Kolkata Appeal Details

To contribute to the appeal - to fund medical and food supplies to support 1600 families in our partner areas in Kolkata, please contact Mr C Brown at

 secretary@friendsofcrs.co.uk

 - he will be very happy to share with you how to help. Many thanks!

Kolkata Update

Rig has been authorised to go into Hastings and Brace Bridge this week, supported by the police and army (to enforce social distancing) - beginning to take in much needed supplies.

Kolkata Appeal

We have heard from Rig, our link in Kolkata and the Director of the CRS. He is planning to take medical and food supplies to 8000 people - 1600 families, based in the areas we have links with (Brace Bridge, Hastings and 10 others - places in which the children have a great interest), as soon as the lock-down is ended and he is allowed to travel.

This support for some of the poorest in Kolkata will cost the CRS £11,500.

Should you be in a position to be able to support this work, there has perhaps never been a more significant moment to do so, and any contribution at all will be gratefully received. Details of how to contribute will be posted soon, so please watch this space.

                               With many thanks for your support of these communities,

                                                         Mrs WB and Mrs H

Update - Our Friends in Kolkata and the Current Situation

We are of course, thinking very much of our friends in Kolkata at this difficult time for all communities. We are receiving sporadic updates, and so will try to update this page as often as we have anything new to share.

Kolkata, like the rest of India is in lockdown. Rig David, the Director of the CRS and our trusty link person, has let us know that he is trying to ensure that food supplies reach the project areas, especially Brace Bridge and Hastings (the community by the railway tracks, and the one in the underpass). 

Should it become possible for funds to be sent to support these communities via the CRS, we will update this page with details. I am sure that our friends in Kolkata will appreciate any prayers on their behalf, that you may wish to support them with - many thanks.

In 2018 St. John's CE Primary School and Nursery and St. Peter's church in Belper, began working with the Cathedral Relief Service in Kolkata India. This link was made possible through the Diocese of Derby who facilitate and support many Derbyshire schools in making friends in Kolkata. 

The objectives for our international link is to -

• Help the communities of St. John's and St. Peter's find out about life in Kolkata.
• Help the children in Kolkata find out about life in Belper and St. John's School. 
• Develop teachers and teaching in Belper and Kolkata through the sharing of practice.