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The All Bengal Women's Union maintains a Welfare Home and Primary School for under-privileged children in Calcutta. The union provides clothes, food, counseling and education to the children and encourages them to become self-reliant socially-responsible citizens. The direct beneficiaries of the project supported by Asha for Education, are 30 girls who come from very poor socio-economic backgrounds. Some are orphans, some have been abandoned and some are children of prostitutes; most children are seriously malnourished. In addition from January 2012, Asha is looking to provide support for setting up a community educational centre for 20-30 slum children who are first generational learners in order to help them bridge the gap to mainstream education.

• ABWU caters to children from Calcutta and neighbouring states so there is relentless pressure on school to increase the number of affected children who meet ABWUs objectives.
• There is relentless poverty around ABWU and the site visits have highlighted the inability of the project area to cater to everyone’s needs.
• ABWU has to compete with the private sector to recruit quality professional English language teachers who can effectively impart a good quality of education as per todays ever-changing needs.
• ABWU’s foucus continues to providing opportunities and equipment to vulnerable kids (especially counselling) with specialised attention; such children comprise a significant number in ABWU and therefore ABWU needs continual funding.
• Overall government collaboration with a clear vision has not been very consistent in infrastructural terms. Although ABWU has fostered a healthy relationship with the government the demand to cater for increasing number of vulnerable children means a more dedicated government effort is needed.
• There is a significant need of ABWU to showcase its project in model villages for the benefit of other aspiring projects; this need is against the background of already struggling to fulfil its primary objectives as stated above.
• ABWU needs to keep the founding mission and reputation of the original constitution and its history intact.

ABWU has had a number of success stories the most notable ones of which are below:

• Neelu, a tribal girl was sexually exploited by the village headman's son. Unable to bear the trauma she ran away from the village and found shelter at ABWU’s “HOME”. Proper counselling gave her a sense of protection and a job helped her to lead a life of dignity. She gave birth to a girl, who has in turn been given proper formal education. Having completed her Higher Secondary education with flying colours, she is now pursuing graduation. Neelu, is now an old woman who looks after the cooking section of the HOME.

• Rintu Das was abandoned by her family and was found lying on the streets physically wounded and sexually exploited. She was picked up by the police and sent to the remand home from where she came to ABWUs home. Here she was given proper care and shelter; also she was taught a few vocational skills so as to make her independent.

• Manju Dhar was thrown out by her relatives at Midnapur after she lost both her parents. She was sexually abused by the local people. Subsequently, rescued by the police she was sent to the remand home from where she came to ABWUs home. Since then she continues to live a peaceful life under the careful eye of ABWUs support staff.

1. Organic growth promoted by a dynamic management: ABWU has eight separate units: an adult home, children welfare home, old age home, primary school, production center, working women’s hostel, sponsorship committee & a nursery school. The Executive Committee is composed of 45 people all women. Secretaries & joint secretaries who informally head up the respective working committees run each of the eight units. People within the working committees tend to rotate amongst those eight units, and the office-bearers are strict about it. The rotation system is the key to both accountability and sustainability among office-bearers.
2. Vocational trainings are regularly organized for the residents of the Home, e.g. nurse's training, teacher's training, weaving, knitting and the like. All courses offered by ABWU are Diploma courses, and include needlework, block printing, weaving, counseling training, cooking and canteen management. These trainings are given within the premises of the Home. With the help of these trainings, the underprivileged girls are made self-reliant and can pursue a career, in order to earn a living for themselves.
3. A separate rehabilitation center is run by ABWU which consists of 4 sections
3.1. Weaving section: The department produces Dusters and floor swabs, table cloths, bed covers, table mats etc.
3.2. Tailoring section: This section specializes in finely embroidered children's cloths.
3.3. Block Printing section: The girls in this section print table cloths, luncheon sets, bedcovers and saris in exclusive designs.
3.4. Canteen and Catering section: "Suruchi" an all-women staff authentic Bengali restaurant is run with 22 girls. It serves typical Bengali dishes with seasonal delicacies. The girls are eligible to an annual medical allowance and a monthly salary. From time to time the girls from all the sections are taken out on excursions. Over the course of its 60-year history, Suruchi has proven to be profitable and financially contributes each month to other costs of All Bengal's shelter home.
4. A number of other vocational activities are performed by the children of ABWU: These include(but not limited to): Cut, Machine Knitting, Bakery, Spice , Painting, Soft Toys, Jute crafts etc

• To continue to meet the ever-increasing demands of vulnerable children and their families in and around the project area.
• To be able to enrol children from outside the city of Calcutta and provide them with needed support.
• To be able to combat the ever-growing threat of child-trafficking.
• To be able to support the needs of newly born babies who are often abandoned at ABWU’s doorsteps, and to be able to take them through to primary education
• To be able to provide consultancy to other educational projects as a model project