I went on a Tear Fund team to Calcutta in India to visit Emmanuel Ministries, Calcutta.

Emmanuel Ministries run several projects in and around Calcutta:

• Pauline Bhawan is a home for abandoned, lost and traumatised children.
• Tollygunge Home is a night shelter for child drug addicts – and an extension care centre for older boys from other projects. The home is a sanctuary for traumatised street children driven to drugs and alcohol.
• The Pavement Clubs are non-residential centres for street and slum children. They are immunised, counselled and given non-formal education, medical care, two nutritious meals, uniforms, vocational skill training and opportunities for fun and games.
• At Latchermat, EMC intervenes in the lives of sex workers’ children, who are neglected and unprotected especially after dusk.
• Erica Project is a vocational training support for women abandoned by husbands, mothers of street children, women from red light areas and children at risk. The project teaches the women machine knitting and sewing.
• The Calcutta Emmanuel School is for the poorest children. They receive an English education and can aspire for bright futures like other children.

Our team visited each of these projects and we then were given the opportunity to choose which project we would like to work at for a number of days. I worked at the Newmarket Pavement Club.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Calcutta.