Tag: Puja Bagh

shuktara home for disabled girls - Lula Bari

Emily, our Rose Queen, visits shuktara

When Emily Howling became Mellor Rose Queen in the UK in 2012 she chose shuktara as her charity and raised funds to help support our homes.
Emily wanted to visit shuktara and here's what she says on her GoFundMe page:

"Shuktara means a lot to me as it was my Rose Queen charity back in 2012, when my team and I raised over £13000 for them. Having the chance to visit would be incredible!"

This week she finally arrived in Kolkata with her mum Rachel. Every day both of them have been working with the girls at Lula Bari.
We want to send a huge thank you to everyone who supported Emily when she was Rose Queen and also on her GoFundMe page that helped her come visit us.

shuktara homes for young people with disabilities

Shuktara holiday in Mandarmani

Last weekend everyone at shuktara went on a seaside holiday to Mandarmani. Many thanks to Sanjib who made this wonderful event happen!

shuktara celebrates Holi, festival of colours

Happy Holi from shuktara!

Holi is an Indian spring festival also known as the "festival of colours". As Wikipedia says: "It signifies the victory of good over evil, the arrival of spring, end of winter, and for many a festive day to meet others, play and laugh."

As you can see from the photos, this is a favorite festival at shuktara, celebrated by everyone.

Happy Holi from all of us at shuktara!

shuktara homes

Old friends visit shuktara

In 1999, the very beginning of shuktara, Alison and Bryan stayed in an upstairs flat in the first shuktara home. Their door was almost always open to the first five boys - Anna, Sunil, Shantara, Bapi and Sanjay.

For the next few years they taught computer skills downstairs in David's flat, shared meals with everyone at shuktara, and even went on vacations to Goa and Puri with the boys. While they lived in Kolkata they were frequent visitors to the shuktara homes.

They recently returned to Kolkata for a visit and absolutely loved being back with the young people of shuktara. They took dozens of photos - here are a few of the best.

shuktara - 2017 October - Prity showing her finished masterpiece

Leaf Painting at Lula Bari

Our friend Emma Christmas is in Kolkata and she brought some leaves from a local forest with her. On her way back from Santiniketan she had an idea for the Lula Bari girls and young women to make leaf garlands and decorate the house.

Lots of paint and lots of laughter - it was messy and a lot of fun for everyone.

shuktara homes - videos at Lula Bari - 2017

Life at Lula Bari

shuktara girls

The girls of Lula Bari

These polaroids seem to capture the individual spirit of each of the girls and young women who live at Lula Bari.

Thank You Caroline De Penning for spending so much of your time at Lula Bari and for taking these wonderful photos for the girls to treasure.

Caroline comes regularly to our girls home to do fun activities which have included hair and make-up and often other beauty parlour things.

We also appreciate the involvement of Kolkata International Womens Club and their support of our girls. This year they are paying school fees for all of the girls who attend REACH.