Supporting India - Message from David

May 2021

Today I have been talking to Mr Chatterjee - he is our man in India. He has a cotton and jute factory in the town Serampore in West Bengal that in normal times supplies many products to AW. 

Right now the factory is closed, the town is in lockdown and many of the workers are effected by covid one way or another.

From what he tells me it is very bad there.. even his two sisters contracted covid, but have now fortunately recovered.  However many friends and local people he knows have not, the Ganges is nearby and it's true what you hear about dead bodies drifting by. It was only February last year that Tomas and I were there, we took an early morning ferry with the locals just for the experience.  See pictures below.  So after many visits to this part of India we feel a close connection to the lovely gentle dignified people of this area.

Lots of readers and customers have been asking me if they can help with donations, which is really, really kind. Hence my call to Mr Chatterjee. 

So I asked Mr Chatterjee if he had funds.. could he do some good?  He said now that his family are OK (and he has been lucky enough to get a jab) he can and will focus on helping others. He explained to me that oxygen is the big problem - the hospitals don't have enough so families buy their own supplies to take with them to the wards. Of course those without work cannot afford to pay the market price. A cylinder now costs about £200 - and Chatterjee says he has a contact at a factory that can do refills for about £5. 

Every £250 will effectively help one person survive this dreadful disease. Please give whatever you can afford, even £5 will enable a refill of a tank.  And every penny will go where it is needed most.

I have set up a Go Fund Me page.. Here is the link.

On behalf of the people of Serampore, thank you.

David