Vivekananda Sevakendra-O-Sishu Uddyan (VSSU) was created in 1983 to empower remote riverside villages and vulnerable rural communities in the district of South 24 Parganas in West Bengal, India. VSSU works with people whose lives are dominated by extreme poverty (37.2% of the district population lives below the poverty line), illiteracy, disease and other handicaps. With multifaceted development interventions, VSSU strives to bring about positive changes in the quality of life of the poor people. VSSU firmly believes and is actively involved in building the social, economic and human capacity of the poor.