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.

Together We Can Make A Difference

Last month I got a Facebook post in which someone has posted a Tamil Newspaper article about a girl who was looking for financial help for her higher studies. This girl has scored 1121 out of 1200 in +2 examinations. She lost her father during her childhood. She worked part time during her +2 and was still able to score a good percentage. Her phone number was also mentioned in the article.

There are times when most of us would have seen such messages and have either ignored or blindly forwarded to others. We may think that our duty is over once we forward it. If anyone really wants to help, they will do so after reading the forward message. And the message may blindly get forwarded or ignored by everyone else. But what if you know for sure that a given information you got is true and you have a chance to help such a person ?

I'm sure everyone would have felt better when we have helped someone in the past and saw their real expression which truly comes from their heart. I've been helped by different people during my childhood. I have always felt each one of them made a difference in my life. My parents were in a position to support for my studies. I'm not sure if I would be enjoying the current life style if I was born in a poor family and was given no education. Possibly not. That makes me feel that I'm also responsible to help out those people who are really in need of such help.

So, instead of blindly sharing the post, I wanted to make sure that the article was indeed intended to be true and the contact number was right. So I called up the number and spoke to the girl and asked about the details in the Newspaper. She said that she was really looking for help to continue with her higher studies. I mentioned that I will verify the details mentioned in the newspaper article and, if they turn out to be true, will be helping her. For the benefit of others who can't read Tamil, I translated the Newspaper article in English and posted this in Facebook last month.

I went to Coimbatore last week and met her well-wisher 'Mrs. Yamni' to verify those details. Her well-wisher confirmed that the girl has got admission in PSG college and joined B.com First year. For the time being, Mrs. Yamni has paid the fee of Rs.36,200(I checked the bill) to the college so that this girl doesn't have to waste an year without enough financial support. Mrs. Yamni was able to collect Rs.21,000 through her contacts and also from the volunteers who sponsored after seeing the Newspaper article. The remaining Rs.15000 is yet to be recovered.

Note: I've removed the Facebook post about the Newspaper article from my timeline as the post had some phone numbers. Also, the girl's  classmates may potentially see this article. It may be uneasy for the girl if their friends are aware of her financial situation. That is the reason I didn't mention the name of the girl in this article.

Mrs. Yamni showed me the bills and marksheets of other students she is supporting the last few years. She is interested in social service and has been doing it for the last few years. She is looking for volunteers to help her out in such initiatives.

There are times we all think about helping out the people who are really in need of help. But we may not be sure if they really deserve the help or just making money out of our sympathy. There are times we think of finding a proper channel to extend a helping hand to those deserving humans. I believe Mrs. Yamni is potentially one such channel.

I also got a couple of calls from BalaJothi(http://balajothi.org/). It is a center for the disabled. The volunteers who called me said, "These children are not orphans and have a family. Some of them are differently abled and some are mentally challenged. Some of them are not even in a position to realize that they are being helped by people like us. This center helps them out by sponsoring wheel chairs, providing insurance etc to the differently abled". I haven't visited this place yet. I have told the volunteers that I will visit the place once and help them out if I am convinced with their non-profit organization. I'll be visiting this place soon. If it turns out to be a genuine non-profit organization, we can definitely help them out even if it is a minor contribution.

Please contact me(comment in this post, send me a mail or call me) if any of you are interested to be part of this. You can also reach me if you know of anyone who is GENUINELY in need of help. I may not be able to solve everyone's problem. But I will pass on the word to others who may be able to help.

TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE :-)

Beware of "Cash Miscounting Fraud Attempts"

I don't know how many of us are already a victim of this fraud and is not even aware of it. I found a repeated cheating attempt in Petrol bunks today and thought I should let others know of this. 

Today I went to a petrol bunk and filled petrol for Rs.250. I gave him a Rs. 1000 and then a Rs.50 note. So he owes me Rs.800. He took the change from his bag and counted 3  Rs.100 currency notes and a single Rs.500 currency note in front of me by moving the currency from one hand to another, folded the currency notes and gave it to me. I unfolded them and found that there are only 2 Rs.100 currency notes(instead of 3) and a single Rs.500 currency note. Once I counted them, he immediately took another Rs.100 note and gave it to me and moved on to the next person immediately.

He has attempted a simple miscounting of the currencies which is not observed by most of us. Most of us have the tendency to just get the cash and put it in our wallet without counting, if it is counted by the other person in front of us. It is easy for anyone to count the same currency note twice by moving the hands rapidly creating a fake impression that the currency is transferred from one hand to another(even if it is not).

I faced a similar situation in another petrol bunk few months back when I asked for change for a Rs.500 note. He counted with Rs.100 notes by moving the currency note from one hand to another 5 times and finally when I counted it had just 4 notes. When he saw me checking the amount, he took another Rs.100 and gave it to me.

There are more chances of oversight when we are in a hurry. If a person is safely able to play this game to 10 persons in a single day, he can get Rs.1000 per day which adds up to Rs.30,000 per month.  Although both the  experiences I had on this attempt happened in  petrol bunks, this is potentially happening in many different places where money is floating around on crowded areas. It is better for us to be more alert to avoid such incidences.

If you want to try this, take 3 Rs.100 currency notes in your left hand. Using your right hand, take the first note from the left hand. Quickly, move your right hand once again towards the left hand but instead of actually taking the next note, just move your right hand away with the previous single Rs.100 currency. Nobody can easily observe that you haven't taken the second currency. You can perfect this miscounting in less than 2 minutes training.  I'm writing this to create an awareness of such cheat attempts, not to encourage you to do the same trick ;-)

I decided to complain to the person in-charge if it ever happens again in any public services. If we all start to raise voice on such incidences, such fraud attempts will start to reduce.

Please be aware of this and be careful whenever you deal with money. There are numerous faces for greediness and you never know how many faces the strangers you are dealing with has. So, "be smart and be alert".