Olive meets kids corps helped

24 January 2023

Lt-Col Olive Lucas and some of the young people, above, from The Salvation Army's boys home in Kolkata, India, who received a range of personal items provided by Stafford corps.  Inset: The son of the Officer in Charge of the home shares some music with those same boys.

The Salvation Army Stafford's continued support of the less fortunate in Army homes in India has created a strong bond between the two.

Retired Lt-Col Olive Lucas, who is a member of the Stafford congregation, has experienced a decades-old love, respect and affinity with the people in the country - within the Army and those the church seeks to help with its social and welfare programs and missionary work.

It is through Olive's contacts in the country that the Stafford corps has formed its enduring "strong connection".

Olive said that the money donated by the corps was "doing great things".

Olive has regularly visited India throughout her life, particularly in retirement, having originally gone there as a young missionary teacher with her doctor husband, Walter.

In recent years, Stafford corps has been able to give money to various projects there raised through events such as Christmas Day offerings and the annual end-of-year women's coffee and dessert night.

Olive returned recently from her latest visit to the country where she met some of the young people who benefitted from money donated by the corps raised at a pre-COVID coffee and dessert night.

The money had been sent to the Army's Kolkata Boys Home in Kolkata, the capital of the eastern state of West Bengal, and was used to buy personal items such as towels, soap, toothpaste, clothing, combs and books. 

While Olive was there, the young people were returning after the Christmas holidays, having returned to their village homes for the break, and was able to meet some of them and tell them how Stafford corps had helped them.

She said the money had only recently been spent as the home and school had been closed for two years during the height of the COVID pandemic and the young people had returned to their villages.

Some of that money also went to help the men of the Kolkata Aged Mens Home and Olive was able to visit there, too.

The most recent coffee and dessert night has raised money for the victims and those caught up in the war in the Ukraine.