Global Exchange update from Kolkata

KOLKATA, India, October 18 (PW)—The 27 Presbyterian women on PW's Global Exchange are visiting India for three weeks to build relationships and learn more about the most pressing issues facing our Indian sisters and brothers. We are visiting Delhi, Shillong, Kolkata, Agra and Durgapur to learn about the impact of environmental issues and human trafficking on women and children throughout Asia. We are visiting Presbyterian church partners to learn about the projects and relationships that are helping women and men create brighter futures, and the initiatives that are providing education and health to help children have healthier futures. Here are photos from two of the ministries we have visited.

This image is from a CRS (Cathedral Relief Services) project in one of the slums of Kolkata. This sewing project teaches young girls how to hand stitch and use a sewing machine. Many of these girls are daughters of commercial sex workers (the term they use here). There is a brothel right outside the slum. Learning a trade can save the girls from following in their mothers' footsteps. The older women in the slums also participate in this project; women in this sewing project are making tote bags for the 2012 Churchwide Gathering.

This photo shows children of the Bhawanipore Cemetery school in Kolkata. The school is funded by St. Paul's Cathedral, an Episcopal church in the United Church of North India. The children are from a nearby slum, and the school is a one-room brick building located in the cemetery. Children who attend the school are arranged into three classes by age, and each class is given three hours of instruction a day by church volunteers. The children learn math and reading, singing and dancing. They greeted Global Exchange participants with a beautiful rendition of "This Is the Day that the Lord Has Made," sung in both English and Hindi. These children are the poorest of the poor, and the meal they receive at the school might be the only food they get in a day.