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The Star, 6th July 2009
Aid agency Goal has laid the foundations of a new centre for the poorest people of Calcutta who scavenge for food at a nearby dump. Officials told yesterday how they had started work on a resource centre to give vital medical care for thousands riddled with diseases and skin complaints that torment the dump's inhabitants.
A school is also being built on the site of Howrah Dump, where young and old compete with rats and pigs for scraps of food.
Goal volunteer Alison Cowzer described Howrah Dump as "hell on earth". "As bulldozers steamed in to pile the trash even higher, we watched in horror as bare-footed children narrowly escaped serious injury or even death to search the freshly-overturned rubbish for new material," she said.
The huge municipal dump is one of the major waste sites for India's second-biggest city.
It is also home to around 1,000 migrant workers.
© Irish Daily Star
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