Students: Katrin Gurtner, Laura Kopps
Location: Group work in Kolkata
Date: November, 2008
Type: Research project, student work, Charity Tourism

Background
Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata in 1950. For over forty five years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity’s expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries. By the 1970s she had become internationally famed as a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and helpless. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and India’s highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1980 for her humanitarian work. Her charity centered in Kolkata, it has not only attracted a very large number of volunteers to work in her “Homes for the Dying” and other places of welfare and relief, but also many other charity organizations that have been founded, partially supplementing her work, partially following alternative agendas and strategies: the Salvation Army, Calcutta Rescue, and countless other organizations. Kolkata has hence become a capitol of charity of sorts.

Themes
Just has the work of these charity organizations have been recognized as valuable and praiseworthy, their actions have also been criticized, both locally and on an international perspective. The marketing success of Mother Teresa, relies very much on the perpetuation of an image that represents the city as a place of misery, squalor, death and decay. Any improvement and modernization of Kolkatas representation in the media could be said to be counterproductive for the charities. They have therefore been very influential in fostering the prevalent perception of the suffering city, and its modes of representation. The work of the charity organizations has also drawn many ‘charity tourists’ to Kolkata, who are spending anything from a few days to full leap years doing volunteer work in the hospices. These charity tourists have developed their own culture of living, working, eating and moving in the city, with a very particular mental map of the city. They go to select restaurants and bars, sleep in a hostels that are recommended by word of mouth and have developed a certain clothing style. The world view is rather homogenous amongst those ‘charity tourists’ often failing to register the very contradictions, dilemmas and negative consequences that their work can trigger.

Project
Portray the spaces of charities and the spaces of charity tourism in the city. What kinds of spaces are being used? Can you find representations for the mental map of the charity tourists? What are the spatial, architectural and urbanistic consequences of these activities? Why have those charities been so successful, what is their marketing techniques? Can you represent the style, the visuals, the modes of representation of the charities and the charity tourists? How do the different charity organizations compare in their activities, their agendas and spaces they occupy? Can differences between local and foreign (Christian) organizations be perceived?