Helping Elsewhere

Raising funds for, and giving management help to, the Outreach project which is being set up by Sujata, Elaine and the rest of the team at Bookworm is our newest goal.

As we left Goa in November 2011 we set ourselves the goal of raising £1000 in new funds before our return in January 2012. Ambitious? 60 days seemed an impossible timeframe at times!

We still had a stock of things brought back from Goa on past trips. And remember our Canadian friend, Maureen Decelles who had helped us so generously with gifts for the Bollywood Ball? Well she came up trumps again with a spectacular box of pearl jewellery to sell landing on our doormat! Superb generosity – thank you Maureen!

Now we had our stock, just before Christmas our friends and supporters attended our version of Tupperware parties in droves… and we did it! Not only that but we had enough to pay for the photocopier for the school at Mandrem! We know how tough times are in the UK at the moment for so many people, so we are just so grateful to everybody who helped.

Now we are back in Goa, and on Saturday 14th January I went out with, and then had a meal with, the next generation of Bookworm foot-soldiers that have taken it on themselves to set up and run, within Bookworm, an Outreach program that aims to take literacy out to the disadvantaged kids of Panjim. Although most children learn to read in whatever language at school, decent reading materials are very scarce for a large segment of Goan society. Did you know that a recent survey showed that the most common reading material for children in a Government Primary School was the old newspaper the local shop used to wrap the shopping in?

The young graduates of Bookworm, headed by our new friend Niju, have hit on the idea of taking the Bookworm Van out in the evenings when it isn’t being used with a range of books and educational materials. Suitable sites have been identified and everybody was keen to see it work.

From what I saw and heard, this project looks certain to develop into something special. The migrant workers’ kids I saw were keen and other educators I spoke to afterwards are very supportive and respectful of their vision.

Last October a group of our friends came out to Goa to celebrate our ‘significant’ birthdays with us. They also donated enough funds to light up another 14 houses in the third of four ‘tribal’ villages in the Western Ghats. That’s half of that village with light now! Thank you to our great friends!

Father George then invited me to travel up into the Ghats to enjoy the fabulous hospitality of the villagers…

We started by driving south down the highway until we had nearly reached Karnatika, the next Indian State. We then headed inland, back on ourselves, along a good Forestry Commission road until we met the track that the villagers themselves had laid to give themselves access to this road.

We now bumped and climbed up through amazing vistas of a landscape of cashew trees for three kilometres, along a track only two feet wider than the car, with amazing views down to the sea and precipitous falls off to the side – not so great if you suffer from vertigo! We tried teaching Father George safe driving techniques in vain – I’m sure a higher power is looking out for him! This is the same track that the kids walk down and then back up again each day before they catch the bus to and from school. Full respect to them!

Finally, though, we reached a little plateau with some haystacks and a cowshed. Another 500 metres on foot led us to the village itself where the houses are clustered around a central square and we were shown a small classroom where the small children get basic education. The kids (and their mothers) were initially very shy – we were probably the first white faces they had seen – but it was soon all smiles.

We then had the most amazing lunch of rice, dahl, coconut and pumpkin, eating off banana leaves. Very tasty! No chance to rest as we then played games of ‘musical hats’ and footie with the kids.

All too soon, as the sun was setting, it was time to make our descent down the track. Truly a ‘National Geographic’ experience; the simplicity, amazing birdlife and pristine views acting as a powerful antidote to the more developed Goa.

Apologies to all – events have conspired to stop any updates on the blog for many a month. Loads of things have been happening in our lives but primarily not only have we moved house in the UK, but we’ve been searching for a more permanent base in Goa and finally we’ve found it.

That’s not to say that in the meantime we’ve not been fund-raising (thank you to everybody that has been contributing to and buying from our jewellery parties!) and helping out our favourite Goan projects! Over the next few days we’ll be updating you in detail on what’s been happening in that time and letting you know how everybody here in Goa is carrying things forward.

But as an extremely quick précis…

Mandrem school has achieved so much that it has been putting its first scholars through the 10th Standard exams – that all-important benchmark that opens up so many doors for the kids. Helping Elsewhere contributed by helping to provide revision classes and more scholarships. And now we’re raising funds for a photocopier so the school running costs can be reduced and efficiency increased.

The ‘Lighting Up The Village’ scheme has also been forging ahead. We brought over some friends from the UK last October (to help us celebrate ‘significant’ birthdays!) who helped us to light up another 14 houses in the third of Father George’s four villages. We made a memorable trip up into the Ghats to see progress

Meanwhile Bookworm has been consolidating its position as one of the leading literary NGOs in Goa (and India) – it’s getting noticed officially now. And some of its past ‘graduates’ have now returned to extend Bookworm’s work by starting to run outreach schemes into local villages and slums – Helping Elsewhere made a substantial contribution to start-up costs and I went out with them to see their progress.

Each of these projects will get its own blog post in due course. Keep an eye out!

Just a few mini-posts…

As well as two scholarships and one solar power unit, Filomena and Jorge’s gift also extended to providing two more boxes of books for Bookworm, the roving library and literacy project run by Sujarta and Elaine. Sujarta and I have been discussing future fund raising projects in Goa… so watch this space.

On a more sobering note, Elaine today lost her mother in law, Gilda, after weeks of suffering. I hope you can all spare a thought for Elaine and family at this difficult time. Today is Women’s Day in India and Elaine in true stoic manner illustrates the best of what women can offer to India today. Our thoughts are with you.

Over to Father George, with the Lighting Up The Village scheme more than half way complete and the Watershed project creating waves, he is attracting attention! He was recently personally called to Delhi for a conference on water conservation in an Indian context to deliver his viewon this complex and sensitive area from a Goan perspective.

At the same time Colin has offered to rescue and manage their website www.goaoutreach.com so please take a look to find out more about what Fr George and his team are acheiving in the Western Ghats. A wholesale tidy up will shortly commence followed by a much needed updating, so bear with us for now!

After the two Mandrem scholarships that Filomena and Jorge donated there were also enough funds remaining to light up another house in the tiny village of Quisconda in the Western Ghats with solar energy, and this fortuituously mixes in with another story.

You may remember that nearly a year ago we held our own Bollywood Ball and one of the best raffle prizes was a week’s full board at Casa Susegad – our own favourite bolt-hole in the South of Goa, very generously donated by hosts Norman and Carole. Our friend Claire won this fantastic opportunity to visit Goa in style and their stay happily dove-tailed with ours. She brought her two sons, Will and Tom and we all had a great time.

Will just happens to be learning about solar power at school at the moment, so you can see where this is going…

Claire and Will visited Quisconda to see for themselves the important work being done in controlling and harnessing the watershed and giving consistent lighting to the ‘forgotten’ villages. Father George accompanied them on a long walk across paddy fields and half way up a mountain in baking heat to the village and Will was then privileged to be asked to inaugaurate Filomena and Jorge’s generous solar power gift for them. A nameplate recording the donors’ names was also pinned to the house by Will before a simple meal of rice, vegetable curry and dall was served to them on banana leaves by the villagers, all washed down with rather welcome and much needed fresh coconut juice.

Thank you Filomena and Jorge, and thank you Will!