Written By: Dr. C. R. Desai
You are entering the haloed temple of happiness; our special friends are the high priests of this temple. They teach us what unconditional happiness is; we have too many conditions for happiness. Life is a celebration; we have spoilt it by making it a competition. All our life we strive to reach a place of happiness and peace; our special friends are already there waiting to welcome us.
This is what the board at the entrance to Navkshitij says.
One must experience the atmosphere at Navkshitij. The whole establishment is centred on the needs, likes and desires of our special friends. Here they are the normal. The staff is like a protective fence that ensures they are not hurt in any way.
Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) Model
As I said in an earlier blog, Navkshitij grew organically as admissions increased. Most of our staff stays on the premises. In addition, the children of our staff members are running around: they are children. There are 19 children inside the establishment. They lend vibrancy to the community as only children can. Our IDs get to enjoy that too, like in any “normal” community.
If we look at the other side of the coin, the quality of life has suddenly risen for our staff members, who come from villages. They enjoy the facilities and conveniences that a city life offers. And, their children go to schools to which otherwise they would have had no access.
We did not realise it then, but what developed was the perfect model of Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR). We have Divekar Maushi, our eldest trustee aged 86 now, special friends ranging from 20 to 60 years of age, staff with their spouses in their mid-thirties and their children ranging from newborns to 10-year-olds, all living together as a community. We see some of our special friends carrying the babies of staff members and no one seems to mind it. All festivals are celebrated with gusto; everyone participates in all celebrations. Everyone in this large family is sensitised to the needs of our special friends—even the little children. Our friends have poor communication skills. Outsiders cannot understand what they are trying to say. Surprisingly, the staff, especially their children, can understand what any friend is trying to say. The IDs have easy and intelligible communication with them.
The IDs walk into the house of any staff member. They are greeted with love and treated with respect. They go to Divekar Maushi’s house to talk to her and register their complaints about other friends. They tell her which food items they do not like. She ensures that adequate action is taken. The children include the IDs in their games and laugh with them. In the evenings, we see staff members playing cricket and volleyball with our friends. They all dance to Bollywood songs, play on the swings on Nagpanchami, apply mehndi, play with colours on Holi and Rangapanchami and enjoy the speciality of every festival. They go for treks every month.
The joy and thrill of “family” holidays
Once a year, the IDs, staff and volunteers go together on long holidays outside Pune. They have gone eight times to the Himalayas, once to the Wagah border and twice to the Eastern Ghats—to the Nilgiri mountains and the second highest peak in Karnataka. They’ve been to the bird sanctuary in Bharatpur and the tiger sanctuary in Bandhavgad. They’ve seen the Taj in Agra. They’ve holidayed in Kashmir and done parasailing in Pattaya (Thailand), where many also attempted ocean floor walk; two of them completed it. They’ve visited God’s own country, Kerala.
Our IDs go on night treks, monsoon treks and jungle treks. They love the thrill of standing under waterfalls during the rainy season. We have given them more experiences than any family can give even to normal children.
Birthdays are a special event
We club our friends’ birthdays and celebrate with a common birthday party during the month. Parents of our friends join in these celebrations. Staff members celebrate their birthdays with our friends. They distribute sweets to celebrate the birth of a new child in the family. Everyone welcomes the new baby.
Of course, health gets priority
We have signed MoUs with two hospitals. Every month there is a medical examination of our friends and even staff members. Anyone needing treatment is immediately hospitalised and taken care of. The medical team was pleasantly surprised to see that in the last medical exam, the haemoglobin level of our friends was above 12. We have an ambulance at each of our centres, in readiness to deal with an emergency.
A typical day at Navkshitij
A normal day at Navkshitij is designed with a lot of thought. The IDs wake up to the sounds of devotional music. Their daily routine includes meditation and prayer time. After the morning chores, everyone assembles for exercise. One group does ground exercise, one goes for yoga and one group to the gymnasium; the groups rotate so that everyone gets the benefit of every form of exercise. This is followed by a bath and getting ready for the day. They enjoy a different breakfast every day. At 11 am, they go to the sheltered workshop within the premises, where we make a range of items including yummy chocolates as per order.
We observed that some IDs do not want to sit indoors and work. So some of them work in the garden, one works as the office boy and one helps the watchman at the gate. Some girls enjoy cutting and cleaning vegetables. Our friends look forward to mealtime at 1 pm. After lunch, there is a siesta till 2.30 pm. After that, they spend two hours in the workshop where a dance teacher and a music teacher come twice a week.
At 4.30 pm, our friends go to their houses, clean up, have a cup of tea with biscuits, and change. It’s playtime after that. They play cricket, volleyball and carrom. Some girls just enjoy sitting in groups chatting and laughing or sitting by themselves on the swings. This is unstructured time. At 7.30 pm, they go back to their rooms to freshen up and get ready for dinner. They have pav bhaji, pani puri, dosa, idli, biryani or khichadi thrice a week. Chicken is served once a fortnight. Twice a week, our friends have egg curry. The vegetarians are served a variety of paneer preparations on these days. Of course, every festival has its individual food speciality based on the season of the year. Luckily, in India, there is at least one festival a month.
This IS their home
The menu for every day of the year is prepared in advance and displayed on the board. Neelima, being an Ayurveda doctor, had taken special care to see that every meal had enough nutritional value. The menu is decided on the thumb rule: regional, seasonal and traditional.
As a parent, I felt that we had finally created a rehabilitation centre where all our friends could live a healthy life filled with dignity and happiness. They are here with us for life. Navkshitij is their home.
Read Previous Blogs:
Deep diving into the world of IDs (continued)
Deep dive into the world of the Intellectually Disabled
Rehabilitation and Inclusivity: An Introduction
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