Calcutta Rescue grew out of the work of Dr Jack Preger, a British doctor, who in 1979 was passing through Kolkata and felt compelled to use his medical skills to treat a few of the hundreds of thousands of desperately poor people living on the streets of the city with no access to healthcare.

Today it  provides high quality medical care, social support and basic education to tens of thousands of people in Kolkata and rural parts of West Bengal.  It operates four urban clinics, several rural clinics, an outreach programmes, and a special HIV/AIDS programme.  It runs two elementary schools for 300 students, as well as supporting over 100 students in formal schools. It also provides employment for patients via a handicrafts project, runs several arsenic filtration projects and works with other development organisations and the national and state government on health and education initiatives. 

Support comes from a network of western Support Groups and individuals without whom Calcutta Rescue could not provide its services to the poor, sponsor patients with major medical requirements or educate street children.

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Calcutta Rescue founder Doctor Jack Preger in a Kolkata slum, June 2008

Calcutta Rescue Fund  

Health, Education and Hope