Happy Diwali! | Diwali at Purple Martini, Anjuna | Bollywood Star "Kalki" came to visit | Thank you to Government of Goa and Thomas Cook India Ltd | A Night at the Museum

Dance class with Encore just before Diwali

Thank you to the fqantastic Encore team from brightening our day, oh and for the Pizza! The children reallly enjoyed it....

A huge thank you to Purple Martini and their staff for feeding and looking after us on Sunday for a Diwali lunch. They served the children a traditional Indian meal and finished off with Ice cream and chocolate. Each of the children received a goodie bag to take home with sparklers and a box of Catherine wheels which the children got to take home. It was a fabulous gift and all the children loved celebrating in the evening with them with their families.

After the lovely meal the children walked the few hundred meters to the beach where they spent the next 2 hours playing on the beach and dipping our toes in the sea. A couple of the girls were lucky enough to get a free ride in one of the boats as a cousin worked on the beach and gave a free ride.

Thank you so much to Purple Martini and all their staff for their kind support.

Happy Diwali!

@purplemartinigoa

#purplemartinigoa #purplemartinisunset #diwali

It was a pleasure to have the wonderful Kalki come to visit the centre yesterday. Kalki performed in the Spotlight Monologues alongside our own superstar Fiza, she is also well known for her roles in Bollywood hits like "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara" and "Dev D"..

She spent nearly two hours chatting with the kids, many who seemed a little star struck, especially a couple of the older ones.

When she's not working she lives in Goa so we hope that she'll visit again. Thank you so much @kalkikanmani for your time and visiting our small NGO.

We have been delighted to have the 37th National Games on our doorstep at Pedem Sports Ground, Goa, and honored that the Government of Goa and Thomas Cook India Ltd have graciously provided us with meals to distribute to those in need.

Each day we have visited the games and brought back between 100kg and 200Kg of cooked food which we have packed into parcels to give out to the families we support and local daily workers.

The meals have been a mixture of Veg, Chicken and Fish dishes. Today, the last day we took Chicken Biriyani, Fried Fish and Vegetable Bhaji. Yesterday there was a huge amount and had fish curry, Potato Bahji, Chapatis, Roti, Rice, Salad and more.

Each day there has been huge amounts and it has taken hours to distribute to the families but has made their lives that little bit easier.

Thank you to The Government of Goa, Thomas Cook India Ltd, all the chefs, staff, volunteers and coordinators who organised the food for us each day and to Gopi (one of my old students) who has been a huge help collecting the food with me each day along with many of the kids who came to help at the ground and helped divide it up into parcels at the centre.

It has been exhausting, but fulfilling experience. Sadly, no good photos as it was a rush to get the food out as soon as possible and we often finished distributing after 8pm.

A couple of the girls spent an evening at the Museum of Goa as one of the girls was part of the production "Spotlight Monologues" and she brought a friend for support. The two girls had a great evening seeing the theatre space getting prepared, taking pictures with the other actors and being part of the show. After all the buzz had died down and the show had come to an end, they girls said they were in a rush to get home (as it was quite late).

However, this was a ruse, as their main intention was to spend some time exploring the exhibitions in the main halls of the museum.

They had the place to themselves so went to each and every exhibit and posed for photos. They really had fun!

Thank you so much to all the Museum of Goa staff who looked after us while we were their guests and of course to all the team from "The Spotlight Monologues" who helped raised over £1700 in total in ticket sales! Thank you!