Tata Motors hands over City Ride Bus to Udayan

Kolkata, Jan 12 : Tata Motors today handed over a 24-seater City Ride bus to Udayan, a home for disadvantaged children, in an effort to assist them in serving the underprivileged children in society.

Habib Saleh, Regional Manager, CVBU, Tata Motors (Eastern Region), handed over the key to Udayan here Tuesday.

Udayan was founded by John Gregory Stevens, or as his friends call him, James, on the 25th of March, 1970 with eleven children. James had come to India with a French organization, Frères des Hommes. It was one of the many social organizations that were reaching out to the sick and the poor in India.

While serving in a programme for children, James saw the trail of devastation left behind by the scourge of leprosy. He found that people either did not know or would not accept that leprosy could be cured.

James found a number of these families living in isolated slums, bound to each other only by their poverty, by their deprivation, and by the mutilated bodies of their family members. Their children were being raised in dens of iniquity, knowing nothing of warmth, clothing, health and sanitation. Misery, like the dust, lay thick around them.

All of the children brought to Udayan suffered from worm infestations and malnutrition. Some of them had also contracted tuberculosis, malaria, amoebiasis, rickets, and skin diseases. But James and Dr Dhruba Sen set to work providing intensive medical treatment along with extra-vitaminised diets, and the results were spectacular.

In 1982, James met Dominique Lapierre, celebrated author of City of Joy. Moved by the work James was doing, Dominique set up a fund in France called the Dominique Lapierre Foundation - Action pour les Enfants des Lepreux de Calcutta. To this fund, he himself donates half of all royalties received on his book City of Joy.

Profoundly moved on his visit to Udayan in 1988, Steve Waugh, the famous Australian cricketer, took the initiative of establishing a girls' wing by raining funds both in India and Australia. This wing now houses 84 happy and healthy girls.

Steve's involvement with Udayan was the outcome of the tireless efforts of Mrs. Shamlu Dudeja of the Calcutta Foundation. Shamlu has also been successful in organising a grant from the Japanese Consulate in Calcutta to build a new classroom building for the children.