Kolkata eyes salvation amid fund woes

KOLKATA: The Centre's recent decision to ban foreign funding has hit the girl's orphanage run by the Salvation Army. The home located in Behala's Hindustan Park has been operating since 1997. But, following the Centre's decision under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), the girls' home with 80 inmates has stopped receiving funds from its London office since April.
The orphanage, which has shaped up lives of several girls, is now staring at a closure. "The building needs maintenance, there are cracks on the wall and the plasters are peeling off. Not only this, the basketball court needs immediate repairing and we need teachers to support the basic education of the girls. Now, there is only one teacher for 80 students. In spite of all this, the home officials are trying to provide the food and shelter to these poor girls," said Major A Jena, officer in charge of Behala Girls home.
"After the funds stopped coming from London, our northern region head office in Delhi stopped our annual grant of Rs 2 lakh and asked us to generate the funds locally via donations and contributions. But it is increasingly getting difficult to manage the finances. At present, we are getting only a small amount from Delhi as allowances for the staff," he said.
The Salvation Army has been operating in India since 1882 with over 3,00,000 members and more than 100 schools and orphanages spread across the subcontinent. The organization has completed 150 years of serving the poor and the homeless. Apart from the girls' orphanage, it also runs a boy's hostel-cum-training centre at Rippon Street.
The girls' home in Behala, spread over 3 acres, houses 60 staying rooms for the girls, a separate care unit for those below 5 years, classrooms, prayer hall and computer and sewing workshops. Sikha, a pass-out of this institution, took up the job of a matron in a government hospital. She said: "The orphanage never made me feel that I am alone. They gave me faith and taught me to love human beings irrespective of any caste or religion. Salvation Army helped me become an ideal citizen of this great country."
The institution now has 8 orphans, 32 semi-orphans (whose parents are either drug-addicts or in jail) and 40 poor and needy children whose parents do not have the ability to raise their children or give them the basic requirements of life. Sarada, an eight-year-old, said, "I love it here because the teacher teaches us new things everyday." When asked about his ambition, she said that she wanted to become a teacher.