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FAQ
What percentage of my money will actually go to the Calcutta Kids beneficiaries?
Calcutta Kids is committed to keeping its administrative overhead (fundraising costs, advocacy, project planning, travel, monitoring, evaluation and data analysis) to a maximum of 10% of its total budget. The administration of Calcutta Kids is carried out by a core of committed individuals who either give of their time without financial compensation or receive minimal salaries simply to cover living expenses.)� That means that at least 90% of the money you give to Calcutta Kids goes directly to the medical services provided to the children and to the pregnant women including their medications, and their hospitalization, rehabilitation and surgery when necessary, and to keeping the community health workers in the field.
Facts about Kolkata and Health Services in Kolkata Top
Situated on the left bank of the Hooghly River, 120 km upriver from the Bay of Bengal, Calcutta (or Kolkata as it has recently been renamed) was the seat of the British Empire in India till 1911 when the capital was relocated to Delhi. It is said to have been founded in 1689 by Job Charnok, an employee of the East India Company. In 1757 after the Company assumed political power following the Battle of Plassey (fought on the plains some miles outside Calcutta), the city rapidly grew as a flourishing center of British commerce in India. The hinterland producing jute and tea, and dotted with mines rich in coal and iron ore, ensured the growth of the city’s economic power.
But Calcutta’s fortunes changed drastically with the partition of India that accompanied the country’s independence from British rule in 1947. The city lost much of its rich hinterland to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and simultaneously had to contend with the influx of millions of Hindu refugees fleeing from the newly formed Islamic majority East Pakistan. Infrastructure facilities were stretched beyond all limits leading to severe and widespread poverty. In a sense, Calcutta never really recovered from the social and economic damage it suffered in that period. Moreover, as the only developed urban center in eastern India, the city has had to accommodate a never-ending flow of migrants from surrounding states.
Today, the most populous city of the East groans under the weight of unchecked urbanization and a population of 14 million and counting. Infrastructural facilities have been stretched beyond all feasible limits and thousands of families are compelled to live on pavements and in squalid slums where the appalling conditions ensure that everyday is a grim battle merely to survive.
The worst sufferers are the children born to these families. Deprived of even the most basic rights – to a safe environment, to nutrition, to education, to health – these kids never know what childhood means.
In recent years, with child rights assuming a position of primacy in the global development agenda, both government and citizen sectors in West Bengal have been making concerted efforts to address the broadband of issues facing kids. But whereas some significant strides have been attained made in fields like education, the health sector continues to suffer from crucial lacks both in terms of quality of service and service delivery.
Large scale subsidized healthcare is available in the city and there are many government hospitals providing medical facilities and services at hugely discounted rates, yet the cost of medicines prescribed are often too high for much of the population. Many of these hospitals have sections dedicated to children’s health. However, these institutions simply cannot keep pace with the endless stream of patients who come pouring in everyday, not just from the urban areas bit also from rural Bengal. No wonder then that in the minds of the poor, these hospitals are equated not with recovery but with mortality.
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What exactly is a street child? Top
Calcutta Kids had adopted the definition of street children by Human Rights Watch/Asia which define street children in the following way.
Street children are those for whom the street (in the widest sense of the word, i.e. unoccupied dwellings, wasteland, etc.) more than their family has become their real home, a situation in which there is no protection, supervision, or direction from responsible adults.
Three operational categories:
- Children on the Street
Forming the largest category, these are children who have homes; most return to their families at the end of the day.
- Children of the Street
These children are a group who have chosen the street as their home and it is there that they seek shelter, livelihood, and companionship. They have occasional contacts with their families.
- Abandoned Children
These children have severed all ties with their families. They are entirely on their own, not only for material survival but also psychologically.
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There are so many street children in the world. Isn’t the work of Calcutta Kids just a drop in the bucket? Top
Questions of scale and of numbers come up often; we at Calcutta Kids struggle with these questions continually.� The need is so great; and this project indeed sometimes seems to us like little more than a drop in the bucket.� At present, we�re providing medical services to only one of hundreds of slums in and around Kolkata and Howrah.� Of course, there are obvious advantages to working with small numbers of people which are important to us: the personal connections, the human interaction, and the trust which develops between the staff and the women and children.� Similarly, by experimenting continually with alternative mechanisms and monitoring and evaluating these carefully, we are able to provide models that can be shared more broadly.
But there are two other means of looking at this issue which we find helpful. The first is that it�s up to us to determine what our unit of analysis will be.� If we look at the maternal and child health need in the world, the impact of this project is invisible. If we look at the maternal and child health need in India, the impact of this project is less than a dent.� If we look at the maternal and child health need of Howrah and Kolkata, the impact of this project is visible though still small. If, however, we look pregnant women, mothers and children in Fakir Bagan�a slum in which we work, the impact of this project is huge.
The second approach which helps us get past the drop in the bucket concern is well reflected in a familiar tale.� It�s the story of a young boy who, walking along a beach, came across thousands and thousands of starfish that had been washed ashore and were dying.� The boy saw that the starfish were dying and he began picking them up one by one and throwing them back into the water. �A passerby saw what the young boy was doing, walked over to him and said, �There are too many fish son, you won�t be able to save them, I�m afraid they�re going to die.�� The boy picked up another starfish, tossed it into the ocean and said, �Not that one.� Every one of these women, these infants and young children is a human being, a child of God. Each one of these persons justifies what we�re doing.
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How does Calcutta Kids deal with the issue of sustainable development? Top
Calcutta Kids is deeply committed to the principles of sustainable development and to the creation of responsible government structures ultimately capable of meeting the basic human needs of its citizens. At the same time, Calcutta Kids believes that while such efforts are underway, concurrent efforts are necessary to address the needs of today�s children who are in need. We have a number of projects which deal with this issue differently. For example, the strategy employed by the Maternal and Young Child Initiative is based on empirical evidence, which demonstrates that �undernutrition�s most damaging effect occurs during pregnancy and in the first two years of life, and the effects of this early damage on health, brain development, intelligence, educability, and productivity are largely irreversible�1. If children from poor families have weaker immune systems and incomplete brain development then these children will certainly have more difficulty competing in India�s fast-growing economy and may never make their way out of the drenches of poverty. By ensuring a solid platform for these children to dive into the world with the same healthy bodies and fully functioning brains, the sustainable development issue is theoretically answered by the fact that one less person and eventually one less family is living in poverty.
In our projects which provide medical services for street kids and school going children we think less about sustainability and more about fundamental human rights. We think of these children not simply as India�s future human resources, but also as human lives, as precious children who deserve to live their lives free of disease and with the rights due to children everywhere.� Each child we can treat, each child whose learning capacity we can strengthen, each child whose dignity we can help restore is an accomplishment we celebrate at Calcutta Kids.
It�s important to remember that the original inspiration for Calcutta Kids came from the work of the Missionaries of Charity.� Mother Teresa�s work was based solely on love and began with the simple goal of giving dignity to those who would otherwise die alone on the street.� The goal of Calcutta Kids, by extension, is to enable a small proportion of needy children to receive the health care they need and to enjoy the rights they deserve, but also to provide that assistance in a caring and loving and highly personalized manner. The same personal attention that has made Mother Teresa�s work invaluable, also exemplifies the work of Calcutta Kids. It is the guiding spirit of our work which we hope never to lose.�
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Where does Calcutta Kids get its money?
Generous contributions from friends of Calcutta Kids.
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| USA |
Calcutta Kids
P.O. Box 465
Marlboro, VT 05344 USA
info@calcuttakids.org
(802) 254-2652 |
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| India |
Calcutta Kids
51 Bhairab Dutta Lane
Salkia, Howrah 711106
West Bengal
91 33 2675 7870 |
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