Blog Layout
Life in Lockdown Kolkata
Brian Flanagan • 2 August 2020
For us in Ireland we have not been so restricted in our movement. The pleasure of taking a walk and some fresh air outside was good for the mind and body. This coupled with a prolonged period of fine spring weather helped us all deal with the pandemic which has affected every country in the world.
For our beloved children protected in Bekind Boys' Home, freedom has been removed from their lives as they notch up over 120 days
confined indoors. Since March 25th they are missing their daily routine of school, football, cricket and weekly swimming classes.
They yearn to go outside to play but the building that houses them has become their world, keeping them safe from COVID-19 which ranks India third for the most cases of infection behind the United States and Brazil. Friday 31st July saw a whopping 57,702 new cases in India representing over 20% of new cases worldwide!
In their world the Bekind Boys are happy and content and, as you will hear in their own words, are kept occupied with online school classes for the 23 children from three different schools and eight different classes!
They have been painting, drawing, writing stories, exercising on the rooftop and tending to their little garden up there too. Birthdays have been celebrated, (including mine). The staff have been outstanding, headed up by manager Joydeep keeping morale afloat and buoyant and also coping with a ferocious cyclone which devastated Kolkata. Super Cyclonic Storm Amphan was a powerful and deadly tropical cyclone that caused widespread damage in Eastern India, specifically West Bengal in May.
You can listen to short audio clips from Babul, Pappu, Munna and Babusona recorded especially for this blog.
Stay safe,
Brian
If you would like to support the Bekind Boys, you can make a donation by clicking the button below.
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The saying “ absence makes the heart grow fonder ” has been uppermost in my mind over the past months. My regular Zoom or WhatsApp calls with the children in Kolkata are a help but almost two years have passed since being with them in person. I am amused by the deeper voices of some of the children as they enter their teenage years. The voices and the bodies change and a request for six new bunk beds was a reminder of how much the boys are growing. A very generous donation from a local person came just at the right time to cover the costs.
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(IRL) CLG trading as "Bekind Ireland" is an Irish company limited by guarantee (Company Number: 448441) and Irish registered charity (Registered Charity Number: 20067960), with its offices at 33 Woodpark, Castleknock, Dublin D15KP6R, Ireland.