This is one of our new cases. Aaliya’s father died 6 years ago. Her mother left home. Aaliya was being looked after by her grandmother and uncle in Mahuva. It was a bad situation for her as until 8 years old she didn’t go to school as she was the little helper in their house. Now she is at Rajkot Hostel and studying at one of the best schools there.
She contacted local community leaders in sheer distress and frustration as she had wasted precious years getting her son “treated” at a religious shrine. The treatment regimen included offering prayers, wearing blessed amulets and wrist threads, and performing other rituals. Unfortunately, none of the treatments were based on science. In return, Aminaben had to work at the shrine and do tasks like washing, cleaning, and other household chores. Needless to say, her son showed no improvement but got worse.
Another reason she approached the community leaders was to seek help for her. While performing one of the chores, she fell down and injured her hip. This required hospital treatment and extensive home care, which the shrine was unable to or wanted to provide.
Shukhar Foundation has enrolled her in our Welfare Program and admitted the son to Astha for his mental condition.
During our 2011 visit to Gujarat, when Priya was 6yrs old and Lucky was 4 yrs old, their mother came from her village to meet with us in Porbandar. She wanted us to give her a promise that we would look after her children. God only knows why she was pleading and wanted Razia to promise her. We agreed to do so not knowing that in a few months, she would die of extensive 90% burns on her body by being too near to a fire in their house. Priya was admitted to upper KG when she began our program. Their father passed away on November 15th, 2018 he had TB. Now her grandparents look after her.
Lucky began in Kindergarten in our education program and eventually both of them have moved on to different hostels/schools. Last month, we moved Lucky to a much better school grade 8 in Junagadh. He wishes to become a Software Engineer in the future.
It is heart warming to follow the successes of children who have gone through so much hardship and remain resilient.
Ahmedabad council first approached us to give help to Kulsumben Wadiwalla as a cow kicked her son and his wife was pregnant with Mahek. After giving birth to Mahek, in 2007, her mom left Mahek behind with her mother-in-law, Kulsumben.
When Mahek turned 5, Kulsumben approached us to put Mahek in school. Kulsumben’s daughter from Rajkot helped raise Mahek to age 5. We took Mahek into the Maliya Hatina Hostel and English medium school.
Meanwhile, Kulusmben’s daughter became ill, and Kulsumben moved to Rajkot to help her daughter out. After a long sickness, Kulsumben lost her daughter, and this was hard on her to take care of Mahek, so she put Mahek into the orphanage in Rajkot. During one of our previous visits, Mahek recognized Razia at the orphanage.
After pleading for Mahek’s case in Sidhpur Hostel, Razia was informed that Mahek behaved like a 5th grader during her intake interview there. With the help of the institutions, we were very successful in bringing Mahek to Sidhpur. We see she is very happy and healthy there.
Current Update:
Recently, Kulsumben and Mahek’s father were distressed and crying as they were worried about Mahek since both were sick. Father is very ill and almost bedridden – he is losing hope that he will not survive.
They both wanted assurances that we would look after Mahek after they were gone. Nasreen assured them. We contacted Mahek, who wanted to look after her dad and grandma in their last days.
At this time, at her young age, 14 yo Mahek almost became a caregiver to her extended family while attending school. However, her Kaka and Kaki helped us to decide to hire a caregiver so that Mahek can continue with her studies, as that is our long-term educational goal.
Let’s pray that Mahek continues to be courageous and maintains her studies.
