When Man ignored God's Children

Wasim and Anwar have parents in Dubai. Their parents visit them only once in a while. Some of their friends' parents do not visit them at all. But they do not know why. They do not care why. And they cannot reason out why.

Can you imagine a 5 year old being deprived of the sweetness of childhood, just because his father left him and his mother and never cared? And can you imagine a gynecologist leaving out her mentally challenged boy but taking the other two normal girls to social gatherings; just because she cannot handle him in public and feels he is a burden? How do you think such children can be given the love they are denied of?

This was a school of a different kind. It is called the Sri Vidhya Centre for the Special Children, and I visited it today as a volunteer for Aashayein Foundation as a part of its Sunday breakfast activity. The breakfast served today was Bombay toast, Idly and Wada.This center caters to the mentally challenged children between the ages of 3 yrs ? 40 yrs, and has completed a decade of its service in 2009.Working with a motto of service to special children is service to God, the centre founded by Mrs Shanti Venkat and her husband, has been taking care of special children who are either semi-orphans or children who have been disowned by their parents, and have been providing the kids with special care and training, with medication and a well run and maintained hostel that caters to all the childrens needs. Their mission is to impart intensive specialized training to students with mental retardation and other cognitive disabilities.

Speaking to them and spending some time with the children, I realized how difficult it is to run such a centre successfully with dedication, overcoming all odds, and most importantly, having tons of patience to deal with the kids. The kids were happy and smiling, yeah in their own other world, but have been trained and nurtured so well that they can understand, obey and listen to what has been said to them. These children also have special abilities like drawing, painting and dancing, and are also proficient in candle making. The albums which the center incharge showed me, where many photographs depicting their performances on various occasions in government functions and their annual functions, was nothing short of a dance performance by normal trained dancers.

The center has over 130 students and 26 staff members, including teaching and non teaching staff.

Me clicking photographs did get them interested, so I got down to click some photographs with them. Though all the photographs I clicked today were special in my collection, this fellow stands out. Unfortunately I do no remember his name, but his eyes shone like none else. This blip is dedicated to him