Swanthana - Haven of Little Angels

If you have a heart, it will bleed once you read the first few lines.

The Just born ammu was thrown in the waste bin behind a hotel one night. By next morning, she was almost eaten up by stray dogs and crows. Fortunately for her she was rescued. But due to that ordeal, she is paralyzed waist down.

There is one girl who was dumped in the waste bin in a railway station. She was rescued but acute malnutrition had left her mentally and physically disabled.

Another girl was hit by an iron rod by her dad as he was trying to hit her mom. The kid who was healthy is now mentally and physically disabled and has been abandoned by her parents.

These were the sights we saw at Swanthana, an orphanage for Mentally and physically challenged girl children.

Words cannot describe the agony we, the members of Feed the Nation went through watching these kids, holding them and trying to make them smile.

A lot of new members had joined us for the visit. Our Project Coordinator, Vineeth had done a pilot visit to ascertain the requirements. They needed Clothes, Diapers as all kids attend the natures call as is, and food. Mails were circulated to members to arrange for these needs. Apart from this our new member Rubina had arranged lunch for all the inmates and FTN members.

Being the Republic day, the Nuns had arranged for flag hoisting. We had nothing much to do to entertain the kids than carrying them around, and moving them around in their wheel chairs. The kids’ happiness was over whelming. They wanted to move around, and the moment anyone was taken back to the building, we could hear the screams to go out again.

It was an appealing sight. The privilege each of us enjoy to be able to do what we want, in knowing what we are doing. And here is a bunch of kids, at the mercy of others for no fault of theirs. Their only fault is probably that they survived their birth, and sadly were born to selfish and heartless parents, who left them to the mercy of the world, so that they may live a peaceful life. I'm very sure they wouldn’t have slept a single night peacefully, after the day they decided to dump their bundle of joy into a waste bin, for the stray dogs to feast on her.

The home is run amazingly well. The Nuns led by Sis Regina , takes extremely good care of the kids. They hardly have any external support, and hence are not able to accommodate more kids. The facility now has 29 kids and they are willing to take more needy kids, but are short of space. They are looking forward for a big time sponsor to build some extra rooms for them. On a day to day basis, they need clothes, diapers, food, toys etc for the kids. We want to associate with them long time on these needs.

As we parted, most of us had very heavy hearts. As I shared this with my friends, many came forward to provide more help. Most of us cannot take away our minds of that little ammu who captured our thoughts.

My Daughter, Anandita summed it up later that evening, when she told me “ Lets go there again daddy, ammu was so happy when she was with us” .

We would be going there soon, may be for Ammu's 1st birthday which is in february.

-By Manoj