Anugrah

Who are we as Christians? What does being a Christian really mean?

It’s not just about singing the songs; it’s not just about saying you believe in Jesus. 

It’s what we do and how we live that shows our faith and our way of life.

That is my demonstration of faith.

This weekend, we had the opportunity to go on a Christian retreat to Rajpur. We left on Thursday after school and drove two hours to the retreat center.

When we arrived, we went to worship and chose our mission activities. I joined a group of 5 girls to go to the Herbertpur hospital in Dehradun, specifically to visit their day centers for handicapped children.

The Anugrah program (named after the boy that started the program) is remarkable. With very limited resources these people, mostly parent volunteers, come together and offer rehabilitation and support for parents and children alike. They do extensive work in the villages where the child comes from, so that not only the child is treated, but the community and the family are educated about the child, and taught how to help the child deal with their differences.

After learning about the history of the program, we divided into two groups: Hindi speakers and English speakers. I, as an English speaker, went with our leader Suja, Aya and Ms Fabi to the center in Dehradun.

We met 5 children (names omitted) there: 3 boys with cerebral palsy, one boy with autism, and a girl with an undiagnosed mental handicap. We arrived during “activity time” where the kids would sit and do things with their hands. They seemed very excited when we got there, greeting us with “Namaste” and huge smiles. The mother volunteering there for the day got one of the boys to demonstrate how he had just learned to walk. He stood up proudly and walked around the room.

Another one of the boys, the only one with a wheelchair (but not the only one in need of one) was really fun. He kept showing off, popping wheelies in his chair out in the hall. Ms Suja told us they are trying to send him to school, because he has the capacity for it. She told us a story about how he had mastered the ability to put a pen cap on a pen: his arms were so out of control, he straps down his arm holding the pen and moves his other arm towards it. It took him almost a year and a half to master this ability.

Boxes of stuff to do!

Legos: no matter where you go in the world, they will find the sole of your foot.

After the activity time, we all played a game, a bit like “hot potato”. Ms Suja played some music on her phone, and we passed around a stuffed animal. If the music stopped while you were holding the toy, you had to get up and dance in the circle. Lots of fun, and all the kids got really into it. 

After that, we cleaned up the playroom and went on a tour of the facilities. They had a couple of different rooms suited to different purposes. One room was empty but for a few mats on the floor and walls: this was for the boys with cerebral palsy to play around in without fear of getting hurt. 

There was also a darkened room with a fiber-optics cable ball and different textures taped on the wall. This was for autistic children, different things to help entertain them. 

Finally, we got to see the activity room, where there were a variety of different things. There was an exercise ball for the kids to practice sitting and balancing. There were plastic cricket bats. There were checkerboards, and stuffed animals. There was an exercise machine for the boys with cerebral palsy to stretch out there arms. The boy in the wheelchair counted up to 100 of these, in English too!

This is the "Choice board". Because the kids are mostly illiterate, and have a lot of difficulty communicating, they can simply go up to the board in the activity room and choose the image of something they would like to do. They then put the image next to their assigned slot and a worker will get out the activity for them.

This is Aya and one of the boys with cerebral palsy. He's in the "standing-up machine", a relatively simple device, two planks joined together with cushions on the inside to help him stay upright for long periods of time. Here, he and Aya are playing on a checkerboard

After this, we went back to Herbertpur center for some debriefing with Jubin. She explained a little more about the details of the program, how they do village visits. I am totally amazed at the resilience of these women, dealing with enormous difficulties in rural India. They have to deal with some crazy superstitions, age-old prejudice, and misunderstandings widespread in the community.

This is a very admirable group, doing as much as they can with the little they have.

If you are interested in helping out the Anugrah program in any way, please contact me at emilysteers@woodstock.ac.in, and I can put you in touch with the lovely ladies that we met last weekend.