INTRODUCTION

SEPTEMBER 2013

·      Child Sponsorship Scheme

·      The Mango Tree Pre-Primary

·      Food For Thought

·      Celebrating Eid Al-Fitr

·      Independence Day

·      Children's Bank

·     School Enrolments

·      Overcoming The Monsoon

·      Asha's Words

·      The Rhaki Festival

·      Colva Update

·      The Mango Tree Trust - Our Work

·      How We Celebrate

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 67^th Independence Day on August 15^th. 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 1^st 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

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.

CONTACT US

Mango Tree Goa

The Derwen

Royston Road

Cudworth

BARNSLEY

South Yorkshire

S72 8BP

Email : info@mangotreegoa.org