#EDUCATION4ALL – As the Social Sciences Society, we are organising a free event for ALL students of Bangor University. On the 28th of March 2020, 7.30pm until late in the JP Theatre, we will have an Indian themed event running to raise money for Mango Tree House, which is a UK based charity in Goa, India. In the evening, we will have live entertainment from our very own George Robinson and Hannah Chung! We will have a number of societies offering Indian entertainment, and music to dance the night away! There will be a cash bar on site and a small buffet. Please come along and have some fun. All we will be asking for is donations on the nights, so if you have a few spare pennies, please contribute to the buckets around the theatre.
One of our MA students, reading Comparative Criminology and Criminal Justice, was lucky enough to visit Goa in January 2020 as part of her studies. Whilst she was there, she visited Mango Tree House, which supports children from the ages of 3-14 with education. These children are from the slums of India, and it was absolutely heart-breaking to see.
The school has a qualified social worker who visits slums in the area to identify families in need that have school-aged children. Once they have identified children, they speak to the families and accompany them to Mango Tree. This is where the magic begins.
Many children that come to the school, from the age of 3, are first registered as being born. The school or parents often have to guess the date of birth. But, as the school believes every child should celebrate their birthday, they throw a monthly birthday party for every child born in that specific month. This also allows them to attend a government run school. If they are not registered as being born, or don’t have the basic literacy needed, they wouldn’t have access to an education. The children are then split into two groups.
One group is aged 3 to 6, and learns reading, writing and social skills. The second group is for six plus, who have gone to a government school and may need support with things like homework, further social skills, literacy, numeracy, or home life.
The school provides the children with unlimited lunch, as sometimes this is the only meal they have all day. They also provide a child with a Mango Tree uniform and a school bag, which contains pencils, pens, workbooks, toothpaste, soap and a toothbrush.
Our MA student went for the day and was shown around the school. She was shown around, and sat in classes and lunches with the children. The children sang her nursery rhymes, told her the times tables, spelt lots of different words, and stole her heart. It was a revelation as to how lucky we, and many children in the UK, really are. She took toothpaste, brushes, and soaps, bought a sack of oranges and gave a small cash donation to them. They were so grateful; the total was about £30.00, pennies to us really. To them, it supported 97 children having lunch for two days, and filled school bags with what they needed.
The link will take you to a video that shows the amazing work that they do… https://vimeo.com/258247591
We are also collecting goods for us to send to the school for the children’s school bags. This collection will be running up to the 18th of December 2020. If you would like to donate any items, please contact Lisa Sparkes on souf9e@bangor.ac.uk. Anything you can donate would be amazing and the children would be extremely grateful. Items are: *toothpaste *toothbrush *soaps *pencils *pens.
