ADP is celebrating 10 years since founding Marudyan UK, which provides ongoing funding for the work of Calcutta Marudyan and the Marudyan Society.

Since ADP began supporting Marudyan in 2012, they’ve been able to support the charity’s education programmes at the Marudyan Learning Centre in New Delhi, as well as funding and designing a new hostel for children in Orissa in 2019.

Thanks to generous donations and sponsorship, Marudyan was able to distribute a thousand pounds’ worth of meals to a large number of families over Christmas.

This included meals at the Marudyan Primary School, the Gurgaon School and the Raikia Hostel, chicken biryani for 100 children from the Teretti Bazaar Slum, and food packages for 30 of the very poorest families in the interior villages – along with funds to buy chickens.

Marudyan has distributed well over 2500 relief packages to Odisha locals, following the devastation of Cyclone Yaas. Working with other NGOs in the area, we identified families in need and provided essentials including food, soap, clothing and towels.

We used our hostel in Odisha – built to house and educate children living in rural communities – as a base for the relief effort.

On Saturday, we distributed food packages to the families of the 162 schoolchildren who attend the Marudyan Primary School in West Bengal. In addition, we helped another 25 economically challenged families with essential food supplies.

Marudyan has spent the winter distributing blankets across rural Odissa, alongside many meals and food packages. Many locals struggle to get hold of basic needs, and rely on distribution efforts such as this to get through the winter months.

In total, we handed out a total of 203 blankets across the region.

The Marudyan Hostel has opened in Raikia, Orissa, with 36 children enrolled. These children live in remote hill tribes, and will now be able to stay at the hostel during term time – allowing them to access education that they would otherwise have been unable to reach.