A Week In Calcutta With GOAL USA

Gordon D'Arcy Writes About The Time He Spent Helping Children In India

For the one week that I spent in Calcutta's slums - home to some 18 million people - I confronted a society on the opposite end of the spectrum to ours. A life where hunger is inextricably linked to living, and where so busy scavenging a living are some of the kids that dreams don't even come into the equation. But yet almost without fail, sport was the natural connection between our polar societies.

It is this eye-opening sight that I witnessed first hand following an invitation from the aid agency GOAL to see the work they are doing at the coalface of poverty in Calcutta, India.

From the moment I arrived, the sheer scale of depravity was evident. On the drive from the airport on the outskirts of the city to the GOAL headquarters, squatter colonies of canvas and cloth shelters and huts of corrugated iron covered in plastic sheeting lined both sides of the road, and were getting beaten by the torrential morning rains. Every few minutes I was expecting the shanty hut area to come to an end, which did not happen - they cut through the entire landscape of Calcutta. They are Calcutta.

Some 300,000 street children call Calcutta home, according to the United Nations, who suffer some of the worst forms of violation - physical harm, denial of basic needs and child labor. Indeed there are so many different strands to the tragedy of Calcutta's children that the natural impulse is to be overwhelmed.

In the Sunderbans we caught a glimpse of people living a life most of us imagined was confined to the history books of yester year. For the past three years, GOAL has been working in this region of Bengal, a desperately impoverished area which lies at the mouth of the Ganges. A group of isolated islands, a three hours drive from Calcutta, the Suderbans are covered by mangrove forests and those who live there cope with inhospitable conditions and severe poverty on a daily basis. Traditionally, huge numbers of locals migrate to Calcutta where they typically end up living on the streets, destitute and homeless.

Wading through sludge for several hours, eventually we made it to an illegal slum on the outskirts of the city, funded by GOAL. Rain cursed down on these poor souls who were desperately grasping to the lowest rung of society's ladder. Not only are they slum dwellers, but in the world of slum dwellers, they were the worst type - residents of an illegal slum. The Indian government will have nothing to do with these migrants because they are illegal. At a moment's notice a property developer might decide to clear the area, making the lot for these 2,000 people almost incomprehensible. That is why, it is incumbent on agencies like GOAL to provide these people with some dignity and do the job that their government should be doing.

As we entered the slum, water ran down the middle of the roads and bits of faeces floated on top. We saw a patch of ground with a goal at either end where the kids play soccer - it was pure muck. On our way back, it wasn't the kids who were playing there, it was the slum pigs who were digging through the dirt.

The GOAL project organize classes for young children giving them the basics in schooling in an informal setting. Inside a classroom, children eagerly performed a play about hygiene for us, their guests, as their class mates looked on in silence, enthralled and so proud to be part of the class.

In India, children must have a basic education before being accepted into what they call "formal school" and this forms a large part of GOAL's work -taking in children and providing them with the opportunity to get an education.

From the shy and coy girls in GOAL's half way house at Amader Bari, to meeting the boys of CINI, and the macho teen youths in the Sunderbans, these kids own nothing but their dreams. And they hitch those dreams habitually to sports.

I tried to educate them in the intricacies of rugby, by holding a rugby workshop using 70 or 80 rugby balls. But the kids were so excited that all notions of teaching them the niceties of the game went out the window, and some mongrel cross-breed game somewhere between rugby and soccer emerged. And it was fun.

Some the kids were clearly talented. From a privileged background, having gone straight into professional rugby from school, the realization that these kids, regardless of how talented they might be, are denied such opportunities is crushing.

But while sport will never be a viable option to lift them out of where they are, it allows them to interact with each other in a friendly and secure environment, and it provides an arena in which young people can develop themselves.

In sports there is no judge, whether you're good or bad you can still get into it. It's a way of communicating. For damaged children it is a way of learning that there are good people out there. And that's a form of education in itself.

While in the long run my trip to Calcutta did not make any ground breaking difference to society, at least for the couple of days I spent kicking a ball around a field, that was a couple of days that those kids were kids, and stopped worrying about where their next meal was coming from. For a couple of hours at least, they are having a great bit of fun and just acting like kids - they could have been kids I was coaching in Dublin - there was no difference in terms of their enthusiasm for the game.

As professional players its always an honor to represent our country. GAA players in particular are among the most recognized people in Ireland, particularly at this time of year. These sports personalities can definitely lend a hand to charities like GOAL. You'd be amazed the difference it makes.

Since its inception in 1977, GOAL has spent over Euro 400 million on the delivery of aid, and has done this on an administration cost base of less than 5% per annum

With its headquarters in Dublin, Ireland and offices in the UK and USA, the aid agency has responded to nearly every major natural and man-made disaster in the past 29 years and is currently operational in 14 countries in the developing world. It also implements rehabilitation and long-term development programs and works with local partner organizations that have similar objectives. While GOAL's priority is to bring life-saving assistance to people affected by emergencies, through the provision of food, healthcare and other basic requirements, it also prioritizes programs which care for street children and people affected by HIV/AIDS. C

To donate to GOAL's work please phone (01) 280 9779, or visit goal.ie