From The President’s Desk

(A monthly newsletter published since April 2012 by Dr. Neelima Desai and edited by Kanaka Cadambi on behalf of Navkshitij)

Top: Morning Exercises for our Asawali Friends;

Centre: Aloo Pakoodi party at Marunji;

Bottom: Friends making paper bags from old newspapers

How We Are Using Time During Lockdown

JULY was an exciting month. Friends and staff returned to Navkshitij after a five-week stay at their homes. The second wave of Covid had forced us to close our Marunji unit. We reopened on July 1, when the staff returned. Friends started coming back around July 5.

We have resumed most of the activities that were there during the lockdown months. The Workshop has reopened. We have started daily activities such as Yoga, gym, and morning exercises. Our Friends enjoy doing these every morning. We have also started screening movies twice a week.

Evening walk to the quarry near the Marunji unit and the lakeside near the Asawali unit is another high point of their daily activities. Unfortunately, Covid has put a brake on this, and it could be a while before we resume the activity.

The Board of Trustees has decided to allow a limited group of visitors, including parents, siblings, and volunteers, to Navkshitij. A complete absence of interaction with mainstream society is not good for our Friends. They need to meet people and interact with them on a regular basis. With quite a few of our Friends and staff having received both doses of the vaccination, we decided to open our doors to families and a select number of volunteers.

With the monsoon in full swing, our dependency on water tankers has dropped to nil. We have stopped buying water from outside. Monsoon is also the ideal time for feasting on fried snacks. It’s the time when our Friends love snacking on pakodi and bhajiya. On July 26, our kitchen staff lovingly prepared crisp and tasty Aloo pakodi for them.

On July 27, we celebrated the birthdays of our July-born Friends at Asawali.

The highlight of July was getting the NA and permission to begin construction at our Asawali plot. To protect the premises, we are first raising a compound wall around the entire plot. The Asawali unit has been planned to house around 100 mentally challenged friends, supporting staff members, and the families of the resident staff members. We hope to get this unit ready at the earliest. Take care. Stay safe.

Dr Neelima Desai

How we overcame Covid challenges at the Workshop

CORONA has affected the lives of special friends. It was a very big challenge to keep special friends indoors. They could not be sent home. Parents specially requested to let them stay at Navkshitij.

What will special friends do at home? Their problems will only get worse. Therefore, Dr. Neelima Desai and the Trustees decided to continue running the two units at Marunji and Asawali.

Because of the lockdown, workshop activities got impacted. We could not get used temple flowers. Temples were closed. So, one of our Friends’ favourite activities, making natural colour powder and agarbattis stopped. We could not get raw materials for making many of our regular products. Shops were closed. Vendors were not getting regular supply.

As a solution, the special educators at the Workshop identified activities from YouTube. Based on that, we decided to make curtains, show-pieces, photo frames, paper pylons, paper lanterns, etc. from old newspapers.

Our special friends love these new activities and are happily doing the new products, under the guidance of the special educators.

In spite of Corona striking us twice, we are back in action. Our Workshop has reopened.