During the year, in addition to the Orphans Day Program, a number of CCOT initiatives were taken up to help children from various orphanages.

• A medical camp was set up with the help of Dr. Pretesh and his team from St. John’s for the children of St. Mary’s Orphanage. Dr. Brian Nobbay, E. Alphonse, Devika, Raphael and Krutika were there to make the camp a success. Follow-ups were done to ensure that the medical requirement for some of the children continued. After the camp we had lunch with the children, which was sponsored by Catholic Club.

• In addition to the 4 children from Summanahalli whose education is supported by us, we took 8 more children between the ages of 8 – 10 years under our wing to take care of their education for the year. I hope this can be carried forward in the years to come for many more children, who need our help.
• A career guidance course was conducted for around 75 children in the 9th and 10th standard from three orphanages. The careers covered were the ones that the kids could relate to. This was conducted on a trial basis and it was very well accepted by them. I would like to thank Neville Dias for a talk on defence forces, Madan & Brian, part of Mr. Ian Faria’s team who did a team building workshop with the kids, Ms. Radhika Shyam for a talk on being an author, Ms Sindhu for a talk on self-confidence, Dr. Bobby on hospital related careers other than doctor & Ashu Desai for a small talk on etiquette and table manners. It was followed by lunch sponsored by Catholic Club.
• The Orphans’ Trust provides milk for a small orphanage consisting of 76 children.
• Two tutors were appointed for St Mary’s Orphanage to help 24 children in the 9th and 10th Standard.
• The CCOT needs to build the corpus of the Trust to enable it to take larger initiatives going forward. On our request, the Catholic Club Managing Committee decided to dedicate one Club show to help us raise funds for the CCOT The popular show “Oestrogen High” became a fund raiser for CCOT. I thank the Committee for the same. I would also like to thank all the members, who came forward in such large numbers to contribute with their talent and time. The show was a success not only for the CCOT but for all the participants and attendees also.

This year, CCOT’s big event, ‘Orphans’ Day’ was held on the 13th of December. 500 children from 9 orphanages came together to bring in the Christmas season at the Club. With a whole day’s activity planned, the children had a great time as usual. It was another successful event for the CCOT as well as the Catholic Club, supported by all the members and well-wishers. The CCOT managed to enhance the corpus by over Rs. 4 lakhs. This will enable the team to develop and get involved in long term projects to support under privileged children and children with special needs. The CCOT thanks all the members for their support and would like to place on record support given by Mr. Rizwan and Mr. Chandrashekar towards the children’s gifts. Lynette Willams for providing the breakfast and also being a great host for the show She is loved by all the children. Jaggi, Raphael & Devika for providing refreshments, Susie of Munchies for the snacks, Mark Rego for the fantastic team games. Special thanks to Naveen Mendonza, Erica Saldhana, Tristan Fernandes, Denzil & Lyne Viegas for bearing the expenses of Lunch. Thanks also to Raj from Gangotree for the after meal sweet & Mr. Narayan Rao for the much-loved Ice cream at the end of the day. Michael Rebello for being there for the kids, as usual. Mark Bartley for the entertaining music, Saleh Ahmed for the furniture, Green Line amusements for the bouncing castle, Peter Prem for getting goodies and notebooks from ITC, Lygia D’Silva for goodies from Britannia, & Phillip for notebooks and pens. Thanks to Mr. Leslie Fernandes for his contribution towards building the CCOT Corpus Fund and all the members who also contributed generously and were present there to lend a helping hand and made it a memorable day for the Children. Finally, I thank the reliable and brilliant CCOT team. Devika, Raphael Johnson, Mavis Smith, Greg DSa, Naveen Mendonza, Dr. Bobby Joseph, Dr. Preteesh, and Dr. Kanuite Martis for their support, time and ideas. I also greatly appreciate the invaluable support of Gavin Santiago, Brian D’Lima and E. Alphonse along with the other members of our Managing Committee who helped make this year very eventful for the CCOT.