As a typical 10-6 working professional, my life changed when I resigned from my work and opted to volunteer in Shishu Sarothi, one of the leading registered non-profit organisations working for people with disabilities (PwD) primarily in Assam and the other North Eastern States. Little that I knew back then that the experience obtained would be so insightful. Working on the various departments of the organisations, be it health or education, the knowledge gained would always be engraved in my mind.
Remembering the first day at the organisations, it still makes me smile sometimes. Clueless as to what needs to be done and often questions like - “what am I doing here??” used to flow in my mind. Still remember googling about “Shishu Sarothi” while waiting for Ketaki Ma’am in the reception area. Seeing my grandmother's name on the website as one of the founding members gave me some form of confidence and the awkwardness that I had felt slowly dipped. Started off by working with the education department by shadowing and assisting the teachers with whatever help and service was required from my end. Interacting with the children and most importantly witnessing the inclusive education system was very new to me and an eye opener. It was astounding to see a child in a U.K.G (5-6 years) class with no disability helping another child with a disability in their daily classroom work
. The sense of oneness that these kids were learning at such a tender age and most importantly practising it is something that will remain with me forever. The most impactful experience would be with the Early Intervention unit where I had spent the most number of my volunteering days. The knowledge about physiotherapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, the various disabilities; Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Cerebral Palsy (CP), Intellectual Disability (ID), Muscular Dystrophy, Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) etc were all obtained in this unit. It was honestly a fun experience to interact with these kids when they had come for their daily therapy. Having said that, it was sad to see the struggle the parents had to face and still keeping a strong smile in hope for their child's overall development. Observing the counselling session with the parents during the assessment of the child was very despairing sometimes. Another instance that I still cherish and remember was related to sign language while I was assisting one of the special educators of the SPARSH unit. Sign language was new to me and it was just 2 or 3 days in that particular unit. The special educator had instructed me to assist one of the children.
Basically the child had to note down the alphabet which I had shown in sign language. I had incorrectly shown the sign of one of the letters of the alphabet and the child immediately corrected me. The child corrected and showed me multiple times until I did it perfectly. I asked quite a few times in Assamese - “is it correct now?” and finally after a few attempts the child approved by nodding the head. This seems like an ordinary instance but the way I was corrected, indicated the bright persona of the child. A major learning from this is that if you have an open mind you can learn anything from anyone at any point in time. For an introverted guy, who was used to the work from home culture for the past few years, adapting to an environment where work was mostly done by interacting with an actual person seemed very odd initially.
However, kudos to the entire team, especially to the staff members I had the opportunity to interact or work with, for their warm hospitality. Volunteering in this organisation was surely one of the best decisions I had taken so far.