Joydev’s Story

Joydev was found curled up, ragged and alone aged about 8 at the end of the platform on Calcutta’s Howrah Station. He was a shy youngster but came to thrive on the security and routine of Future Hope. He worked hard at school, loved the sport and discovered a beautiful singing voice. His houseparent, Bikash, judged Joydev the most reliable boy in his care.

Future Hope tries where possible to trace the families of these lost boys – so Tim took Joydev back to the remote village on the Bangladesh border where the boy had been born. Joydev’s parents lived under reed matting, too poor even to build a shelter. His father was a ‘gunga’ – deaf and dumb and his mother crippled: all her limbs completely reversed. 

They lived on the margins of their tiny hamlet and begged to feed themselves and their daughter. The entire village shared the parents’ joy at the return of a son they must have doubted they’d ever see again. 

Joydev decided to stay on with his family for a short while, but the tiny community clubbed together to present a gift to Tim before he left. It was half a cauliflower.Joydev returned to Future Hope and completed his education. He passed his class 12 (A level equivalent) and then took up an apprenticeship in a hotel kitchen. He worked gruelling hours, but was always cheerful. He now works as a junior chef in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dubai.

Lakhi's Story

Lakhi came to Future Hope just over 20 years ago. His mother separated from her husband and left for another part of India when he was very young. His father worked long hours as a caretaker, slept where he worked and struggled to scrape a meagre living.

Lakhi and his father lived in a slum around the corner from our first Future Hope home. Whilst his father was at work Lakhi loitered on the streets. He met some of the Future Hope children whilst they were playing cricket in a local park. He made friends and joined in their game.

A bright youngster and desperate to go to school, Lakhi asked if he could come to Future Hope. Initially he was a day boy and he started his education at the roof top shelter in Park Circus which provided a home and an informal school for the first Future Hope children. Lakhi settled in well and learned fast. He was soon able to join a regular school and gained a place in Apeejay English Medium School on Park Street. By now Lakhi had become a full time Future Hope boy and was staying in one of our homes where he received the security and support he needed to be able to cope with a regular education.

Over the years Lakhi developed into a stable young man, who loved his sports and who dreamed of working in the tea gardens after having a holiday placement there. Lakhi represented India in several rugby tournaments at U19 level. He co-captained the first U19 team to play in Pakistan. He also captained our victorious Future Hope Harlequins Club Team in the Calcutta Cup in 2009.
Lakhi completed a B-com degree from St Xavier's College, Calcutta University followed by a Diploma in Tea Management from North Bengal University.
He is now enjoying his first posting as an assistant manager on a tea estate in Assam; he is part of a vibrant hard working team, who often start work at 3 am. We spent a night with him in his beautiful bungalow and were so proud to see that his dream has really come true!

Over 20 years ago in a remote and desperately poor area of the Ganges Delta, a small boy led his blind grandmother by the hand as she begged on the roadside to earn money to feed her tiny family. Sanjay never met his father – he had died before Sanjay was born. The father’s family were poor and could not afford to feed the young pregnant widow or her blind mother, so they were cast out to fend for themselves. The boy’s mother found what work she could, often away from home, to support the family. It was a life lived on the edge of survival and none of them could have seen a way out.

Sanjay began to beg further afield, by now independent enough to go alone leaving his grandmother behind (yet perhaps only 5 or 6 years old): richer pickings were always to be found at transport hubs, at stations, by the jetties where the river boats tied up.

One day the boy climbed aboard a train -perhaps for adventure, perhaps in search of work or just to beg. And the train moved off. This was the last the boy was to see of his home for many years. Fetching up in Kolkata on Howrah station the boy joined the little crew of lost and abandoned children who live in and around the station, eking out an existence by begging, stealing and trading. From time to time Sanjay would board a departing train and spend weeks travelling around India as a stowaway honing the survival techniques learned from his infancy. Life on the station platform is hard: the small boys are vulnerable to violence, abuse, exploitation and theft. They learn to trust nobody and to live on their wits.

And it was on the platform of Howrah Station that this boy’s life chances changed forever. Tim Grandage of Future Hope makes regular visits to Kolkata’s station platforms, always in the depths of night when the station sleeps but the resident children are awake. It took more than a single conversation, more than a single visit for Tim to persuade the boy that he could be trusted, and that a home, an education and medical aid were things that the boy could possibly want or need. Eventually the boy agreed to go, persuaded by friends who had already joined FH.

Over the next few years the boy couldn’t or wouldn’t settle. Countless times he ran away and had to be brought back. He resisted the education on offer and couldn’t bear the discipline. Tim and the other FH staff persevered: the boy went to lessons in the morning and was bussed to the maidan to learn to play rugby in the afternoons. Gradually Sanjay began to see that where he was struggling with the schoolwork, he was pretty good on the sports field. In fact he was one of the best and this brought him respect and approval. He ran away less and less often and eventually settled down.

Soon after he also started to work as coach to a new Kolkata team, the Jungle Crows. Sanjay managed these two jobs successfully and in 2007 was selected to spend 6 weeks in New Zealand to develop his coaching and refereeing.

10 years after boarding that first train and being carried away from his family, the boy was ready to find them again. Martin Graham of Future Hope offered to help. Each weekend Martin and Sanjay would take a train into the Delta region to see if the boy recognised his village. Each weekend they took a new route and asked everybody they met if they knew a woman with a blind mother who had lost a small son about 10 years before. After several weeks of searching someone did recognise the description and the boy was reunited with his overjoyed mother.The boy stayed a while with his mother, who was still desperately poor and still lived on the margins of society, but he eventually decided to return to Kolkata to continue with his education and his rugby. However he was able to send home small amounts of money and to visit regularly. His help enabled her to set up her own small business and to buy a home. She grew to be respected in her village and just 3 years ago announced that she had found a bride for her son. Her name is Lakshmi. The wedding was a triumph – dozens of the Sanjay’s Kolkata friends travelled out to the village. It must have been a day she could hardly have dreamed of.

Sadly Sanjay’s mother became ill soon after the wedding, but the young couple were able to bring her into the city to care for her. She died in 2010, just a few months before the birth of her first grandchild, a boy, Suman.

Suman is now a year old but his dad missed his early weeks as he was away on business. He was assistant coach to the Indian National Rugby Team for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Currently Sanjay is coach to the Future Hope Harlequins Rugby Team.

Prosenjit's Story

Prosenjit  will turn twenty five on 11th November 2011. He was recommended to Future Hope by Dr Jack Preger of Calcutta Rescue, another NGO working with the poorest of the poor in Kolkata.  Prosenjit’s father was a ragpicker and his son used to help his father with his work. Dr Preger asked if Prosenjit could be given a chance at Future Hope.

Prosenjit wasn’t a very academic student but he struggled through to a place in Class VIII. Throughout the school he was known for his politeness and good manners.

Pest Control India, a noted company which had been associated with Future Hope in pest control in the homes, contacted us. Mr Sumit Dutta, the Manager, used to make regular visits to Future Hope and had become attached to the kids. One day he asked me if we had a good, honest and hard working boy who could help him with his PCI assignments.

We sent Prosenjit for an interview which he successfully negotiated and he was asked to join PCI as an apprentice in April 2007. From that date Prosenjit has worked his heart out and his honesty and perseverance have reaped dividends because today he is a well respected worker in the company. He has been confirmed as a permanent employee of Pest Control India.

Note: As a "permanent employee"  Prosenjit has his future assured.  He is protected not only by the company he works for but also by the labour laws of West Bengal.  To be made permanent is a mark of trust by an employer that many can only dream of.