Sunny Sunderbans fight Trafficking

This summer, Smarita and I had the privilege of coming to know a small NGO working in the Sunderbans, called Gosaba Anwesha. The Sunderbans is a mangrove forest, mostly island district, in southeast West Bengal. Many of the islands border Bangladesh, and because it is such a porous geography it is easy for traffickers to bring women from Bangladesh into India. Also, many young women are trafficked from the Sunderbans into Kolkata or another big city, because their homeland is extremely poor. Most people there rely on the rice patty crop, which only yields one crop per year. But after the cyclone this summer, the water became too salty and has completely destroyed the fields. So the poverty level has severely increased, making more and more young girls vulnerable to trafficking. 

Gosaba Anwesha has been working in this area to provide educational support to poor children, and vocational training to the women. They approached us for a small donation to support their tutoring center for the children, which we gladly gave them. Last week they invited Smarita and I down to visit their center. After a 3 hour car drive, 2 boat rides, and 2 rickshaw rides, we reached their center. Smarita and I had donated 5000 INR (about $120) to help this group buy school books and stationary for the children. But when we reached, they told us that with that money they were able to build a new center for the tutoring class! Now, instead of trying to learn outside in the smothering heat, they have a cool mud hut with straw roof. And to think it only cost 5000 INR! 

The mothers of these children came to the opening of this new center. They expressed their gratitude to us for allowing their children to receive quality afterschool tutoring. These mothers, as well as some of the other women, are in the kantha blanket group. They take used sarees and stitch them together to make blankets. This is a traditional Bengal village craft, and Destiny is going to start ordering these in order to provide these women with a source of income. As one of the women leaders in the community explained, it's not enough to educate children. We also need to give the mothers an economic opportunity to uplift the whole family.