March 2005 Introduction Well it's that time of the month again and it only seems like two minutes since we were writing the last newsletter. The good news first: We are finally a fully registered charity in India!!! It took a while but after a lot of hard work we managed to get our registration finalised this month. We hope you enjoy this instalment of the newsletter and if you have any queries or comments then please contact us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website Due to lots of other work the website has had to take a back seat this month. We apologize for this, but you will all be pleased to know that there are lots of good developments on the go and Children Walking Tall is going from strength to strength. We have still managed to do a few updates. There were a few sets of photos already in stock so these have been added. The first new collection is imaginatively called 'Various'. These were taken before Christmas and are a mixture of working children, slum children and ones like the pipe people who live with their parents while they mend the roads. The second set are from a fruit run to the slums in January, and the third set which has just gone up the last few days is `Children with killer looks'. So if you want to see the children we are helping then please visit the site at www.ChildrenWalkingTall.com and click on the links for the pictures. Please remember all of the small pictures are thumbnails and can be seen in more detail by just clicking the picture. A fundraising pack has also been finalised and uploaded to the website. This will give everyone who would like to fundraise for Children Walking Tall the inspiration and backup they need to make it a success. The pack includes an A-Z of fundraising ideas, General notes on fundraising, Printable Gift Aid declarations (which are so important for any UK donations as it allows us to get an extra 28p for every pound donated), an Event details form and last but not least, a Fundraising Agreement form. Fundraising *How to Help* with fundraising 1. Please spread the word about Children Walking Tall. A simple way is to forward this newsletter to your friends and family asking them if they could find the time to read it and to visit our website. 2. If you work at a company that might sponsor any of our projects, please get in touch with us. 3. Be a member of our UK fundraising team by distributing leaflets or raising money. A good way is by finding something that you enjoy doing and have a fundraising event. 4. Have a look at the fundraising pack for ideas about how you can help. Thank you to everyone! We have a long number of people to thank this month for their kind donations of items for the children. John Elias and his many friends The following people are all friends of John Elias and have been kind enough to donate a number of items to us: � Sue Spencer donated 2 sleeping bags, 3 duvets, and a blanket � Cathy Biggs donated 3 Sleeping Bags. � George Biggs aged 6 years donated his own child's sleeping bag � Pamela Duffield donated a Sleeping Bag and two mugs containing teddy bears to give for presents � Louise Scott donated a sleeping Bag � Mr and Mrs Lay donated two sleeping Bags. � Mrs Breaton donated some hand made blankets and a sleeping bag. � Mrs Gumbrell donated some hand made children's clothes � Mrs Helen Ikeland donated two sleeping bags, prayer cards and money � Mrs M Cousions donated a sleeping bag. � Mr Codling donated two sleeping bags � Mrs Pullett donated blankets. � Mrs Ransom donated two sleeping bags. � Mr and Mrs Cramp donated three sleeping bags. � Mr and Mrs Holland donated a computer, printer and computer discs. They also donated four boxes of clothing. � Mrs Aldridge donated money. Thank you all for everything. Without people like you we would be struggling. Crown Public House, Seaford, East Sussex A great big thank you goes out to the Crown Public House in Seaford for raising a massive �350 for Children Walking Tall. We would like to thank everybody that contributed to raising this money. Continued Help and Support Thank you to John Elias for his continued help and support with `Children Walking Tall'. Although John is very ill at the moment, not a day goes by without him doing something to help us. Recently he has posted around 40 parcels out for the children containing medical items and more. Although we were told that no parcels arrive in India safely they all seem to have arrived. He has even sent over chocolate as he knows that Indian chocolate doesn't taste as good as the chocolate from the UK. We are very grateful for everything that he is doing for us and would like to say a very big thank you. Look after yourself John and hopefully we will see you back in India in the near future. Shoes, Shoes Everywhere Thanks to all the children from Reception Class at Wellesley Primary School, Yale, South Gloucestershire for donating their old shoes to Children Walking Tall. Two of our supporters, Heather and Dave had the help of their granddaughter, Grace. Grace attends class at the school and was very concerned that the children in India didn't have as much as she did so she talked all of her classmates into donating all of their old shoes. Children can be amazing. Thank you to Grace and all her friends. John Lewis, Bristol Thank you to all the friends, family and colleagues of Pipp Garland at John Lewis Ltd. Bristol for donating a large number of clothes and toys for Pip to bring over on her recent visit to Goa. The children will love everything and are definitely going to be spoilt when they receive them! We can't say a big enough Thank You Fortunately for Children Walking Tall we met up with Heather and Dave Holland whilst they were on holiday this month in Goa. Not only did they bring out a large number of items for the children, they also accompanied us on two slum visits. Heather and Dave were amazed by how much joy can be given just by giving out a few pieces of fruit that they wanted to experience it again. So their second visit saw them donating money towards even more fruit which they helped giving out to two of the slums we visit. On both visits they also gave out English chocolate which remarkably hadn't melted because Heather had wrapped it in frozen water bottles and newspaper. The children all enjoyed their visits and we would like to thank them for everything they have done. Lockers Once again we would like to say thank you to Heather and Dave, amazingly they thought everything they had done wasn't enough so they kindly donated the money to buy lockers for the children. These are going to be very important because the children will be able to look after their own belongings and take pride in what they own. These will be for our new home once we find a suitable building. South Gloucestershire Council Thank you to all the friends, family and colleagues of Melanie Holland at South Gloucestershire Council for donating a large number of clothes and toys for Melanie to bring over on her recent visit to Goa. The children will love all of the gifts and we can't wait to see all their happy faces. Sorry to say Goodbye We were very sorry to have o say goodbye to Maureen at the beginning of the month. Maureen had been helping us in Goa but, unfortunately for us, returned to the UK to be with her family. We would like to thank Maureen for all of her work in both the UK and Goa. Without her we would not have any of our leaflets folded and ready to go out so Thank you and we hope to see you again next year. Baby Items Thank you to Danny Gray who after reading our last months News Letter felt he needed to help the new born babies in the slum. Danny was very kind and donated money towards clothes and any items that the babies might need. We will be putting photographs on the website within the next week of one of the babies so remember to take a look. Everyone getting together Many thanks to Eddie for donating money for the charity. It was collected by him and friends who regularly donate to charity and this time Children Walking Tall were the luck recipient. Unfortunately one of their party took ill with deli belly so was unable able to join us on a slum visit. Yet more to thank As there have been so many people to thank this month the last few will be collectively thanked, but this does not mean we are any less grateful! Thanks to you all: thanks Joanna Dunk for the Books, crayons and exercise books; Rick Rogers for Clothes, toys, soft toys and the all important balloons; Pam for clothes and toys; Alison for a money donation; Derrick & Evelyn for the bags full of clothes, socks, underwear, books and pens and finally Jenny Peters for a money donation, clothes, toys and crayons. What's Been Happening? Registration in India After spending hours in the lawyer's office and signing copious amounts of paperwork we are very pleased to announce that we are now a fully registered charity in India. We can now boast that we have managed to get registered in both the UK and India within 6 months of starting up the charity, which I'm sure you'll agree, is a great achievement. A suitable house/flat We are still looking for properties in which we could use to start our home for the children. The ideal solution would be to buy a property, but we still need more support before we can afford to do this. We have looked at a number of properties to rent but as of yet have not been able to find the ideal place. We have found a building in which we could use from October onwards but really feel that we want to be up and running before then. We will keep trying and hope for the best. School in the Slums We have spent many hours in the slums this month both giving out fruit, chocolates and toys, but also starting a school. One of our volunteers, Rachael, started teaching small group's of the children from one of our slums. She started to teach the basics, like their ABC, parts of the body etc. We were not sure how the children would respond but amazingly they love school and are always happy to see us each day we go. It is such a nice change compared to children in the UK who seem to hate school! We are attempting to teach in the slums five days a week. The children are split into three main groups - beginners, intermediates and older children. Each lesson lasts approximately 30-45 minutes with a games time at the end for all the children to relax. One of our other volunteers, Matt, has now taken over from Rachael as unfortunately her time with the charity has come to an end. New Babies Unfortunately since our last newsletter we have to tell you that one of the new born babies in the slum has now left. We are not quite sure where she has gone, we have been told many different stories such as she has gone to England, Kerala, or that she is in hospital. No matter how much we try, we cannot find out the truth but we will keep trying. However we are very please to say that Chrishma is very healthy and that her mother is now also much healthier and taking iron tablets every day. All the other children in the slum love her and take you to see her as soon as you arrive in the slum. Danny Gray has generously donated money towards clothes and gifts for the babies, so now Chrishma is dressed in lovely white babies clothes. However I am sure that they will not stay white for very long!!!! Welcome to our new Volunteers We would like to say a warm welcome to Matt Coulam who has joined us in Goa to volunteer for Children Walking Tall. It's always great to find people willing to give their time to help us. Matt is very qualified which is a great help as we have also been learning from him. He has settled in and is very excited when he goes to teach the children each day. We hope his time with us is enjoyable and that we don't work him too hard. Thank you to our Volunteers Sadly, Rachael's time as a volunteer for Children Walking Tall has come to an end. Rachael has been a great help in all aspects of the charity and I am sure that the children in the slums will never forget their first teacher. We would like to thank her for all her help with the charity and wish her the very best of luck for the future. Thanks! Recieving Post Finally we have managed to get a post office bag so that we can receive post. Many people have told us that post does not arrive in Goa, however we have not had any problems and have received a large number of parcels. Our address is Children Walking Tall POST BAG 19, 365/4D Porba Vaddo Calangute Bardez Goa 403 516 India Future Projects What you can do to HELP!!! Perhaps you could make a difference in the lives of the children. Make a donation to Children Walking Tall. If you have a preference on how the money should be spent then please tell us, and we will try and make the money work the way you want it to. Other ways to help are to donate clothes, books, pens and toys. This can be especially helpful if you're planning a trip to Goa and can bring them with you. The easiest thing that you can do is tell others about what we do. The more people who know, the greater the chance we have of supporting children like these. Do you have any comments about the newsletter? Would you prefer a shorter version? Would you like to see pictures in the newsletter (Email will be larger if pictures are added)? Please let us know what you would like, as we always want to improve what we do. And Finally If you would like to receive these monthly newsletters by email please contact us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please put the subject "Join Newsletter" so that we can add your address to the mailing list. Send us the email address you wish the newsletter to go to. If you have received this email by mistake, or wish to cancel your monthly newsletter then please let us know by email at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject "Cancel Newsletter" Many Thanks from everyone at Children Walking Tall. Cynthia.. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give the gift of life to a sick child. Support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's 'Thanks & Giving.' http://us.click.yahoo.com/lGEjbB/6WnJAA/E2hLAA/0FHolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> http://www.goa-world.com http://www.live365.com/stations/61664 Live Konkani Music http://www.mahableshwar.com/ Addresses: Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL to this page: http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/gulf-goans Yahoo! 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