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Maura Lennon, HOPE’s CEO of International Operations, recently visited HOPE in Kolkata for the organisation’s 25th anniversary Foundation Day celebrations and has put into the writing the sights, sounds and stories she encountered in the City of Joy.
How lucky was I to visit, once again, the charmingly chaotic and captivating City of Joy that is Kolkata? With its vibrant contrasts and complete attack on all of one’s senses, which are all the more visible on the streets where colour, life, and bustle live side by side with those who call the streets their home. The clamour of the city never stops and having arrived in Kolkata late, and thus driving through the city at night, I was immediately reminded that Kolkata is really the city that never sleeps.
I feel very privileged and special to be visiting during HOPE’s 25th anniversary year. Not only that, but I was also privileged to accompany HOPE colleagues and friends on visits to HOPE programmes, namely, our Global Ambassador Reza Beyad, our wonderful HOPE Kolkata staff, and our Founding Director Maureen Forrest.
I have been lucky enough to have visited Kolkata before. The last time I visited was pre-Covid, so I was curious to discover what, or if, anything had changed.
At some level it felt like nothing had changed – children and families living on the streets appeared to be as widespread as previously and living conditions in the slum areas appeared as difficult as ever.
But there were also some immediate changes to be seen in the new metro lines and stations, the new high-rise buildings, numerous building cranes in the sky and new shiny hotels.
However, I saw the most obvious and biggest changes in the scale and impact that HOPE has been having on the lives of the most vulnerable communities in Kolkata.
I visited Chitpur slum with great anticipation, as I remembered it so vividly from a previous visit, and specifically remembered how families lived in such difficult and often inhumane conditions. The welcome in Chitpur Creche was overwhelming – the fun, the joy, and the laughter in the creche was incredible. Cheek by jowl with the creche, families were living in small dark, smoke and noise-filled, ‘makeshift’ shelters. Remarkably these shelters were almost high rise, as families had creatively and quite brilliantly developed two and three storey shelters. HOPE’s vital programme providing early and primary education for the vulnerable children of Chitpur is a beacon of light and provides a pathway and future in a world of uncertainty and invisibility.
Visiting Bhagar slum again was something that I was really keen to do, and the welcome I received there made me feel like I was the only person to ever visit. I cannot do justice in writing to the warmth, friendship, and gratitude that I felt from the HOPE creche and school staff. As for the children, their welcome and delight was a remarkable sight. They wanted to show their schoolwork, their achievements, chat in English, and some simply just wanted to hold my hand.
Experiencing HOPE’s Foundation Day celebrations was something special. The HOPE children danced and sang with pride and happiness. They lifted the roof of the auditorium, and their performances were as good as any West End production.
I had arranged to meet with the child that one of my colleagues is sponsoring and this was such a humbling meeting. He, Amit [name changed], travelled with his aunty for more than nine hours to come and meet me. He had left his home just after midnight and met with me after 9am at the HOPE office. Amit lives in a rural location and thus having taken two buses, and much walking, he arrived. He made this journey willingly and having met him for less than one hour, he turned around and made the same return journey. How humbling this encounter was for me with this lovely, shy young boy.
I also had the great privilege to meet my own son’s sponsored child, Rajan [name changed]. And what a meeting that was – it truly felt like I was meeting one of my own children. I never imagined how emotional I would feel, and he was completed overwhelmed too, especially when he realised that he was receiving more than one gift from his Irish family.
On visiting one of our Residential Childcare Centres for girls, I was told that three sisters (aged six, eight and 10 respectively), had just arrived the day before into our care. They and their single mother had been living on the street and their mother was unable to cope; she herself requiring medical attention. These three beautiful girls were warmly welcomed by the other girls and staff in the centre, and while they were so lucky to be there, I could only wonder how difficult life had been for them and their mother. They were notably and understandably bashful in their new surroundings, but played quietly with other girls, and stayed very close to each other.
At Hope Hospital, I was introduced to a very young mother and her very malnourished five-week-old baby, who needed intensive feeding and care. The mother was in her early twenties, was single and was not welcome in her own home. Thus, she lived on the street and could not provide for her baby, or indeed for herself. In her eyes I saw a mere child, seeking help to nurture her tiny baby.
Seeing the expansion of our holistic education and vocational training programmes for children and adolescents with special needs was both heart-warming and heart breaking in equal measure. Heart-warming to see them having access to specialised care and therapies with incredibly kind, empathetic specialists, and heart breaking to see their parents and guardians doing their best to support the specialist therapies on offer for their children and learning how best to care for them.
Hearing about children who had been adopted or were about to be adopted, either by Indian families or by international families, was an incredibly happy story for those chosen children. While HOPE is not engaged in the adoption process, some of the children who are in our care are, or will be, potentially suitable for adoption. By and large, this is a very good option for children who are in care and who have no chance of being reintegrated with their family or extended family members.
Within every encounter in HOPE’s programmes, I was met with smiles as wide as the Hooghly River, and I felt like I was the only person that these children and communities and staff had met that day.
Know that HOPE is making an incredible difference, which is evidenced in the spirit, enthusiasm, pride and tenacity of those who are benefitting from our interventions.
We can’t do everything, but we can positively, and relatively easily, change and empower one precious life at a time. It was so evident how HOPE is truly helping to realise the hopes, wishes and dreams of these children; the same hopes, wishes and dreams that we have for our own children.
The stories of these children remain largely untold, but their presence is palpable. HOPE helps to tell their story, share their dreams and give them a voice in a world where they are easily forgotten.
We have had 25 incredible years of HOPE so far. Here’s to the next HOPE chapter in Kolkata and continuing to make vital and sustained positive impact one child at a time.
Thank you HOPE Kolkata for such an uplifting and inspiring, and oh so proud and humbling, visit.
