MARCH 2013

·      The Circus Came To Town

·      Christmas Celebrations

·      Gandys Flip Flops

·      Commitment to New Project at Chimbel

·      Celebrating Sonia's Success

·      Update from Mango House

·      Meet Lenjina

·     Back to School

·      All About Food

·      The Biggest Losers

·      Sandwell College Visit

·      Glenmark Lend a Helping Hand

·      Donation of Crocs

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.

Read more about our new partnership here.

CELEBRATING SONIA'S SUCCESS

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.

Read more about our beliefs and values here.

BACK TO SCHOOL

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

Read more about the Comtact Challenge here.

SANDWELL COLLEGE STUDENTS VISIT MANGO TREE

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.