Every child at Apanjan is a ‘special child’, but for us they are very special. We cannot expect that they will learn a trade and move on. They are ours for life.

Babu was born normal. But, since birth, he was kept in a handi so that his spine would curve, as his disfigurement would increase his price in the begging market. The boy in a handi was a sensation on the local trains that left the bustling Sealdah station in central Kolkata every day, and his touts made huge sums of money. Spotted by a railway police constable, the boy was handed over to the Organisation for Friends, Energies and Resources (OFFER), a Kolkata-based NGO. “We were called in because we run a home for children with special needs,” explains Antara Ghosh, co-founder, OFFER.

Rescued when he was six years old, the boy was christened Babu. “He had the mental and physical development of a two-year-old and was almost totally blind and deaf. His internal systems were severely traumatised and, soon we would discover that just keeping him alive was a challenge,” says Antara.

Health and hygiene

Antara and her husband, Kallol, had founded OFFER in 1986. Their primary focus then was literacy amongst street and working children. They first targeted three slums on the northern fringes of the city. Soon, they realised that the children needed more than just basic education and launched the much-required health awareness programmes in these areas.

“We learnt early on that isolating children from the community was not desirable. So we began to increase our presence in the community through blood donation camps and other programmes,” says Kallol. Then came permanent health and hygiene programmes in the slums followed by community centres where children could come and spend the day.

OFFER also adopted a village of landless agricultural labourers in the neighbouring district of South 24-Parganas. A non-formal school called ‘Apanman’, meaning our heart, was also started there. OFFER’s mobile health clinic regularly visits this area to provide medical check-ups and treatment for the children of this school.

A unique experiment

In 1996, OFFER started a non-formal school for children living on platforms at the Dum Dum railway station in north Kolkata. “That is when we came into contact with children with special needs, abandoned by their parents. These children were among the most vulnerable as they were often unable to get even a meal a day,” says Antara.

The couple decided to start a home for these children. ‘Apanjan’ (my own), a residential care unit was set up in a small flat in the eastern satellite township of Salt Lake. The first boy brought into this refurbished apartment was Prem, a 14-year-old suffering from mild retardation, with speech defects and severe epilepsy. He was brought from ‘Nabajibon’, a home run by the brothers of the Missionaries of Charity. Subsequently, more children came into this home, from other organisations as well as those rescued from compromised circumstances.

After a few months at Salt Lake, Kallol decided to try a unique experiment. By then, OFFER’s home for compromised mainstream children – ‘Apanghar’, meaning my home, a three-storeyed building with about 50 children – had come up at Sinthee in north Kolkata.

“We needed a bigger place to fit the equipment for our ‘Apanman’ children. Besides, I wanted to observe how compromised children, with all their faculties intact, would react to their less fortunate friends. So, till we found a new location for ‘Apanman’, I decided to keep them all together,” Kallol says.

Recreational therapy

The results were spectacular. Interactions helped both the groups of children. While the able ones became less difficult to manage and more tolerant and disciplined, the special children learned to communicate more fluently. But, space became a premium here too, as the girls at ‘Apanghar’, by then 16 of them, needed a separate residence as per government stipulation.

Meanwhile, seeing the good work being done by Antara, Kallol and their team at OFFER, funds poured in, from Europe. Banyan Trust, UK, undertook running expenses and the Italian organisation, Associazione Mondo Amico, offered to fund capital expenditure. Among the other international funders who came in were Ami Ci Beillisi, Italy, Railway Children, UK and Enfants De Personne, Switzerland. And there was enough money to find a bigger place for the special children.

Soon, ‘Apanjan’ found a new address at Gobindapur, in South 24-Parganas. Today, this unique project is home to 12 other children like Babu. Other organisations that work with special children like the Missionaries of Charity and CINI-Asha send their challenged children to ‘Apanjan’ for specialised care.

‘Apanjan’ is a sprawling five bigha complex run wholly by women, save the lone security guard. It has a beautiful garden, a vegetable patch, and dairy and poultry projects maintained by the children with help from the staff. The complex encloses a pond that has a dozen ducks and a fisheries project. “These projects are used as recreational therapy for the children,” explains resident-psychologist Babli Dhar.

These special children are also being trained to make envelopes, with and without embellishments. They are working with terracotta and other media to fashion photograph stands, ashtrays and other knick-knacks. “We send these items mostly to our funders abroad. Some people who visit us also offer to buy them. We are in the process of finding a suitable market for these items,” says Dhar.

Special camps are conducted in the blocks around the area to identify children with learning disabilities. A day care centre for 18 such children is run at ‘Apanjan’. “We hope to be able to accommodate more children once our new wing comes up,” says special educator, Nabanita Goswami. Also on the anvil is a home for challenged girls on the same campus. Presently, ‘Apanjan’ has one girl on its rolls. Sukanya, diagnosed with Down’s Syndrome, has a slow growth.

The emphasis is on making these children self-reliant in handling basic tasks themselves “Every child at ‘Apanjan’ is a ‘special’ child, but for us, they are very special. We cannot expect that they will learn a trade and move on. They are ours for life,” says Antara. There is a fund for each child, the interest from which goes toward paying for the child’s upkeep.

Medical expenses are huge at ‘Apanjan’. Like Babu, who needed serious medical attention and was admitted to a premier city hospital for over a month, most of it in intensive care. And such emergencies can happen at any time with any of the children because all them come to ‘Apanjan’ severely malnutritioned. “We have to be alert at all times because combined with such fragile physical health, even an epileptic fit can be fatal,” says the resident doctor, Supriya Dasgupta.

Rehabilitating marginalised women

This project also aims at integrating marginalised women into mainstream society. Four women, rescued by another NGO working with sex workers, were trained by OFFER in specialised care for children with difficulties. “These girls were taught how to handle epileptic fits, how to use special furniture and trained in the basics of special communication and how to impart skills to these special children,” Dhar explains.

Among these women, one is HIV positive. “Only the secretaries and I know about this. It is a sensitive issue and we really do not know just how the rest of the staff will react,” says resource mobilisation wing director, Siddhartha Chakravarty. This wing was set up recently to help the organisation network better within the NGO community and to tap local and national funding resources. ‘Apanjan’ staff undergoes regular sensitisation workshops and refresher courses with organisations like the Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy, to upgrade their skills. Currently, a series of workshops are being conducted to make them aware of HIV-AIDS issues. “We intend to work with children affected by HIV-AIDS. A home for such children is in the offing, but before that, our staff needs to understand how to handle these issues,” says Antara.

Currently, OFFER has over 5,000 children covered under its various programmes. Detailed documentation on each child informs donors and funders of where their money goes.

The organisation has many plans for all its children, but the emphasis is not on vocational training. “Vocational training is an outdated concept till you can put it in the context of today’s economy. We want the best for all OFFER’s children, but we appreciate our limitations. Children who show promise in school will be encouraged to study further, but the rest will be trained in the services sector so that they find employment,” says Kallol.

The success of ‘Apanjan’, as an all-women project, egged Antara on to set up a sister NGO for women’s issues. ‘Sarani’ aims at making women aware of their legal rights and seeks to empower through micro-credit programmes. “Success of the children’s programmes depends on just how their mothers view it. We need to reach out to the women in the house and empower them to ensure a sustainable future for the children.”

Registered office of OFFER:
140, BT Road, Flat D 16, 2nd Floor, Kolkata 700 108
Tel: (033) 25780810/11
Email: offerdoc@vsnl.net Website: www.offer-india.org