200,000 children live on the streets of Calcutta.
They are denied basic needs: they are hungry, they have no health care, shelter or education. These children have no hope.
The relatively lucky ones live with their families. At Calcutta Hope we try to look after as many boys as we can who aren’t so lucky; they are the boys who have been orphaned or abandoned or have been exploited and treated so cruelly by parents or relatives that they have been forced to leave home.
Most of the boys we care for have gravitated to Howrah Station. Howrah is one of the largest stations in the world and at any one time there are up to 400 children living or just spending their days there. They survive by begging, eating scraps left by passengers or by collecting used newspapers or empty plastic bottles for recycling.
The children are in danger from predatory and violent adults as well as drugs and disease. Many of the children are addicted to glue sniffing. Our partner in Calcutta, SEED, has a drop in centre for the children and night shelters for boys and girls*.
Some children have had such bad experiences with adults that they are reluctant to give up their independence and use the shelters. But when they do and can see that there is an alternative to their present lives, many want to come and live in the long-term home Calcutta Hope has built for them.
We have 50 boys in the home and they are happy and healthy. They enjoy a right that every child should have - the right to a childhood. Please help us look after them and give them a future by making a contribution towards the £18,000 a year it costs to run the home. And if you can please sponsor a child for a year: that’s just £360…less than £1 a day.
*India insists on segregating boys and girls from a very early age. There are many more boys at Howrah than girls and it’s relatively easy to raise money for girls’ homes. The need is for boys’ homes.
