Ashraya Visit by Purba - October 2007

When I first entered Ashraya, the children were just gathering in the main room for the morning prayers. They were a bunch of happy kids and very curious. The whole time that we were sitting there they kept glancing back with a huge grin to see who the new person was. Over the next two days I got a lot of opportunities to interact with the children. Even without a lot of verbal communication (I don't speak Malayalam) we managed to have a lot of fun. They spoke Malayalam and i spoke English. It was very funny. Some of the senior students attending the school spoke English so when they were not busy with their school work they did a bit of translation for me. The teachers were also there to help me out with the language. As Praveen had rightly said it was an extremely humbling experience. We do tend to take so much for granted!

Apart from school they are also learning to go about their daily life on their own which is not very easy for a lot of them. There is a set routine for the day and at Ashraya they go about it in a very disciplined way. It is a long and difficult day for the teachers as well. The day starts at 6 in the morning and ends only after 10 at night and for the most part they are on their toes running around getting the kids organized. It definitely needs a lot of dedication.

Everybody was really talented. Owners of sweet voices and deft fingers flowing over the keyboard and the tabla or painting intricate designs on cloth or putting the wooden blocks in order of their sizes, they could do it all. Though some were shy and would rather watch me from far, most of them are very friendly and curious, which always is a good thing. Its the first step to learning, in my opinion.

There are a lot of things planned…above the present building they are planning to make a physiotherapy unit and some rooms for the teachers. Presently they do not have separate rooms to themselves. They will also be starting an early intervention unit soon. Sreekala undertook an intensive course on that and is back at Ashraya to start the unit. A lot of the children are benefiting from physiotherapy now but if they had access to it at a younger age the impact would have been way better. This unit is geared towards spreading awareness so that the treatment could be started earlier with better results. To do this, they would be visiting schools and involve the community in it. They are also building a hospital specializing in Gynecology. The children will be treated there as well and the earnings from it will be used to fund the maintenance of Ashraya. The infrastructure was almost complete when it hit a bureaucratic roadblock. Despite being assured by people in the government things don't seem to be going the right way. They are pursuing the matter and hopefully it will be settled soon. If this starts functioning Ashraya will be self sufficient for funds at least. Also, they are planning to open an artificial limb unit. Artificial limbs are expensive and they also have to be replaced often. For the children who need it, good quality artificial limb is important to make things easier for them. Apart from catering to the children at Ashraya the unit could also serve others with similar needs. This is an expensive project so it would take some time to raise the necessary funds for it.