i will be there to on the 19th!! (wish it was 19th January and not march though!!

Whats happening at Children Walking Tall went in a bar the other night and the barman said someone had come and taken the collection boxes is Mango House open as i have things for the children that iwould like to take there

Hey... No worries... We're still here.... As Shermina gave out most of the collection boxes she thought it best to return them before she left, We've been a 'tad' busy since and haven't returned any as of yet. Shooters bar in Calangute has one (lovely English couple run that) and I will try and get a few more out before the end of the week. Sorry for any confusion. If you would like to visit then do give us a call...

Many Thanks and Happy New Year

Rob

Hi All

The collection boxes were taken away from some of the bars because it was requested by the restaurants themselves. As I am no longer part of the charity they no longer wish to support it. My resignation came as a shock to all of them but they fully understood the reasons behind it, my irreconcilable differences with the co-founder, Robert. The boxes were asked to be removed immediatley, so it wasn't just that I was being awkward!!!!

I will see some of you at the holiday truths meetings when you are out here

Speak soon

Just to let everyone know we had a great Christmas, haven't had chance to do the Newsletter yet but will ASAP. We gave out 1000 presents over Christmas (a few were a little late, just this weekend) in Goa and Mumbai. I will also get some new pictures up on the website ASAP....

Thanks

Mango House wont be the same with out you shermina hope to see you soon maybe at a sunday meet up at Mia Tia

Well I have finally had chance to go through some of the photos that we took over the Christmas Holidays. For those of you who don't know we aim to give out as many wrapped presents as possible during Christmas, this year we gave out 1000 presents to children in the slums dotted around Goa and the last few in Mumbai. It's never an easy job but I would like to thank all the volunteers who helped, Ali (Santa), Saroja and Savita (the Staff) and the helpers we had along the way including Carol & Tony, Subash and Friend who helped give them out, which is far from an easy job at times. Another huge thank you to everyone who worked so hard wrapping up the presents, visitors, volunteers and friends and family - THANK YOU!

Lucy, A Volunteer sat in the middle of some of the presents...



The Presents were handed out on Friday (South Goa), Saturday (Around Old Goa, Panjim), Sunday (Mapusa, Canca and Sinquerium) and Monday (Slums Near The Mango House) and finally on CHristmas day to 'OUR' children.

I have updated two sets of photos from the first two days of present giving, use the link below to view the photos....

http://www.childrenwalkingtall.com/Pictures.htm

Rob,
Just to say that as usual the photos were great, so many different expressions on the children's faces. Thanks for putting them on the website, we always enjoy seeing photos of the children. We look forward to seeing the Christmas photo's of the local children who we know.

Glad you enjoyed the photos - I will try and get a few more up in the next few days, been meaning to write the newsletter too but don't seem to have the time... Will get it out ASAP though...

I have uploaded one more set, so if anyone would like to have a peak at the pictures then click the link is below... I seem to have a lot more photos than last year, so possibly another two or three sets of Christmas...



http://www.childrenwalkingtall.com/Pictures3.htm

Maybe get one more set up today then I'll start writing the VERY VERY late newsletter....
I also found this from last year... A very cool video that one of our visitors took....

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=6130226512573112232

Happy Birthday Rob, enjoy the obligitory chocolate cake! Keep the photos coming, you're on the home straight now, must be hard to choose which ones to put on the web site! love them all.

Hi... Thank you for the birthday wishes... I had a great day yesterday which included the volnteers/staff stuffing cake on my face (rather than in my mouth)...! We took the children to the beach which was a great day. It was also the last day for two of our volunteers who are now setting off for the rest of the years trip around the world...

I'll try and get 'our' children on the web today or tomorrow....

Hi All...

Everyone keeps asking to upload some photos of 'our' children, the ones we help at 'The Mango House', so I have just uploaded some of the ones from Christmas day.... I hoep you enjoy

http://www.ChildrenWalkingTall.com/Pictures.htm

Thanks

Brilliant pictures. I recognise some of those little smiling faces from our last visit to the Mango House.

Many thanks for the pictures of "our" children, lovely to see the faces we know looking well and happy. The girls look lovely in their outfits, they must have been so "chuffed" to receive them. A lot of hard work went into making them I am sure.

Hi... Glad you liked the pictures... I am NEARLY ready to send out the newsletter, but it'll still be a couple of days I think, so here's a little preview....

Christmas
For the past 12 months we have been collecting and saving all the toys that are given to Children Walking Tall over the year. Our aim is always to accumulate enough toys so that we can give as many children as possible a smile at Christmas. Last year we were able to hand out around 1500 wrapped Christmas presents to children across Goa and in Mumbai. This year there has been a significant drop in the number of tourists which has had a knock on effect to the number of presents received, but our aim was the same - make as many children smile as possible!

Christmas was fast approaching and the toys were moved to Roberts apartment, temporarily, renamed the ‘elf's workshop'!, ready to be sorted and wrapped. Trying to wrap 1000+ presents is not an easy task and even harder when you want each present to give the same happiness rating (width of smile). It's never nice when you have a row of children and one or two get small presents and their neighbours receive bigger better presents. Making sure each present has the right mix of toys and organisation is the key.

The first job was to count and separate out all the different types of toys - balls, dolls, cars, hair bobbles, bags, colouring books, cuddly toys. Once we knew how many items we had there was a better idea of what we could join up to make the presents equal. We always receive a large number of cuddly toys so as a general rule every present had a cuddly toy, but the cuddly toys themselves were separated into four different sizes (small, medium, large and extra Large). A typical wrapped present included a cuddly toy, a few balloons, a doll or plastic toy, bobbles, hair clips and nail varnish for the girls. For the boys, similar with small toy cars, sun glasses or action men.

Many readers are thinking - are you mad!? - The answer, yes probably, but it does help! Thankfully we had a good team of volunteers and visitors that helped with the wrapping. The first presents wrapped were for the children we work with every day. The ones who come to The Mango house and those in the two local slums, we do try not to show any favouritism but we did have to give ‘our' children a little extra in the presents"¦. A special gift to all the girls was a hand made Chudidar outfit made by Savita our accountant cum dress maker and for the boys a new pair of shoes each.

Every morning a grid of 30 to 50 presents were laid on the floor ready to be wrapped. The volunteers would then wrap and make similar presents for hours on end, we were also lucky enough to have a few visitors who gave a helping hand. - THANKYOU!

By Christmas we had wrapped 1,000 presents, and even managed to have a day or twos rest before the present giving started...

This year was the first year we had a Christmas Tree, the tree was donated by 'Ron' a friend of Shermina's, the staff and volunteers spent one evening decorating the tree and house. The final touches to the tree were given by the children who made a star each to put on the tree.

Presents were given out in slums all over Goa over the four days before Christmas and although exhausting it is always a great atmosphere and to see the smiles on the faces make it all worth while. The best way to describe this is to see the pictures on our website....

I've finally finished the latest (November/December's) newsletter - yes... I know it's now February, but good things come to those who wait...

http://www.childrenwalkingtall.com/Newsletter/2007-11-E.htm

Let me know if it's OK...

Thanks

Hi all... I rarely get chance to post anything now-a-days (sorry), things are still buzzing along quite nicely over here in Goa, Charity is running well, got some excellent volunteers and had some fantastic supporters recently. I thought I wuold share with everyone that there are two new sets of photos uploaded (well strickly speaking theire being uploaded as I type... But hopefully in the next 5 minutes they'll be up and ready to go...The whole news letter thing is a little behind (AGAIN) perhaps get chance to write it this week....

Anyway, The photos are here http://www.ChildrenWalkingTall.com/Pictures.htm - Enjoy - The new ones are the 'American Indians' and 'Perfect Posers'...

Thanks for all the visitors who have been, can't do it without you! - Thanks....

Hi Rob

Thanks for the pictures of the children. They are fab!

MDH