TY HOPE Foundation Trip to India
St Angela’s College is delighted to have a long standing tradition of working with The Hope Foundation. The HOPE Foundation is a registered charity working with street and slum children in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), India. They work to free children and families from lives of pain, abuse, poverty and darkness. In collaboration with the HOPE Foundation two teachers and 10 lucky TY students travel to Kolkata, India in Spring as part of the Schools Immersion Programme.
The Hope Foundation truly believes in ‘students helping students’ and the Immersion Programme is a tribute to this belief. Led by teachers, volunteers and HOPE staff the Transition Year students are afforded the unique opportunity to travel to Kolkata for one week and to visit the many projects The HOPE Foundation run on the ground in Kolkata. Students witness, first-hand, the work of HOPE and the extremities of life in Kolkata. Supported throughout their time in India, students are introduced to poverty, the realities of street children and the joy of HOPE. A week-long programme is prepared for students, who spend time visiting HOPE projects, interacting with children and adolescents who are in HOPE supported projects and immersing themselves in Indian culture. The group visit protection homes, the HOPE hospital, day centres, crisis centers, girls homes, boys homes, crèches, schools and much more.
Our young Ambassadors remember the experience for the rest of their lives, and become more aware of their place in society and how they can make the world a better place by caring for people who are less well off than themselves.
Each year the teachers and students appeal to the school community for donations which they bring to the HOPE projects in Kolkata. Donations such as toys, personal hygiene products, clothes, educational products, etc are all welcome and a collection point will be set up in reception in January.
Thank you all so much for your continuous support. We hope to get as many donations as last year to bring with us to India this year.