RONAK’S REVENGE ON LIFE

RONAK’S REVENGE ON LIFE

Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it (Charles R. Swindoll)

This is the story of Ronak: a child suffering from a form of disability who, thanks to our Navchetan centre and the support and therapy received from our rehabilitation workers, has seen his life change.

Ronak Singh Hada is an 11-year-old boy from Jawahar nagar slum of Jaipur, Rajasthan. The name Ronak means “glamour”.

His mother gave birth to him in the government hospital. She had a difficult birth with him because some complications occurred during delivery: the child had to be delivered using forceps. Furthermore, he didn’t cry at birth but looked like as he was not alive so the doctors decided to have him hospitalized in an intensive care unit for 15 days. While being there, he started having fits. The doctors did not give the child any hope to survive but Ronak managed to survive and after fifteen days he was given back to his mother.

After six months since its birth, his parents began to notice that Ronak did not behave as an ordinary child, he would not sit or stand, so they decided to consult a pediatrician and, together with him, they started working on his recovery.

During his growth, Ronak’s parents repeatedly took him to the doctor for further checkups and they discovered the child was suffering from Cerebral Palsy and that he had a medically recognized degree of disability of 90%.

Ronak is a clever boy but he cannot speak or hold himself up without support. He cannot even eat or drink by himself but he needs to be fed.

When he arrived to Navchetan center he did not want to be separated from his mother. He used to cry a lot so in order to make him stop crying his mother had to sit next to him. But, after some time, he began to sit without his mother and, thanks to the treatment program, Ronak started to kneel, hold and climb on a chair, he started extending his legs and supporting himself with his forearms.

During the Covid-19 situation he was shifted from the slum of Jaipur to another district. In April 2021 Ronak came back to the slum and he declared that he was very happy to be back to the Centre. His mother Babli told us that in the meanwhile he had become very sociable and that he had learnt to eat or to hold a pencil by himself. He tried and still tries his best to do coloring and to write numbers but his involuntary movements make those actions very difficult to be made. He also learnt how to manage the smartphone and he learnt by heart his parents’ telephone numbers. He is able to understand everything and to follow the instructions.

In November 2021 the physiotherapist suggested the use of KFO to Ronak in order to strengthen his muscles. Thanks to that tool he can now move by himself.

Ronak is a teenager now and he is very competitive. He loves doing any challenging task and any little appreciation makes him feel as if he were at the top of the world. He does not want to stay at home even just for a single day because he loves coming to the Centre every day. He likes playing outdoor games and dancing.

His parents and brother are very happy about his improvements and they hope one day he will become able to manage his own personal needs without depending on someone else.

 

If you want to know more about the project, you can find the details here

 

SHUBHAM: FROM DISGRACE TO RESOURCE FOR HIS FAMILY!

SHUBHAM: FROM DISGRACE TO RESOURCE FOR HIS FAMILY!

This is the story of Shubham: our Navchetan program completely changed his life and opened new horizons in less than three years, now his family no further looks at him as a disgrace, but as a resource!

Shubham was born in 2012, in the slum of Jawahar Nagar in Jaipur, India. They named him Shubham meaning good luck. Being the first child, the mother was too young and uneducated, she didn’t know what care need to be taken during pregnancy. She even had a fall from a staircase while she was 8 months pregnant. After a difficult birth he weighed 1.5kg. He had a late birth cry. He had difficulties in nutrition during his first months. He was 6 months old and they took him to the doctor, who told them that their son was mentally and physically challenged and he would not be able to walk or talk. It was a thunderbolt in the heart of his parents, seen as a disgrace.

When our Navchetan’s staff first met him, in January 2018, Shubham was just like a vegetable person, and was dependant for everything on his mother.  He was 6 years old but could not sit up or open his fists and hold anything and he could look only to a fixed position and was lying down with crossed legs and hands.

 

After a first assessment, our physiotherapist communicated to his parents that he could improve in his movements and bring change in his life. The mother was very interested and supportive of her son, she brought him regularly to the centre and gave sufficient time for exercises at home amidst her household chores with his other two younger siblings.

Today, after less than three years, Shubam is able to do all his personal needs (ADL chores) by himself. He gets down from the bed. Take paste and brush his teeth, wash face, comb his hair looking into the mirror. He is now able to sit without support, stand up with support, identify persons with their name, identify colour, hold the cup and drink and pick up small things, hold pencil and write alphabets and numbers. He is able to move by himself by riding baby cycle or kneeling without support. He is able to climb the stairs with support.  He is now trying to stand with support.  He was given assistive aids like Knee brace and KFO, CP chair and water sipping cups.

 

Thanks to Navchetan’s staff he got all his documents ready including disability certificate and now he is getting a pension.

 

He and his mother have great hope for his future. He always assures his mother that he will take care of her.

 

Moreover, his mother now also works at our centre as attendee, helping with children transportation and food preparation.

 

Therefore, the meeting with Navchetan completely transformed family’s perception of Shubham’s disability and made true the promise of his name, “good luck”: until three years ago he was a disgrace for his family, now he is a great resource!

THE STORY OF NAMAN FROM JAIPUR SLUM

THE STORY OF NAMAN FROM JAIPUR SLUM

After telling different stories from Myanmar, now it’s India time: we asked our staff in Jaipur to tell us the story of Naman, a boy who is taking part into Navchetan Community Based Rehabilitation program. Here is his story!

 

“Naman is a 11 year old boy, first among the three children of Mr.Radheshyam and Mrs.Bimala. He was born on 27.05.2009 at Jawaharnagar slum Jaipur, Rajasthan and they named him Naman meaning ‘Greetings’. Being the first pregnancy, the mother was given good care and all checkups were done on time and she had a full term pregnancy and a normal delivery at Government hospital Jaipur.  But as he was born he had very law pulse rate and so he was kept in incubator for 7 days and only on 8th day he was given to his mother for feeding. The child would not drink sufficiently and was feeling breathless so the mother fed him with breast milk through the spoon.  By the time he was 6 months baby he was not crossing the milestones and so he was taken to hospital and at 18 months CT scan was done for him. The doctor diagnosed him to have Cerebral Palsy (CP) with 40% mental retardation. They followed the instructions of the doctor for 6 months and then left everything and went after superstitions and some religious rituals for his healing. But seeing no improvement they gave up everything.

The mother slowly tried to enquire about the history of his father’s family and came to know that two of his father’s uncles were having such problems. She also observed that Naman’s first cousin Sachin has the same problem. The girl children instead don’t show this, so it seems to be a genetically transmitted disability especially to the boys who are born whithin the family.

Naman was 8 year old, when we found him during the survey in the year 2018. We suggested the parents to bring him to the centre for physiotherapy, but they were not willing because he was now growing tall, the mother could not carry him and he could not walk without someone holding his hands. After many visits to the family, they began to bring him to the centre. When he came he was a fully other dependent child, unable to balance himself on feet. He had totally uncoordinated movements of hands and legs. He used to fall frequently and was not able to walk without support.

The physiotherapy treatment and of fine motor and gross motor activities at the centre brought in him drastic improvement and confidence to the possibility of walking without support; he is now able to manage his life and also has improved in his communication skill and good manners. Indeed, he is now able to drink water from a cup, eat food with spoon, write alphabets and numbers, climb and get down the staircase with the support of the rail. He does activities of daily life like having bath, combing the hair, brush teeth etc. He wears his sandals and removes it and keep on the rack. He learned to kick the ball, wash the dish, clean the room with a broom etc.

We helped him with some burocratic matters, too. He’s got his Aadhaar card, the disability certificate and his name was included as disabled in the family card. Last, we applied for disability pension, and from 2019 he is receiving Rs.750 per month as disability pension from the government.

He has two younger sisters who love him and care for him. He also loves his parents and siblings. Now we are preparing him to join in a nearby government school who permits him to attend physiotherapy and special education at Navchetan as well.”

So good luck Naman! It seems that your improvements are quite outstanding and we can’t wait forward to seeing you at government school with your mates!

THE PINK SIDE OF NEW HUMANITY INTERNATIONAL

THE PINK SIDE OF NEW HUMANITY INTERNATIONAL

Through the most different places, offices, indian slums or burmese villages, there are several women and mothers working tirelessly together with New Humanity International. Today we want to tell you about the “pink side” of New Humanity, that is alongside women and girls to support them in gaining a respectable standard of living.

Self Help Group

In India, Navchetan works close to the mothers of the kids involved in the project. It would be meaningless to work without them! The mothers are supported through self-help groups in order to promote dialogue, help with each other, and sharing of common experiences. They are happy and satisfied with a program which allows them to learn together how to take care of their disabled children! Some of them have also received a prize that recognises their never-stopping cares and physiotherapy exercises during the whole lockdown period, so that they can be an example  for all the others.

Moreover, in March for the International Women’s Day Navchetan Center hosted a big event of celebration and sharing. The women of the staff went even direcly to visit some families to create awareness on the importance of this Day and invite to the event all the women, mothers, young girls.

On the 8th of march the celebration involved the sharing of some personal experiences of the women of the staff and mothers: they are success stories, dealing with their daily life and which inspired the participants to go ahed in their lives with hope and courage, to try to make the difference in their own context. A mother told about how the cares given to her child had brought about a big improvement and she bursted into tears of joy while telling it.

Again in Navchetan, an awareness programm on women and girls hygene has been recently organised. Thanks to the presence of a volunteer nurse, girls aged between 11 and 19 could take part, clarify doubts and learn correct and safe practices together with their mothers.

In Myanmar instead, trainings for women and girls on soap making and sewing were organised in the villages near Taunggyi in 2020.

Sewing and domestic rearing courses will start soon, too. In this way, women and mothers will be able to carry on income generating activities direclty from their households, being able also to take care of their children. The local staff strongly believes in the importance of women inclusion and wants to assure them a dignified role, which satisfies them and and makes them active part of family and community life.

In addiction, burmese mothers have the chance to take part together in trainings on nutrition. Here they can learn the importance of a balanced diet expecially during pregnancy, in order to prevent the development of any disabilities, and on early childhood.

Among several opportunities there is place for everyone and we hope that more and more mothers and women, young or no more young can feel welcome, supported and stimulated by NHI!

CBR: WHAT IS THIS AND WHAT HAS NEW HUMANITY TO DO WITH IT?

CBR: WHAT IS THIS AND WHAT HAS NEW HUMANITY TO DO WITH IT?

Self Help GroupSince 1995 in Cambodia, 2005 in Myanmar and 2016 in India, New Humanity chose to promote inclusion of people with disability strengthenin all development’s aspects of the person inserted in its context and community. For this reason all our projects follow the methodology of Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) as an approach for an integrated development of people with disability.

 

The CBR started by the will of World Health Organization after the Alma-Ata Declaration in 1978. It has been fostered as a strategy for the improvement of access to rehabilitation services for people with disabilities in low-middle income countries, through a rational valorization of local resources. During last forty years, through a collaboration with other UN agencies, NGOs and Associations, CBR developed until becoming a multi-sector strategy facing deepest needs of people with disability, ensuring their participation and inclusion in society and improving their life conditions.

Home therapy

In 2004 ILO, UNESCO and WHO defined CBR as a “strategy of development of communities aimed to the rehabilitation, poverty reduction, equal opportunities and social inclusion of all people with disabilities”.

CBR recognize that all people with disabilities should have access to all services available for other people in their communities, such as health services, child programs, social welfare and education. Furthermore it emphasize human rights and stimulate actions against poverty, demanding also government’s support and a strategic policies’ development.

Home therapy

 

 

During the same year, a matrix has been published in order to provide a common frame of reference for CBR programs. This matrix consists in 5 key components – health, education, livelihood, social and empowerment. Every component is set of 5 elements and first four are linked to key development sectors, reflecting in this way CBR’s multi-sector focus. Particularly, last component is linked to skills of people with disabilities, their families and communities (empowerment), crucial to grant access to every development sector, improving life conditions and human rights for people with disabilities.

CBR matrix

Activities in slumCBR’s program don’t have to implement every component or elements of this matrix, it has been instead designed in order to let programs select options which better satisfy local needs, priorities and resources. CBR programs not only are developing specific activities for people with disabilities, but they also aim to create partnerships and synergies with other sectors not inserted in CBR, in order to grant access to these sectors to all people with disabilities and their families.

For this reason New Humanity’s staff isn’t focusing only on people with disabilities, but they are going to villages, slums, in their houses involving the family and the community. We are carrying on sensitization and awareness activities in communities and advocacy activities with local authorities. We are involving relatives and neighbors in therapies’ provision in order to make them do therapies even when the specialist is not there, we are also trying to strengthen families’ economy and to improve the whole villages’ conditions, in order to develop the whole environment where the person with disability is inserted and in this way promote a real inclusion of the person in community’s social life.

Here you can find all our projects about disability.

 

Anita and her brother

 

 

We really do believe that the development can be real only through a real inclusion of all isolated people, and for this reason we decided to adopt this integrated approach, which allow us to walk side by side with local communities and to improve life condition of most vulnerable people.

 

NEW HUMANITY’S RESPONSE TO COVID-19 EMERGENCY

NEW HUMANITY’S RESPONSE TO COVID-19 EMERGENCY

 

 Since COVID-19 showed up in Myanmar and India, our local staff supported our beneficiaries in many ways. Covid-19 spread hadn’t only health consequences, but the biggest impact in our project’s context was the socio-economic consequence of local lockdowns. That’s why we invested 21.567 € to support local population in this critical period.

 

 

 

Actually both Myanmar and India are still in lockdown and we’re keeping on supporting them. Since March 2020 until today we organized different activities trying to face the emergency and answer to local needs:

 

  • 12.020 € invested for distribution of FOOD and BASIC GOODS to families who were struggling after the lockdown.

 

  • 4.520 € invested for distribution of HYGIENIC MATERIALS to all our beneficiaries and in support to local municipalities. 

 

  • 2.673 € invested for MEDICINES and DOCTOR’S VISITS to our beneficiaries. 

 

  • 2.356 € invested in the organization of PREVENTION TRAINING about COVID-19.

 

   

   

 

 

 

We organized those activities in all contexts we are working in.

 

 In India we’re keeping on supporting slum’s children with disabilities and their families, especially in this period when they are most isolated than ever.

 

  

Coronavirus Dance

In Yangon, Myanmar, we’re keeping on supporting the juvenile detention center through education activities and we added also special activities for COVID-19. We’re keeping on supporting the School for Disabled Children and the Disabled Care Centre through a constant provision of hygienic materials and basic goods. Whenever the lockdown allowed us we also kept on supporting them through our professional staff, even though now that the lockdown is stricter our professionals are not allowed to enter the centre.

 

 Distribution

In Shan State our activities in community based rehabilitation for children with disabilities, drugs prevention and rural development kept on as planned. We only had to stop for 2 months, even though we had special permission to go in villages for distributions or similar activities, but now the situation in that region is not so critical and there is no lockdown for the moment.

 

Our House of Dreams in Taunggyi gave availability to host people in quarantine, we organized everything in the house in order to be able to meet these special guests and we were able to answer to all request from the government, hosting some group for 14 days each.

 

Luckily we were able to support those activities thanks to a special attention from our main donors, through an agreed adaptation of project’s budget to these new special needs. We also had some unexpected contributions from private donors who helped us to face this critical period.

 

 

Unfortunately the emergency hasn’t stopped yet, most of our beneficiaries are still in lockdown and lockdown consequences will gave new problems for longer than expected. So if you wish to help us please donate here indicating “Covid-19 emergency”.

THANKS TO ALL OUR DONORS AND SUPPORTERS!