Is it the time to let go..

Is it the time to let go..??

Most of you would have read my previous posts “its time for a new beginning” and “A new beginning has begun” http://catalyst-resurgingdelhi.blogspot.com/ which had stories of Ricky, Sunita and their new born son Rakshit. For those of you who are not aware of their story let me give you a quick recap.

Ricky (17) and Sunita (15) joined our Reboot program about 11 months ago. Sunita at that time was about 5 months pregnant and weighed about 33kgs, which grew to about 37 kgs (after much effort) when she delivered. Their son Rakshit was a miracle as it was a normal deli

very and he w

as a 3kg healthy boy in spite of his mother’s poor health, no immunization and regular use of alcohol in the initial stages of pregnancy.

(11 months ago)

Ricky & Sunita come from the poorest of the poor background living on the streets, doing odd jobs and begging for survival. They lived in absolute filth and

most unhygienic conditions.

(At present)

Under the Reboot project; they are being mentored to lead a better life, identify or acquire a life skill that can sustain them for the rest of their lives and have a stable life. Reboot process is ideally for 6 months but since Ricky & Sunita delivered their child during the project we extended the period to a year.

Now that even a year is being completed, Ricky & Sunita have failed in all aspects of their training. There is a very strong resistance to change into a better life. They like to have filth around them, for example, plates used for food with left over would rot under their bed for several days, their clothes are always unwashed and lying in a heap. Both of them resist regular working and lack punctuality. Even letting them choose their own working hours and anything that they would like to do, they would still not fulfill the commitments.

They have also been found to be compulsive liars and have been picking up odd things from here and there without asking (which can be termed as petty theft) including money.

We have used almost all tools and methods, including physiological counseling, but there has not been much improvement. We have also over shot our budget by Rs12000, and do not have any more funding for them. Over the year we have spent about Rs 1,12,000 including the delivery expenses.

Here is the scenario; Both of them, especially Ricky, does have dreams and aspirations and taste of a better life, but not in practice. If they leave now, our investment goes waste as they will go back on the streets, now with a baby. If we keep them, they will keep taking the facilities given to them for granted, which is money raised by enormous efforts and sacrificial giving.

Since, all of you have been instrumental in bringing them so far here is my question..

IS THIS THE TIME TO LET GO..?? Your inputs will help us take the right decision

Looking at the scars can you feel the pain.. By Angelika Samuel Gier

First time when I felt the pain of burn was when I was 6 and wanted to feel the effect of molten wax on my palm. My friend and my comrade poured a lot more than What I expected and aaahhh! I pretended to be all brave and held on my tear glands, but kept nursing the burn boil for over a week.

 

Lot of us would have had similar experiences of playing with fire and the effects of it. When I was 12, I accidentally dropped boiling hot oil on my feet, again it was by mistake and was my mistake. Even today when I look at those scars I remember the pain.

 

Recently, I saw another burn scar. This scar was on the legs and stomach of a 15 year old girl. And I thought what pain she would have gone through when she got burned and I remembered my little instances of life when I felt the twinge of burn. Speaking to the girl, she mentioned “ I poured kerosene on myself and lit myself up”. None of my experiences in life corresponded to this sort of event.

 

I had a few doubts of this girl’s behavior and now I was sure she was mentally unstable and had suicidal tendencies. Therefore deputed a counselor for her and also gave special instructions to the warden of the girls house to pay special attention on her.

 

We enquired of her background and met with her parents and siblings to get to know more. We came to know that she got so upset with her father’s abusive nature that one fine day she thought she will finish it all and therefore those scars.

 

This girl, in other instances, is a fighter. She is working hard to learn, to study and also want to be someone in life. Not only that, after being burned, her body became crocked and was bent, she was not able to use her right leg. Being from extremely poor background they could not afford any physio  and whatever little her mother gathered for her treatment was put to, what her father considered to be better use, “Drinking”. But this girl pulled herself with her own hands, straightened herself and now is absolutely fine except of those scars.

 

Now, this did not correspond with why she burned herself. A girl like her would rather fight than wanting to kill herself. So after many days, when I was counseling her as she was a bit low. She told me something I never anticipated. She said, “I burned myself but I did not wanted to kill myself”. My obvious question was, then why? She said, “My father was drunk and wanted to rape me”, and showing me her scars she said “this is how I wanted to present myself to him”. I looked at her scar again and now I could not feel the pain…

Written by Angelika Samuel Gier

Russian New Channel RT, carried a story about the work of Catalyst

Catalyst India has been functional for almost 2 years now. Our very first and flagship program is called "thank God its saturday" which is a time of fun and frolic with the kids who live on the street. Its an effort to share the affection that they lack.

A news channel called RT from Russia carried this story attached as a video below. 

The Video features our super star Pinto Kumar, who works with the Red Moon Bakery.

Enjoy

Abhishek Gier

Executive Director

www.catalystindia.in

Ps: The video runs in VLC player

A new Beginning has Began

I slept at 4 am after completing a few pending things. Just when my sleep was getting sweet, there was a knock at my bedroom door. It was not something I was prepared for or even anticipating. Sunita’s due date at her last check up was still 28^th August and this was just 11^th August.

We rushed Sunita to the hospital, her water broke on the way and we were still a few kilometers away from the hospital. Just to remind you, Sunita is just 15yrs old and still weighs only 37 kilos, she and her husband are a part of our Reboot Project http://www.catalystindia.in/whatwedo.aspx?projectid=16&projectname=Reboot. I could constantly hear Sunita’s laments in her own dialect that made them sound even more painful.

We were at the hospital in 25 minutes; thank God it was wee hours which is rare few that are spared by the ruthless traffic of delhi. Sunita was taken in the emergency room and her doctor was called. All we had in our control that we could do was PRAY.

Four hours passed, Sunita was still in labor pain, At 10:30 am Sunita was moved into the labor room. All of us, along with Ricky were anxious and were walking up and down the corridor, so much so that the Director of the hospital laughingly said, “ it seems like a movie scene from bollywood”.

We took Ricky to quickly grab a bite and the moment the canteen served steaming hot maggie, the phone rang, it’s a boy and the exact expression of Ricky’s face was indefinable.

Sunita gave birth to a 2.25 kilos (Almost 5 lbs) fair healthy boy, we call him “Rakshit” which means “the protected one”. He is indeed the one God protected from the place he was conceived till the time he was born and we believe He would continue to do so.

And here comes the most amazing and miraculous part, which in 3 decades of my life I have only heard of; Sunita “walked” home at 6 pm this very same day in contrast to the colossal complications we were imagining in this under age, weak and unplanned pregnancy.

Thanks to Dr Shiela Sharma, Dr. Koshy and all the staff of AIPF Mission Hospital along with the staff and volunteers of Catalyst and above all, All glory be to God.