Emergency Food and Medicine for Kolkata's Poorest

At Tiljala SHED we are committed to empowering Kolkata’s poorest and most vulnerable people to help themselves. We provide educational support and sponsorship to 600 children and microloans to 430 vulnerable women. We see the impact in the educational attainment of children who are first generation learners, ambitious for a better life than that endured by their parents. Women, formerly rag pickers, have transformed their family fortunes by setting up small businesses.  But for some, their circumstances are so dire that they need a helping hand before they can begin to lift themselves out of the cycle of despair.

Shaheen is a mother of 4, a widow at 38 years old and suffering from a heart condition.  She lives beside the railway tracks and makes paper bags out of old newspapers to support her family. The children help her but they all regularly go to bed hungry as she only makes about Rs1200 ($17 or £13) a month.

Hunger means that the whole family has low energy which makes it all the more difficult to work.  To help Shaheen’s family get back on its feet, your generous donations have supplied her with sufficient food rations to ensure she and the children do not have to go hungry.  Once the children are able to progress in school and Shaheen’s medical condition is stabilised we can then consider providing her with a small loan to help her start a more profitable business. See our Livelihood Project here

This month Shaheen and 10 other vulnerable families received essential food rations from this project.

Thank you, as ever, for your generous donations. You are providing desperately needed relief for families who have reached rock bottom.