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.
