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Action
Card Briefing – March 2006
Education for Street Children in Calcutta
The number of street
children in the world is growing and there are 100,000 in Calcutta
alone. Their condition is desperate. They are often abandoned and often
alone. They are lost, vulnerable, hungry and with little or no access to
education and health care. They are amongst the most exploited and
marginalized people in the world, often clinging to life against
tremendous odds.
The Young Men’s Welfare
Society is an organisation which works for the poorest children of
Calcutta many of whom are street children. The society is thirty nine
years old and has always known that the way to help the poor children of
perhaps the poorest city in the world is by giving them an education
which will help them to help themselves to a good future for them, their
families and their communities.
There are five YMWS schools
in the city of Calcutta. Three new schools were opened in the villages
in 24 Parganas South District as part of the Millennium Project. Another
new school is the new Young Horizons School and three storeys have
already been finished. Mother Teresa, one of the people who encouraged
YMWS in its early years, gave the land for the school just before she
died.
The YMWS raises 70% of the
money needed for its work locally in Bengal. The society itself has some
fee-paying schools. They also use the buildings of other fee-paying
schools at night time, so that the poor children have good facilities.
All the teachers in YMWS schools are qualified and motivated by love for
the children and the poor communities. The remaining 30% of the
financial support which is needed is raised by friends, including
Christians Aware.
The work of educating the
poor children of Calcutta is vital and also urgent.
Many of the things we
need can wait.
The child cannot.
Right now is the time
his bones are being formed,
his blood is being made
and his senses are being developed.
To him we cannot answer,
‘Tomorrow,’
His name is ‘Today.’
Gabrielle Mistral
Please send a card of
support for the work of the Young Men’s Welfare Society to:
Shourabh Mukerji,
President, YMWS,
100/B Karaya Road
1st Floor
Calcutta 19
India
Postage: Postcard with
airmail sticker 47p
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