Dave Thornton (Friend of El Shaddai/Fundraiser)

My first trip to Goa was in November 2011 staying in Calangute. I was working for Monarch Airlines as an electronics engineer and took the opportunity for a fortnight’s holiday there – an Indian colleague encouraged me to go adding “it’s a broken country, you can’t fix it, it is what it is.” Inevitably I went to the flea market and met another organisation there and I was taken by their commitment to helping the street children and promised to return again with medical supplies they were in great need of. I also located a church to attend that I had found out about before leaving home. I returned to Candolim, Goa in early 2013 and visited the flea market with a suitcase of medical stuff as promised (my wife had died in September 2012 and there was a large amount of useful medical stuff). On the following Sunday, I found the aforementioned church and was approached by a lady who welcomed me in – Anita Edgar. We chatted and I was invited to visit the El Shaddai School and homes with a view to supporting their work.

From 2014 to 2020, I have returned each year to help and support El Shaddai at the flea market and at the beach with the children and attended Matthew’s church. I had to get repatriated in May 2020 due to the COVID outbreak which caused many flight cancellations and so it was on a converted RAF tanker aircraft that I returned to the UK! Not too comfortable, but a direct flight home. I have helped raised funds by walking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage way in Spain in September 2023, which is around 200 miles long, and The Lang Tang trail, Nepal, in 2018.

I have supported a young girl through school and now support another …. what a pleasure to meet them each year; amazing how they all remember me. Several more are supported by other church members.