Bekind to Kolkata 2024
Bekind to Kolkata 2024
Pre-pandemic, student groups had been travelling with Bekind to Kolkata every second year since 2007. Little were we to know that 2019 was to be the last group to visit Kolkata for some time. It was late 2022 when we returned with an adult group and finally this year that we were in a position to bring nine young Transition Year and Fifth Year students from
Castleknock Community College to “The City of Joy”.
All nine, six girls and three boys, had been busy fundraising since last April to help fund our BekindBoys’ Home. They were to meet the twenty-six children in our care, children to whom life had dealt a difficult start, several orphaned, abandoned, addicted and in some cases unwanted. Some of our boys will commence their 13th year in the Bekind Boys’ Home this coming January, it has been their home, their refuge, their safe place to grow and learn and benefit from a good education, nutrition, and many extra-curricular activities.
Since opening in 2012, some 72 boys have been recipients of the shelter offered by Bekind Boys’ Home, short and long term, helping them navigate the often-difficult trials of life.
Our Bekind Boys range in age from six to eighteen. It struck me this time that our Irish teens were the same age as many of the Bekind Boys. Meeting on the rooftop on the first night of our arrival saw instant bonding and new friendships formed.
For my son Shane, Bekind’s Secretary, 2024 was to mark two decades since he first went to Kolkata on a student exchange. He and my wife Martina were also seeing the “new” Bekind Boys’ Home, as we had moved to a bigger building in June of 2023. We were greatly honoured to have six other adults in our group this time who have made a welcome contribution to helping us meet our increasing budget by their individual fundraising efforts. They, and the Irish student group were to witness first-hand where their hard-earned funds were being used.
Several new children have been placed in our care in recent months. One boy, Babu (name changed), who is seven years old has settled in well despite the fact that he has hearing and speech impairments. We are very fortunate to have an older boy who, because of his own mother’s impairments, can use sign language to easily communicate with little Babu. We have had Babu examined and hopefully he will be fitted with a cochlear implant soon.
Babu bravely took to the stage with his band of Bekind brothers dressed as Nagaland warriors at the 25th anniversary celebrations of our partners in Hope Foundation. It was a truly wonderful event with over five hundred children performing on stage in Kolkata to mark a quarter of a century of the incredible dedication of Hope Founder, Maureen Forrest, and her team working for the street children and families in need.
Each precious child is being given a chance enjoy their childhood, to grow, to be educated and develop into fine young confident people.
When we try and make sense of what is currently happening in world, wars, conflict, destruction etc, it makes me focus on the slogan used by Hope: “A world where it should never hurt to be a child”. I cannot but feel a mix of anger and helplessness when thinking of the innocent children senselessly, brutally murdered on a daily basis in Gaza and sometimes despair at the lack of intervention by those who should know better.
In Kolkata, with your support, for the children in our care, we will do what we can and not what we can’t.
If you can’t be there, be kind.
Wishing you and yours a happy and peaceful Christmas.
Thank you,
Brian
Brian Flanagan
Founder Director
Bekind Ireland
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