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Extra Teacher for Chimbel
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23-Mar
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At the end of each academic year at Chimbel there's a shadow hanging over the oldest children. They know that strictly speaking the project supports children just until 6th Standard (age 12). Every year we hear that children, parents and teachers desperately want the children to stay in the project and it's hard to refuse. In truth noone was forced to leave but the pressure on the existing teachers was immense as new starters joined each year. Whilst children were busy revising for their exams we gave them the news that we would fund an additional teacher for them next year. As you can see it was very good news indeed.
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Today we said goodbye to our volunteer Lynn who spent the last couple of months at Mango House. Ex primary teacher Lynn will always be especially remembered as the lady with the masks. At the beginning of her stay all the children made a papier-mache mask and then over the following two months Lynn spent one on one time with every child and encouraged tem to let their imagination go wild as they decorated it. The results were varied and fabulous. The children had a lot of fun along the way and when they all put their masks on they thought it was hilarious. Thanks to Lynn for everything she did at Mango House and for being a trooper at our Nick's Place fundraising nights too.
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Sponsored Outing to Old Goa
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16-Mar
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Recently friends Jan and Victoria realised that by chance the children they sponsor at Mango House both had brthdays In March and they thought it would be nice to celebrate with a treat for all the afternoon children. Thanks to them, last Monday 68 children and 11 members of staff boarded a coach and headed to Old Goa. It was a lovely opportunity for the children to see the magnificent Cathedrals and to enjoy the grounds whilst playing games and relaxing. We were also very impressed to hear how respectful and well behaved the children were inside the Cathedral too. Thank you Jan and Victoria for a lovely afternoon.
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Around 60 children attend the Chimbel pre-primary school each day. The support the school gives helps children make the transition from slum to school. Children learn the English and Marathi alphabets, to count, draw, play and fun. They celebrate lots of festivals and important days too. You can see the work of the school here......
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Around 100 children attend our Chimbel project every afternoon. The children do their homework and seek help from the teachers with any subjects they are finding difficult. Time is set aside for fun too. See the children at work and play here......
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Fundraising at Nick's Place Raises over £1,760
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11-Mar
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Last week Nick's Place held their final fundraising night for this season. A grand total of £39,500 rupees was raised from the donations from football cards in the run up to the event and from the events on the evening. We guessed the bottletops, played bingo, went horse racing, held an auction and were entertained by some great singers in the Charityoke. The amount raised brought the total raised in the season to the equivalent of around a staggering £1,760. We say an enormous thank you to everyone who supported the evenings and to Linda, Bob and Nick for their hard work in ensuring that the evenings were a lot of fun and their kindness and for giving us the change to introduce Mango Tree to their lovely guests.
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Chimbel Pre-Primary Celebrates Holi
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09-Mar
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Recently we received some photos from Chimbel which included some from the pre-primary Holi celebrations. As the school is in the heart of the slum it wasn't possible to celebrate outside so the teachers bravely organised an indoor event. The children are all between 3 and 6 but as you can see they quickly got the hang of it and thought it was a lot of fun.
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We have now published our latest newsletter covering the last three months. Use the blue subscribe button on the right hand side of this page if you want to subscribe to the newsletter by email......
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As usual we planned to celebrate Holi at Mango House with a "small" party for those who weren't celebrating at home. As usual the Mango House team planned only to take part a little bit and leave most of the fun to the children. As usual we planned not to have water early on. As usual on the day we forgot all of the above. Staff were the ringleaders in the mischief stakes and the first to lead the dancing amongst this happy bunch of children. We threw colour, chased each other round the garden with coloured water, we got soaked and had the best fun dancing in the "rain". As usual we had a blast!.....
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Mind Rewind continues to help Mango Tree
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26-Feb
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Many of you may already know about the Mind Rewind CDs. For those who don't the CDs were released by DAT Records and contain past music from the Goa scene. All the artists, designers etc gave their contributions free of charge and all profits from the sales have been given to help us. We were thrilled to hear this week that a reprint had taken place and a further £750 has been donated. It is a wonderful thing that those involved in the CDs chose to give back to Goa's disadvantaged children and as ever we say a huge thank you.
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Farewell and Thank You - Fran
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26-Feb
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Today the Mango House staff and children alike said a sad farewell to our volunteer Fran. Fran bravely joined us in September when it was still quite wet and sticky from the Monsoon and there was barely an English person around for company. From the start she set about using her skills as a pre-primary teacher to occupy the children with so many lovely activities. She enriched the children’s lives in so many ways and they are very lucky to have had her with them. We say a huge thank you and that our door will always be open.
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Maya Trades for Change
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24-Feb
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We were inspired to hear from Maya who, through self-teaching and guidance from her father, had managed to grow a small investment into a larger one which she intends to utilise to support children's charities throughout the world. Incredibly, despite still being at High School, Maya set up Trade4Change through which she has already given $800 to charities in Afghanistan and in Vietnam. We were very pleased to be added to the projects she has supported and to receive $800 towards the Mango House pre-primary costs too.
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Fabulous Evening at Nick's Place
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18-Feb
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Yet another great fundraising evening at Nicks Place tonight. A lot of hardwork behind the scenes by Bob and Linda meant we really did have fun and a memorable evening (in more ways than one!). Thanks to everyone who supported the evening and made it such a success and to Bob, Linda and Nick for a great night. Special mention has to go to all the great singers, Mick Jagger in particular and not forgetting Bob and Linda's delightful rendition at the end! A total of 44,000 Rupees and £10 was raised. Fabulous
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Today we were very pleased to welcome 13 Sandwell College sports students and their lecturers to Chimbel. The group visited the pre-primary school in the morning and then in the afternoon they were ready to entertain a group of 50 children with all manner of sporting activities. The students threw themselves into entertaining the children with so many games including football, cricket, skipping, badminton, catch and even rugby. Lots of sporting equipment was donated which will continue to provide the children with a lot of fun in future and every child received a tshirt. As you can see it really was a happy afternoon for everyone involved and we say a huge thank you for it......
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Today Mango House was very lucky to receive a visit from 15 travel and tourism students and their lecturers from Sandwell College. Not only had they fundraised, brought a huge soft toy collection and lots of treats but they introduced the children to snow. The students and children made snowmen from socks and rice, cut out and decorated snowflakes and coloured and decorated characters from Frozen. Better still they made snow which the children all got to touch. The afternoon wound up with party games and dancing and the children all left with a party bag and an orange. We say a huge thank you for such a thoughtful activity and a really fun time......
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Thank you Archibald First School, Gosforth
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19-Jan
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A massive well done to Archibald First School at Gosforth, Newcastle who collected over 400 toothbrushes for Mango Tree. Thanks to the school we have enough toothbrushes to put one in every school bag this June and will be able to replace all of those for the Mango House children during the year. It’s a big help and always wonderful to see children helping children. Special thanks to Lesley for arranging the collection with the school and for bringing the toothbrushes and many other lovely things out to us.
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Rice Reward Scheme Introduced
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04-Jan
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When children attend Mango House we know they are getting a nutritious meal and that they will do better at school since they can do their home work and have the support of teachers to help them. We also know that they have time to have fun and be children. Sadly, there can be all kinds of pressure for children not to attend. We hoped to encourage parents to support their children’s attendance through a rice reward scheme. Thanks to the generosity of two supporters, Joe and Helen, the scheme was introduced in December. Along with friends Yvonne and Eddie they were able to give out the first rewards in January. 57 of 75 children took rice home to their parents – a great achievement by the children.
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Thank you Yvonne and Eddie and the Countess Youth Club
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04-Jan
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Seen here, with just a fraction of the things they bought are Dunbar couple Yvonne and Eddie, – two Mango Tree supporters who worked hard throughout 2014 to raise a staggering £1,100. Amongst other activities they organised an Easter raffle, put collecting tins in local shops and enlisted the help of the local Countess Youth Club who raised £300 by selling pizzas and cakes. By any measure it’s an amazing effort and the funds raised helped us to buy very many much needed items for Mango House.
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As the festive season approached and everyone was looking forward to the party it was a good time to encourage children to think about being kind and helping others. A bare tree was put in a pot and children added a leaf every time they did a good deed. Their good deeds took place at home, school, at Mango House, with family, friends and teachers. It was wonderful to see the children really thinking about kindness and to watch our tree quickly bloom. You can see more photos here......
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