Together We Can Make A Difference - Part 2 - BalaJothi - Home For The Special Children

"Hi Rahul", I said enthusiastically and patted his shoulder.
Rahul was so happy to see me. He shook hands with me and continued to enjoy the music that was played in TV. He held the remote control in his hand and frequently changed the channels and continued to laugh at each of the programme being played in those channels.

"I think he likes you. If not, he doesn't shake hands and ask you to sit next to him", said Rahul's father. He is a 12 year old kid. Wheat brown colored little boy with a matching height for his age. He continues to wear a 70mm smile most of the times if he enjoys something.

Rahul is so systematic and doesn't like any changes to his system. He likes to take the same kind of food items, likes to wear the same kind of dress and so on. If anything is changed in his system, he can't tolerate it easily. He can't speak, was on wheel chairs for few years and can't even swallow the food without someone making him swallow. Rahul is a special child.

He is surrounded by loved ones from his own family. His father who is an Engineer by graduation had quit his job for him. His grand parents who were in Saudi Arabia with a good salary  and life style sacrificed everything and came back to India to take care of him. When Rahul was diagnosed to be a special child at the age of 7 months, the news changed the life of a whole family. Instead of just taking care of their own beloved kid, the family decided to take care of other kids who are special in different ways. That single thought gave birth to "BalaJothi - A Home For The Special Children". It has given HOPE for many other families who have special children. And everything started with this little Kid. RAHUL, is indeed, a special kid.

 When I heard about this non-profit organization, I wanted to visit this place and check if they are really in need of help and are really helping the society. I met this family on a Saturday and heard their whole story and the kind of service they are involved in. Some of the stories are hard to digest. This is a separate world that is unknown to most of us. There are few children who are not even wanted by their own parents too.

This school is running based on donations and are looking for help from the society to continue their service. Kids will be in this school for around 4 hours. They are being taught yoga, physiotherapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, activities for daily living(such as brushing, bathing, toilet training, dressing and eating), basic language and math skills, vocational training and stimulating activities such as arts, dance, music & yoga. As regular humans, we take most of these things for granted. But these are required to be taught to these special kids.

They have brought good progress in the lives of some of the kids. Rahul was on Wheel chair for few years and is able to walk on his own. Some of the kids learnt to dance. Other kids are being trained in basic skills that will help them to take care of themselves in the mainstream life outside their unique world.





When I left the place I decided to help them out in any way I could. I started to pass on the message to my friends through calls, blog etc and asked for the interested ones to join hands. I got immediate response from some of them. On a different note, I also got contributions from 2 of my friends to sponsor for the education of a college student.) and was able to collect a sum of Rs. 54000. That was an amount I hadn't imagined would be possible in such a short notice. The urge to serve the community was already established in most of us and that made it happen.

BalaJothi had invited me(as well) for their Independence Day celebration. I and my friend - Shanmugha Kumar, went for the celebration and handed over the cheque to them during the function. They were too surprised and speechless for a moment to get the donation. This money is going to help those little kids who may not even realize that they are being helped.




Below are some of the snaps taken at the Independence Day celebration at BalaJothi. There were different performances by both special kids and Volunteers.

When I left the Home, I felt real INNER PEACE with the feeling that I have been part of something good. And the whole credit goes to all those who have contributed for the donation and passed on the message to others and helped in getting the donation.

Website of the HOME -> http://balajothi.org/index.html

Their vision is to build a residential home with all the needed facilities for the special kids. If you are interested to help them out, please reach out to them(Contact details are in their website). You can also call me anytime if you need my assistance.

Your contribution can be in terms of money, time or even passing on the message to other potential volunteers or your company's CSR. Every bit of help of we provide is going to be a stepping stone for those little kids.

We spend few hundreds in Coffee Days, Pizza Huts, cancellation of bus tickets. Those ignored hundreds will have better worth if donated atleast once in a month to those special kids.

Note: I will try to post similar community initiatives when I come across any of them. Let me know if you are aware of any such initiatives too.