Place 1: Missionary Charity.
Date: 31st December 2005
Team Pankhudi : Adept, Sumanth, Ramesh, Nithin, Harini, Sailaja, Shilpa.
We the team Pankhudi , reached Missionaries Of Charity by 10:00 am. This time the place seemed to be a bit deserted. All the kids were busy watching movie “sye”(even I glued to it for a minute or so:D), some kids were off to school. But, still little Anish was lying on the bed, same allergic kid(she seemed to be a little better this time)and small 1 year old kids just playing around. Again we were into our routine `mantra’, distributing chocolates. Harini took the snaps of the interiors of the orphanage. There were some 4-5 foreign visitors who were sponsoring lunch. Even these people were playing with thekids, they seemed to be very generous and kind hearted (it seems they have donated 1000-2000$ that day to Missionaries Of Charity). I’ve heard from harini that MoC is the most funded place, don’t know why such conditions prevail over there.We spent some 1hr with the kids, we then approached sister.
The chat with the sister was disheartening though, let me put the actual conversation here…
Team Pankudi: How can we help these kids here?
Sister: People like you donate clothes, soaps, hair oils, shampoos, funds etc.These institutions do not get any funding from government.
Team Pankhudi : Don’t you get funding from private organizations?
Sister: Yaa we get, vistors who come here also donate things.
Team Pankhudi : How frequently do the doctors visit?
Sister: The doctor comes her regularly, once a week.In between also if there are any kids sick he comes immediately.
Team Pankhudi : Is he a govt. doctor?
Sister: No, he is a private practioner. He is coming here since the past 25 years. He knows every child here, their health conditions etc. He treats well.
Team Pankhudi : Can we hire a private doctor to get that allergic kid treated?
Sister: That child is allergic by birth,she is being medicated from the day she’s been brought to this home. Alopathy medicines dint work out well, she is into homeopathy now. She is improving now. She cant be cured completely as she is allergic by birth.
Team Pankhudi : What about that kid Anish?
Sister: That child is having problem with the spinal cord and he is mentally and physically disabled. He is also being taken care.
Team Pankhudi : What about that child sitting at the door?
Sister: That girl is also mentally retarded and blind.
Team Pankhudi : She seems to be mal-nourished?
Sister: She doesn’t take in food properly, her senses are also notproper.Still we try to feed her to the maximum.
Sister: …we change the bed sheets etc very regularly as small kids are there here.
Team Pankhudi : Thank you sister, we’ll visit this place again.
Overall I can say, sister was always ready with a convincing,plausible reply to whatever we’ve asked. I feel there is anembezzlement of funds. Only one doctor attending the kids for the past 25 years????? Anyway I think we can just donate things here, nothing else can be done. We students can’t get into issues as such, legally. We shall not question the Organisation, but try and bring a change by exposing such places to Organisations which can take Initatives on big fronts and also deal legally if needed.
Place 2: Devnar Blind School
Date: 31st December 2005
Team Pankhudi: Adept, Sumanth, Ramesh,Nithin, Harini.
We reached Devnar Blind School at 12:30 am. We talked to the principal, he said their school is the “Best Blind School” in India. This place is well funded. It being a school, there are children of all age groups. There are about 255 students and 37 teachers. There is a well-furnished computer lab. They wanted us to guide the students in learning the computer basics. We can help them I believe. This was a brief visit; we’ll be visiting the place again after their vacation (16th Jan)
