Calcutta Espoir

Calcutta Rescue’s success

When everything began in December 1979 the number of poor living in the streets was estimated at around 500,000 (according to Calcutta officials) or 1 million (according to Mother Theresa) and the majority were poverty-stricken migrants from neighbouring states or from Bangladesh always looking for work and in urgent need of medical help. The improvised clinic on the Middleton Row pavement turned rapidly into a high standard medical project. The Calcutta police described it as the best service available in the whole town.

The standard of the care given in the NGO clinics is incredibly high and not what you would expect when you walk in. In addition, for all interventions that cannot be done at one of the four the clinics, Calcutta Rescue organises and finances admission to the most suitable hospital and this applies even to cardiac operations.

Its commitment in the battle against tuberculosis has been materialized in the creation of two WHO (World Health Organisation) DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment Short Term) clinics in the north of Calcutta and in the Western Bengal rural zone. Calcutta Rescue gets free treatments for patients with multi-resistant or ultra-resistant bacillus tuberculosis. These specific treatments are their only chance as they are not offered elsewhere in the whole state.

For a long time Calcutta Rescue was the only one to provide free 1st  stage treatment to people infected with HIV when this treatment was not even available in the governmental hospitals and continues to provide 2nd stage treatment for the resistant cases and these medicines are not available either in Western Bengal or in neighbouring states.

Numerous patients suffering late stage cancer have had their treatments financed by Calcutta Rescue as they would not have been taken on elsewhere. It also has a leprosy centre, a mother and baby health programme, mobile medical teams in the slums and villages, immunisation programmes, a street medicine project, a special needs programme and water filters installed in villages in the Maldah district providing drinking water for thousands of inhabitants. For the majority of its projects, Calcutta Rescue works hand in hand with government agencies.

The two schools for street or slum children are situated in the northern quarters of Calcutta and offer balanced meals, medical and dental care and clothing. The pupils can continue their training at a government school if they are bright or can do an apprenticeship at one of the organisation’s weaving centres. These centres not only train weavers but also employ former patients to make bandages for the organisation’s clinics, clothing for the patients and pupils and fabric that will be used for the craft industry in the workshop that will be sold locally or even exported.