha). In addition to her
project for children, she tirelessly works to
uplift women in and around the slums where it
operates. Out of the blue, on the day before
Women's Day, Sister Francis was contacted by a
Government representative and asked to present
herself at a particular place in Panjim the
following day at a particular time. Luckily, she
went along, only to discover that she was
actually attending a Women's Day event where her
efforts would be recognised. She was presented
with a plaque which stated "Felicitation For
Your Immense Contribution to Society" and gifted
a beautiful sari. Sister Francis was thrilled to
be recognised by the State, as are we, since we
know how well deserved that award is.
THE OLDER STUDENTS MAKING LADOO
As Holi fell in the
month of March it was natural to pick colour as
our theme of the month. There was so much
beautiful art and craft work as we celebrated
the colours of the rainbow. At the time we were
getting ready to celebrate Holi it was the time
that our oldest children were due to come in and
give their updates. For a special treat, and to
continue the colour theme, an afternoon session
making colourful ladoo - a favourite Indian
sweet made from coconut and condensed milk, was
organised. Everyone got stuck in and children
were very happy to enjoy the fruits of their
efforts before leaving.
OLDER CHILDREN'S EXAMS SUCCESS
As the Holidays were drawing to a close at
the end of May we finally got news of how our
older children, some of whom you can see above
arriving at their end of year outing venue, had
fared in their external exams. We are thrilled
to report that apart from one child who has to
repeat a year, all passed and were excitedly
choosing which stream they would like to follow
for the next stage of their journey.
CELEBRATING EID AL FITR
This year it made a nice change to be able
celebrate Eid Al Fitr. There are two major Eid
holidays - the first being Eid Al Fitr which
marks the end of the holy month of Ramadam, and
the second being Eid Ul Adha, otherwise known as
Bakra Eid. The date of each Eid moves forward 11
days each year which has meant that Eid Al Fitr
has fallen in the Summer Holidays for the last
few years. Finally, this year the festival fell
just before we broke up and we able to talk
about its importance with all children and
to celebrate with Eid themed craft activities
for all classes.
FINALLY OUT TO PLAY
In our last newsletter we reported that the
last task at the Mango Tree House was completed
when we had the very rocky grounds landscaped.
It was a bit frustrating that children still
couldn't get out to play until the grass had
taken and the first cut had been done, but we
were thrilled to finally have our first outdoor
play session in March. We have plenty of space
in our Upper and Lower gardens so that all
pre-primary can go out together and enjoy
letting off some steam. They are already proving
very good at it!
THANK YOU TO OUR ANONYMOUS DONORS
Last, but not least, we continue to receive
donations through Just Giving which are marked
as anonymous. In respect of the vast majority of
donations, we receive details of the name,
amount of the donation and whether the person
made a Gift Aid Declaration but nothing more. We
hate not being able to say a personal thank you,
but in the absence of names and contact details,
we are unable to do so. In the quarter we
received anonymous donations from the UK Sweden
and USA, one of which was for £2,000. If you are
one of our anonymous donors we say a sincere
thank you and we would be very happy if you
would contact us at
info@mangotreegoa.org
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