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Key facts about India
India still has the world’s largest number of poor people in a single country. Of its over 1 billion inhabitants, an estimated 350-400 million are below the poverty line, 75 per cent of them in the rural areas. Almost 46 per cent of Indian children under the age of 3 suffer from malnutrition. That compares with about 35 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa and only 8 per cent in China, whose economic growth India strives to emulate. Calcutta, roughly the size of Dublin, is home to at least 300,000 children living on its streets. These children suffer some of the worst forms of violation - physical harm, denial of basic needs and child labor.
GOAL in India
GOAL has been supporting programs in Calcutta
since 1977. Today, we support 14 local organizations providing a range of essential services including water and sanitation, healthcare and education for hundreds of
thousands of vulnerable people. GOAL, and our local partner
organizations, has, over the years, given care and support
to almost 70,000 of India’s street and working children.
In Calcutta, GOAL supports the establishment of formal and non-formal schools in the slums and red light districts, giving vulnerable children a safe place to go to and helping to break their cycle of poverty through education. GOAL also supports residential services that provide street children with a protected living environment and access to education, healthcare, counselling and recreation facilities. GOAL is currently targeting 300 schools in slum areas providing them with clean water and latrines which will greatly improve conditions for over 120,000 school children.
The Sunderbans region of West Bengal, which is comprised of 106 islands, has a scattered rural population living in isolated and impoverished circumstances. Over the past five years GOAL has been implementing an integrated program of development incorporating healthcare and education as well as water and sanitation services. Operating in 24 villages with over 86,000 people GOAL also works to improve livelihood security for the poorest people in the community. GOAL is working in the Sunderbans in partnership with a local NGO and is committed to the long term continuation of this work.
Accolades to GOAL India
“Seeing what GOAL does on behalf of the street kids in Calcutta was an eye-opening experience… There’s no doubt in my mind that these people deserve everything we can do for them. Where we live on this earth is an accident of birth and we in the affluent parts have an obligation to look to the needs of those who are less well off. People like John O’Shea and GOAL do just that and our donations make it possible."
RTE broadcaster Mary Kennedy who has visited a number of GOAL projects in the field
"To really appreciate the value that GOAL gets out of every Euro, every Dollar or every Pound Sterling that they collect, you need to go to the field and see the projects in action. I saw them in Calcutta and it was a real eye-opener. The real entrepreneur works quickly. They don't dwell on an idea for a long time, how should we do this? John thinks of a way of going about it straight away. GOAL act as a bridge or a link between different strands of society."
Micheál O Muircheartaigh, commenting on John O Shea's award as Social Entrepreneur of the Year at the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award ceremony September 2005
“What GOAL does in India is inspirational, completely surpassing any ideas I had. It put a smile on my face. I think once you become involved with a charity like GOAL and see what’s being done, you just want to know ‘what next?’”
Rugby international and Lions star Gordon D’Arcy said, after visiting GOAL’s projects in Kolkata (Calcutta)
Older and bolder, D'Arcy steps out of O'Driscoll's shadow
Brendan Fanning, The Guardian, 23rd February 2007
D'Arcy enriched by working with poor in Calcutta Brendan Gallagher, The Daily Telegraph, 23rd February 2007
D'Arcy has goals in sharp focus
John O'Sullivan, The Irish Times, 22nd February 2007
GOAL do
their best to reach out and help – but it often seems
like a frustrating struggle
Gordon D'Arcy, Evening Herald,
11th September 2006
D'Arcy's Passage to India
Hugh Farrelly, Irish Independent, 21st
August 2006
"I
was a sex worker at 13. My mother was too. But I don't want
it for my child"
Ross Appleyard, The Times,
28th February 2006
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