Educate Destitute Girls in Kolkata, India

In May 2022 I visited our projects in Kolkata for the first time since February 2020. After the COVID lockdowns and the extensive school closures I was concerned about how the girls had coped.

In fact, thanks to your generosity we were able to supply the girls with smartphones and they have all been able to ride out the setbacks and continue with their education.

We now have a number of girls studying at university with big career ambitions. We also have a number of girls (and boys) who are working through their school exams and want to go on to university. So while I was in Kolkata we took the opportunity to bring in a group of our 16 – 18 year olds as well as some of our undergraduates for a meeting, an opportunity to share their experiences. Every one of those young people is a first generation learner from a very poor family. The girls have to resist society’s (and often their family’s) pressures to marry or to enter the workplace to supplement the family income.

The meeting was tremendously moving. One by one our undergraduate girls stood up and told the 40 assembled youngsters about their journeys. There were many tears.

Sakina told how her mother had recently died and how she is struggling to stay in college now that her biggest supporter is no longer there. She misses her mum but is determined to battle on and complete her education.

Zeenat lives in great poverty in Mallickpore a little way outside urban Kolkata. Her family is very poor but after years of struggle and thanks to your generosity she is now a qualified lawyer.

Tabassum lives alone with her mother. She is currently studying for her Masters and wants to go on and train as a teacher.  But they are very poor and her mother was working as a maidservant to support her. So Tabassum now does several hours tutoring a week so that her mother doesn’t have to do this exploitative and humiliating work.

Another girl told us her mother is so sick that she herself is going out to do her mother’s maidservant work for her – on top of her education.

The meeting was a great success, especially as Zainab had made a cake which was shared out between us all. I hope that the youngsters can get together regularly to share their experiences and encourage one another. Despite the hardships these girls endure, their resourcefulness and determination shone through. And I could see that the aspiring college students were absolutely rapt.

Your donations ensure that all the educational costs are covered. Bags, books, stationery, fees, extra tuition and any necessary nutrition and medical help. But life is terribly hard even with sponsorship – these girls are fighters and with your support will battle on.

Thank you.

Saheen lives in a single room in Kolkata’s Darapara slum. She is studying in class XI at Khanna School. She is the oldest of three children. Her sister is in year VI and her brother dropped out of school aged about 10 and is a day labourer contributing about £20 a month to the household. Saheen’s father died at 36 from alcoholism. Her mother, being illiterate, is a maidservant, earning about £25 a month for long hours of highly exploitative work.  Saheen’s family is not unusual.  The real hope for Saheen and the rest of the family is education. Thanks to this programme and her sponsor, Saheen is being supported through the final years of school and, she hopes, into college.  She loves to play football and to dance.  

Saheen has only recently joined this sponsorship programme and we really hope she does well. She is certainly determined.

It has been a terribly difficult two years for our 20 girls. Schools in West Bengal were closed altogether for 9 months from March 20 until January 21 and then again for a further 5 months from May to November 2021. And the schools closed again for all of January 2022. But they are now open again and there are high hopes that school children and college students can resume their education in person.  

We were able to support the girls by providing smartphones to those who had no other means of contacting their teachers or accessing online education. For the younger girls, their teachers delivered schoolwork to their homes and phoned the parents to check up on the families. Our staff, Shreya and Aamna kept a close eye on the girls, encouraging them to keep working.  Most of the families, already very poor, suffered financially. Many parents lost their jobs and are now only just surviving on daily wages.

With your help we were able to provide food rations to every family and we continue to do so for those who still need it.        

We are especially proud of our 5 college students who have battled on throughout this difficult time. Zeenat is close to qualifying as a lawyer. Tabassum, Shehnaz and Sabahat all plan to be teachers. And Ayesha, who is a very good artist, wants to be a web designer. These girls will soon be educated, independent and the pride of their families.

Thank you for your generosity.