A responsible tourism day in Kolkata

Throught this day tour you will support disabled artisance of Silence Cooperative, an Organisation partner of Altromercato experience. Silence’s most important objective is to let disabled people (mainly deaf people) get a technical education in order to work and to earn their own livings. Everything started in 1976 when a handful of deaf people formed a little informal group with their creative skill-sets and lots of dreams to achieve an economic and spiritual self-sufficiency. Their dedication and a bold initiative to create hand-painted greeting cards attracted a group of social activists. And together, they formed a society that registered as an NGO in 1979. For the first few years Silence depended on the well-wishers and the infrastructures investment agencies for the procurement of a workshop for the artisans), an emporium (a retail outlet) and investment in tools and equipments. Silence is now able to face its expenses for production, staff and property with its own steadily growing sales revenues. Silence has got its own education centre in cooperation with the University of Jadavpur (Training Institute), where artistic handicraft, trade and IT are taught so that many people can also find a job in other organizations. Silence shares the profits with the artisans and provide them with a welfare system and with health insurance.