(The past few months
of volunteering Saturdays at Samiksha Foundation- Caring for children with
cancer)
You see a lot of pain, a lot of suffering. You often get
jolted by how harsh life is, and realise how petty your complaints are when you
put things in perspective. But you also see so much positivity brimming around you,
so much strength and resolve in accepting the unfairness of their situation,
you see people who have enough problems in life even without having a small
child diagnosed with cancer, and yet, they deal with the situation and go about
the new routine without forgetting how to laugh. You see each child, unique,
demanding and fun, leaving an impact. You encounter many incidents that leave
you saddened and touched at the same time.
A bubbly 8 year old
girl solemnly gives me advice in the middle of an English Lesson- you have
dandruff in your hair, you should use Chic shampoo. It will vanish in one day. This
coming from a girl who has lost her hair because of chemotherapy makes one feel
oddly guilty for being so privileged. Her mother one day sat with us for a
Fourth Standard lesson telling us she had to drop out of school in Fourth
Standard and she might as well sit and learn what she can now. And she read the
book with concentration, asking us why the K in knife isn't the same as the K
in kite, leaving us answerless. Another
girl, who was bored and listless the first few times I saw her underwent a
sudden transformation and started enthusiastically solving fractions, and was
so confident with her answers that that she insisted that textbook was wrong
when one of the answers didn't match, telling me that it happens often.
Little things make them happy and eager- on shifting the
older kids to a different room downstairs in the ward, suddenly they began
feeling privileged. The younger ones fought to come downstairs while the older
ones refused to be downgraded to sitting upstairs with the babies doing
alphabets while they had more important lessons to deal with. One day we got
out a whiteboard and one of the girls got so motivated with this little change,
she briskly set about making it as classroom-like as possible, writing the
date, subject, heading and drawing little margins.
The kids have their own groups and even a union leader of
sorts. The oldest boy among them drives them around like a responsible elder
brother and yells at them if they are too unruly. All of them help in putting
away things without being asked, in fact, they fight over who folds the carpets
and who carries the books back. One hyperactive seven year old takes charge of even the lock and key
to the library, sternly instructing me to switch off all the lights before
locking the door.
The acceptance these children show is often unbelievable-
once I came across a chapter in which
there was a boy who had cancer. The two tenth standard boys listening
nudge each other and laughingly tell me they are like the boy in the lesson.
The teachers, Mrs.Parvathi and Mrs,Vidhyawati are models in
dedication and generosity themselves. They are both stern and loving with the
children, keeping them occupied and happy. I hurriedly had packed a bun for my
lunch one day since the food wasn't ready, and the two of them seeing this
quietly put half of their lunches into my box for me to eat.
The birthday events of course are tremendous fun for the
kids- all the pent up energy comes tearing out, they laugh with abandon at the
magic show, and Suresh the magician is amazing with the kids, hitting on just
the right things to cheer them up and make them laugh. One of the events
included an impromptu fashion show by the little girls, who walked up and down
the 'stage' content with their everyday clothes and accessorised with their
mothers' handbags.
Despite the moments that make you question the unfairness of
life, it is usually positivity that I take back with me each time I leave
Kidwai. Life's surprises may not always be pleasant, but with a little hope and
dedication, we can try and make a small difference.
Samiksha Foundation is
a non-profit organisation founded by Sandhya Sharad in 2009. The foundation
aims at providing quality non-medical support for children suffering from
cancer and their care-givers, by organising educational and creative
recreational activities for the resident patients at Kidwai Memorial Institite
of Oncology , Bangalore.
You can visit the
website http://www.samikshafoundation.org/
for more details, and do contact us if
you are interested in extending your support towards this programme. Together,
we can make a difference.
