Pus was oozing out of her tiny body’s skin that was dangling from the bones. A dog, probably curious how a probably-human baby was lying on the ground near Majestic bus stand, was licking four-month-old Swati’s infected secretions.
The behaviour of human beings will never cease to be an amazement. While there are couples who pray to have a child, there are callous others who routinely go through the process of copulation, beget a life and once they have it, they dump it.
‘Swanthana’, a mission of the Daughters of St Camillus, believes in bringing the almost-dead back to life. Little Swati was blessed with a Swanthana-given rebirth too. What started with a visit to a remand home ended up in the birth of a new home for abandoned mentally challenged girls, in the end of September 2006. The nuns would constantly get calls from remand homes and police stations about babies and children found abandoned near hospitals, railway stations and bus stands. They would then pick up such unfortunate, diseased children and nourish them back to life.
Located at Ambedkar Nagar on Sarjapura Road, Swanthana has been taking care of 33 girls aged between 3 months and 12 years, all suffering from psychiatric, neurological and orthopedic problems.
The tragedy of this noble venture is the gross lack of funds. With medical aid topping the requirement list of such children, Swanthana is not funded by the government or any organisation. Daily existence carries on with small donations and favours. Kripanidhi College of Physiotherapy, Bangalore, has been very helpful to Swanthana as 25 students visit the place free of cost, five days a week, to conduct physiotherapy sessions for all the children. Four children have started walking as a result of their efforts.
Doctors from HOSMAT come to the centre for check-up from time to time. In case of emergencies, the nuns take the children to NIMHANS and St John’s. While check-ups are for free, medicines are charged. The irony is that in order to receive funding from the government, the centre has to maintain balance sheets for three long years before it can get registered. A situation that has rendered the large-hearted nuns helpless.
The health problems faced by children at the centre range from mental retardation to deafness and dumbness, and more. According to Sister Christina, four-month-old Divya suffers from mental retardation and contracted hands and feet, that needs surgery urgently.
Five-year-old Visag has cleft lip and palate, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and is deaf. Eight-year-old Shanti, who is blind, was almost dead, fully infected and weighing only 7 kg when the Sisters brought her to Swanthana. Today, she is a healthy 14 kg and happy with the love she has miraculously found there.
The efforts of Swanthana’s director Sister Vittorina, nurse Sister Christina, special teachers Sisters Sophia and Mathilda, and Sister Margaret, are commendable. Dr Aasiyeh Pathan, a physiotherapist, who stays full-time at Swanthana, does all she can to help children overcome their disabilities. Along with them, the staff they employ from the neighbouring village, tirelessly do their bit. Swanthana is also taking care of two school-going girls from Manipur who had nowhere to go. Their lodging and boarding, as well as education, is taken care of, despite the financial constraints they face.
A visit to Swanthana leaves one open-mouthed at the high level of hygiene and unconditional love that the staff shower on deprived children. They may not even have the monetary resources, yet, The Daughters of St Camillus devote all their waking hours to the tender care of children.
A routine day at Swanthana starts at 6.30 in the morning, when the process of bathing and dressing the children starts. Meals involve nutritious food like milk, fruits, juice, fish, meat and ragi and noodles. Physiotherapy is carried out twice a day. Medicines are given carefully to each child as per their condition.
Swanthana is all about love, caring and giving. The Daughters of St Camillus are doing the best they can, saving and nourishing little lives. Isn’t it only fair that the rest of us, with normal lives and children, also do something to change the lives of so many innocent disabled children who, for no fault of theirs, were dumped to die?
For details, contact: 9986951855/ 28441153
