The Blue Turtle Centre first opened its doors in August 2012 and is located in central Kolkata, India, one of the poorest areas in the world. It is an education centre registered as a NGO.

Over 70 underprivileged children attend The Blue Turtle Centre. Our students are tutored in English by four teachers and a coordinator, reporting to our head director, Marina Lai, who runs the center on a voluntary basis. Our aim is to give these children the chance to study and receive help with their homework in a secure, warm and safe environment. We also sponsor some of the poorest and most dedicated students, enabling them to pay their local school and tuition fees, so they can remain in further education.

We had a dream: to have a wonderful library filled with lots of exciting books that the children of all ages could use to help and inspire them. Dr. Paul Pocock and his wife Sharon from Vancouver, Canada, helped us to realize this dream. With their team of staff and customers at Smiles by Pocock, they organized a book collection which brought together more than 2,300 books! They arrived at Calcutta’s port all the way from Canada last October. After being stuck at customs for several months (this is India!), we finally received them in March, thanks to Marina’s husband Georgy’s grit and determination dealing with the local customs officials. Excitment and screams of joy could be heard when the books finally arrived at the Centre!Children, young and old, were amazed and now thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to borrow and read from our new library. We are currently organizing and expanding our library so that all the people in the neighborhood will be able to use and enjoy it. Thank you again to all those generous people who helped make this beautiful dream come true: Dr. Pocock and his team, his patients, Georgy and the Taiwan community of Calcutta.