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Compassion and Empowerment
Atma Nirbhar – Ek Challenge
By Kaushik Das, Projects Coordinator
It was started in 1996 in Guwahati, by a small group of like-minded friends and well-wishers, who wanted to do something in their small way to make our world a better place. It is a judicious blend of Gandhian simplicity, frugal operating systems and a professional attitude.
At present, the Organization is operating two projects:
1. ‘Atma Nirbhar – Ek Challenge’ ( 1996 ) is an economic rehabilitation and empowerment project for the disabled.
2. ‘Spreading Sunshine’ (1998): The primary objective of ‘Spreading Sunshine’ is to build ‘bridges’ between the civil society, and, pockets of societal neglect. It is to improve the quality of life of the disadvantaged and marginalized people living in residential social welfare institutions, by providing them with ‘outside assistance’, mobilized from the public. Through this program, many residential social welfare institutions have received school bags, notebooks, clothes, footwear, furniture, fans etc. In the states of Assam, Meghalaya and Nagaland, 13 residential institutions and around 850 inmates benefit from this project.
As AFNA is supporting us with the ‘Spreading Sunshine’ project, please allow me to share a brief history of this endeavor.
This project was thought of, way back in 1988. At that time I was working as a ‘Tea Taster’ in a tea broking company in Guwahati. My friend Papu Dutta Choudhury’s wife Sapna Bora (Bhonti ) was working in a Primary Health Centre near Guwahati. One day Bhonti mentioned about a very tragic case. A six year old village girl near Guwahati lost her eyesight because her mother did not even have Rs. 1 for the bus fare to bring her daughter to the nearby Primary Health Centre to get free repeat doses of Vitamin D tablets. Just think once again about the enormous consequences of the lack of just Rs. 1 : the girl became blind for the rest of her life because her mother did not have the money for the bus fare. It saddened us deeply. We felt that we must take some action to help such people. Bhonti and I decided to start an organization to deal with such cases of emergency. We named it ‘Punya’. As luck would have it, around that time, Papu and Bhonti suddenly shifted to USA. ( both of them are presently in California, Sapna is sister of Debojit Bora of AFNA ).In 1996 I left my job to devote full time to voluntary work, to work for the weakest sections of our society. We started ‘Atma Nirbhar – Ek Challenge’. It was a project which provided very intensivesupport to the beneficiaries, therefore, the number of beneficiaries was small. Also, as planned, our project could not expand due to various factors. As I was not satisfied with the small numbers of
beneficiaries of our project, our Managing Committee agreed to start the ‘Punya’ project in 1998 --- of helping people living in the residential social welfare institutions. Most people living in residential social welfare institutions feel very depressed because they are very cut-off / isolated from the society, within four walls of their institutions --- after a year or two, even their own relatives stop visiting them. We would visit the institutions and spend some time with the residents. We used to always carry some snacks to share with the residents. They used to enjoy our visits because we did not visit them only on particular occasions like the Independence Day, Republic Day or the 2nd October. Neither were we more interested in taking photographs, with the club banners in the background. We just wanted to share some time with the residents and wanted to know how we could be of help to them. If they wanted anything ( mostly educational writing materials, school bags, school uniforms, clothes, footwear, recreational materials etc. ), we tried to mobilize the items from the ‘giving’ public.
Let me share with you just two experiences.
Once we had asked the residents of the State Home for Women, Jalukbari, to let us know their ‘wish list’. They requested us to take them for an ‘outing’ to the Balaji Mandir and to the Airport. Sr. Clara arranged two school buses from St. Mary’s School during the school hours on a week day, while, Mahila Mangal, a ladies club, agreed to contribute the ‘puri subzi and mithai’. It needed a lot of
planning and co-ordination, but everything went off well. At the end of the day when we asked the residents if they enjoyed the day - one of them replied that this was the first time in six years that they had stepped out of the gate of their institution ! Many of us could not control our tears when we heard this. Very often the residents come to think of us as their well wishers and ‘real’ friends. A few years back, a resident was admitted to the Medical College in a very serious condition. Gradually her condition worsened. Her last wish was to get gifts of fruits like she saw other patients around her getting from their relatives. So she asked her attendant (a girl from her institution) to contact us. We visited her the same evening and, as requested, gave her some fruits. Two days later the patient passed away. It was a very sad and humbling experience -- feeling that we could do so little for her.
In the next report, we will share with you how the name ‘Punya’ first changed to ‘Reaching Out’ and finally to ‘Spreading Sunshine’.
During the second quarter, from April to June, 2008, support was shared with Asom Sishu Sadan ( Jalukbari ), Snehalaya ( Dhirenpara ), State Home for Women, Jyoti Snehalaya ( for young girls --- there are 5 Snehalayas in Guwahati ), Vagrant’s Home & Observation Centre, Ashalaya, Jyoti Niketan School for the Blind, Noonmati Sishu Mangal Kendra, Ausilium Ashalaya and Snehalaya Drop-in-Shelter.
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