Day 4 - 12/02/2025

On Wednesday morning, we were given the very devastating news that Therese unfortunately had to leave India early in the morning due to a family emergency. Although we were all very upset by this news, we tried to stay positive for our experience with the HOPE foundation. We started off the day with heading to one of 5 HOPE creches in the South of Kolkata. We were greeted with a dance from a little girl dressed in traditional Indian clothing. This was a very special way to be welcomed into the creche. The two teachers in the creche also gave us information about how the HOPE foundation has been able to facilitate many young children that come from difficult circumstances including children whose parents are incarcerated. This experience was very enlightening and it was lovely to see the work that the HOPE foundation do. 

Then, we headed back onto the bus and went to visit a learning centre in a slum area. This was a very positive experience in which we were able to play games and slightly get to know the children who went there. This education centre is essentially a homework club for students to attend after they have finished school for the day. 

At this stage it was already lunch time which meant we took a visit to the HOPE cafe and Life Skills Education centre. The food was a nice break from chicken curry as we all enjoyed sandwiches, chips and brownies. The woman that ran the cafe also gave us a nice tour of the different educational programmes such as beauty, tailoring and computers. Finally, we fleeced the HOPE shop and bought various ceramic elephants, elephant trousers and wallets. 

Our final stop of the day was the HOPE hospital. We were greeted there by the coordinator (and biochemist) of the hospital who gave us a tour. We were shown lots of different facilities that the hospital now has thanks to donations made by schools and brands such as Specsavers. The HOPE foundation's walls were also filled with photo boards of many groups that had visited the hospital previously. It was lovely to see a few friendly faces such as Ashlyn, Mr. McDermott, Therese, Ms. Dempsey and many more! 

When we finished off in the hospital we headed back onto the bus and were stuck in a 3 hour traffic jam (on a 12 Km trip). It was safe to say we were all exhuasted when we finally got home and headed to sleep after our evening reflection time. 

Many thanks to the HOPE foundation for their wonderful tour and all that they do to help those living in poverty in Kolkata.