Forging Links with Calcutta
Posted Monday 20 February 2012
In November 2011 the Provost of St Ninian’s Cathedral Hunter Farquharson and the Precentor Ann Mazur travelled to Calcutta to further links between the diocese of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane and the diocese of Calcutta through the linking of their two cathedrals, St Ninians and St Pauls.
The itinerary prepared for us was comprehensive and exhausting due mainly to unexpected high temperatures and their desire to show us as much of their diocese and their work as possible. During the course of the week we visited a number of schools, three of which we managed to establish links with schools in Perth; Perth High School with St Johns, St Ninian’s Perth with St Ninian’s Calcutta and Craigclowan Prep School with St James. All education has to be paid for and the diocese of Calcutta subsidises as many children as possible. The driving force behind this is the recognition that education is the most likely way out of the extreme poverty in which many children find themselves. We were taken to three projects run by the Cathedral Relief Service where children from the slums are given two hours schooling per day which has to include a protein meal and all educational materials including uniforms and school bags. The projects also provide training in life skills for parents and teenagers so that they can support themselves.
Our diocesan Lent appeal was for the Arunima Hospice which cares for children and adults suffering from AIDS. We were warmly welcomed and after visiting all the inpatients in various stages of the disease, we were treated to songs and dances by the children. We found this a very moving experience given that the life expectancy was between six to nine months. With poverty comes vice and we met women reliant on this project, who had been trafficked as young as twelve.
At another project we were introduced to children who were being given two hours education per day but the project was unable to provide any feeding. Their school was a tiny unused gatehouse to a large cemetery where forty children were crammed in with very little materials or teaching aids. Some of the children when school had finished took us to their homes which were simple shacks made of plastic sheeting and bamboo poles. The warmth of their welcome belied their awful situations and this shook us.
The project that most caught our imagination was situated eighteen kilometres north of Calcutta in the village of Bosekati on the other side of the Ganges. We arrived to an extraordinary welcome by hundreds of the village children showering us with handpicked wild flowers. The population there is 4300 with forty six per cent of people living below the poverty level and therefore families cannot afford to feed their children, cloth them or send them to school. The director Fr. Paritosh said, ‘This causes child labour, child abuse and child marriage, and diseases due to lack of hygiene and poor nutrition. The diocese of Calcutta in this project is aiming to release these children from the bondage of this situation.’ After discussion with St Ninian’s Cathedral Vestry it was decided to try and support this project for the next three years.
Throughout our visit we were much impressed by the dedication and hard work of the diocesan clergy and the ongoing support of their bishop Ashoke who is deeply respected and loved by everyone we met. We have started a liturgical link between the two cathedrals sharing our Christmas services which we hope will be further developed in the months and years to come.
