Situated in the quiet corner of the village of Verna at Ambulor-Uddear lies Soul Soufflé, a lounge restaurant owned by Reynold Abranches who teamed up with Liane Gama, proprietor of Atmavishwas
Trust and Nathaniel D’Costa, Business Development Manager at Atmavishwas to make someone’s else’s Christmas celebration a more brighter one. And that when the three decided to have a Christmas party for the adults studying at Atmavishwas Trust, who are adults with special needs and the girls from the nearby St Anthony’s Girl’s Home run by the nuns and houses orphan girls.
The newly renovated Casa dos Gamas which houses Atmavishwas, the vocational center where the adults with special needs learn to cook, read, write, paint, draw, stitch and have fun together was the venue of one such party on December 23, 2015 to bring in the cheer of Christmas.
The Christmas party for the girls from St Anthony’s Orphanage and the adults at Atmavishwas was themed A Merry Little Christmas which had games, a carol singing competition and an activity where everyone made Christmas decorations out of recycled material.
“The party was an initiative of Atmavishwas and Soul Soufflé to share the Christmas spirit among children less fortunate than us. It gave us an immense feeling of joy to put a smile on a Childs face,” asserted Liane Gama who comes up with various activities at Atmavishwas.
Earlier, Atmasvishwas, on the first Sunday of December, would host an event known as Joyful Sunday wherein articles, decorations, needlework and goodies all themed to Christmas and prepared by the kids with special needs would be put out on display and sold across an afternoon of fun, music, games and snacks. To take this initiative further Atmavishwas has now started a café run the kids.
“Soul Soufflé regularly ties up with Atmavishwas to teach the adults to make pasta; we organize baking sessions for them, cookery class’s sessions on making snacks and even full meals. We get a special sense of joy tying up with Atmavishwas or the St Anthony Home for the Girls. We would love these kids and adults to be self-dependent and tryout something and who knows, one day be self-dependent entrepreneurs. It’s a lot of joy for me and my team to associate and party with them,” explains Soul Soufflé proprietor, Reynold Abranches.
Similarly, Nathaniel D’Costa who’s gone a long way from being an investment banker to a writer, band manager, football media manager and now a business development manager at Atmavishwas asserted that, “at Casa Dos Gamas, we are trying to create a community space for people from the area and this was a small initiative from our side to involve the kids from the local orphanage and give them something to look forward too,” explains Nathaniel.
The evening was a filled with Christmas carols, dancing and games and a Santa Claus giving out gifts but the joy on the face of these kids is inexplicable in words and the organizers home that everyone will set aside their parties, dances, outfits and Christmas prep and also give oneself to celebrate Christmas with kids who have nothing to look forward too.
Noted Goa musician known to produce his own music Vince Costa and fellow guitarist Konrad Rodrigues, dropped in and had everyone singing and dancing along to an impromptu live carol singing session.
