Laura Price founded blossomy in 2004 when she traveled to India as a volunteer for a community development project in Kolkata. She found a placement with the Sanlaap organization that provided shelter to girls who were the victims of sex trafficking. Arriving with a laptop, Laura hoped to teach basic computer skills. What she soon discovered was that it would be  a much bigger challenge than first anticipated. The girls did not speak English and they had very little exposure to computers.

The computer class began with 10 girls and eventually led to the building of an independent computer training school for the shelter home. In time, Laura partnered with Uddami, a local NGO in Kolkata who would take the program to the next level by providing the curriculum and staff.

Over the years, blossomy has partnered with others who have donated not only their skills, talent and money but also their celebrity. On one such occasion, blossomy partnered with the popular Bengali rock band Cactus, who agreed to perform a private concert for the girls at the Shelter home.

In 2005, blossomy was approached by Tanmoy Bose, world renown musician, to help survivors of human trafficking. Together, Tanmoy and Laura created the Restoration of Innocence program. Tanmoy performed a concert and held a press conference to help raise funds needed to buy computers for the school. He also performed an private concert for the girls of Sanlaap . The well known Indian actress June Malia also participated in the event at the shelter home.

In 2006, blossomy organized a “day at the cinema” and treated over 200 children and staff members to a film, popcorn, candy and a soda.

In 2007, blossomy offered it’s first “Yoga and English ‘Ulpan’ camp”. 10 girls from the shelter home in Kolkata traveled 300 miles by train to  to study yoga from esteemed Iyengar method teachers Rajiv and Swati Chanchani. blossomy.org also arranged for a teacher from Australia to teach the Israeli language intensive style Ulpan method  in English.  A black belt in Jujitsu from the U.S. also participated in the program to teach the girls self-defense. The group toured the holy city of Rishikesh to swim in the Ganga as well as explored the hilltop town of Mussourie and visited an ancient Buddhist temple.

Our most recent program was very exciting. Tanmoy Bose, generously offered to once again to help survivors of trafficking.  Tanmoy taught percussion to over 20 children from 3 different shelter homes in Kolkata. The program included dance and painting instruction to children vulnerable to trafficking. On Christmas Day, the camp  culminated in a “grande finale” performance at Swabhumi, a    well respected cultural heritage venue in Kolkata, India where the children performed with Tanmoy’s band, Taal Tantra - a world music group which includes musicians from around the globe. Many special guests performed as well to support the event.

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Laura Price