Tag: boys

shuktara home for young adults with disabilities - 2016 September - Sunil flying a kite

Sunil flies a kite – and Puja Season begins

You can feel it in the air - Puja Season is definitely coming to Kolkata.

17th September is Vishwakarma Puja followed soon after by the famous Durga Puja and ending with Kali Puja and Lakshmi Puja.

Instinctively Sunil just seems to know, finds a kite, flies it and starts making those very excited Sunil sounds.

For more about Sunil please click here.

shuktara home for boys with disabilities - 2015 January - Raju and Sumon on the set of LION

shuktara on the set of Lion film

First trailer for LION released!

Lion is a film that resonates with many at shuktara - it's the story of a boy who gets lost after boarding the wrong train and ends up in Kolkata, far from home. Adopted by a couple from Australia, many years later he goes back to India to search for his family.

When Lion was filmed last year in Kolkata four of the boys from shuktara were called in by the production team to be part of the film.

Here are photos of Raju, Ashok, Sumon and Bablu on the set.

shuktara home for kids with disabilities - 2016 Raksha Bandhan - Lali, Guria, and David

Rakhi at shuktara

Raksha Bandhan is a festival celebrated throughout India on a full moon day when traditionally a sister ties a Rakhi on her brother's wrist. According to Wikipedia:

The festival celebrates the love and duty between brothers and sisters. It is also popularly used to celebrate any brother-sister relationship between men and women who may or may not be biologically related.

Pappu Mishra, Somnath Sardar and David took Sunil to Lula Bari in the afternoon where the girls had all made threads for the boys in shuktara.

Sunil was the centre of attention and each girl put a Rakhi on his wrist as well as on Pappu, Somnath and David.

Because this is shuktara where equality rules Somnath and Pappu also tied threads for each of the girls!

To find out more about the young people of shuktara please click here.
shuktara home for disabled youth - 2016 August - Ramesh, Rajesh, Bablu Lal and Sunil

Accidents happen

We obviously prefer to give you good news and happy stories but the reality is when you are caring for a large number of young people living together accidents do occasionally happen.

About a week ago Rajesh damaged one of his fingers by slamming it in the kitchen door. He spent the night at hospital where they bandaged his finger.

A few days after his overnight stay he was taken back to the hospital for the dressing to be removed. The medical staff decided to keep him there for a few days so that his finger could be operated on. Clearly his finger needed slightly more attention than we originally thought.

Rajesh came home from hospital August 3rd - still bandaged and he says in a little pain - but home!

Read more about Rajesh...

shuktara home for young people with disabilities - 2016 July - Ashok, Alain Cojean & Raju

Alain Cojean visits shuktara

We were surprised and thrilled to see Alain Cojean at shuktara over the Bastille Day holiday. It was Alain's idea to start Shuktara Cakes and he has been committed to the Shuktara Cakes Training Centre since the very beginning.

We appreciate that Alain took time from his busy schedule to visit us and for the books and gifts he brought from Paris for all of the young people of shuktara.

Read more about how Shuktara Cakes started...

Aadhaar Cards for everyone at shuktara

For many years we have tried to get identification for the young people of shuktara. It is very difficult to get a birth certificate (the paper needed for all other forms of ID) because the signature of the doctor who attended the birth must be on the certificate. As almost all of the young people at shuktara were abandoned, finding the doctor present at their birth is an impossible task.

Now India has a new type of individual identification called Aadhaar.

Aadhaar is a 12-digit individual identification number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India on behalf of the Government of India. This number will serve as a proof of identity and address, anywhere in India.

It can be used to open a bank account or to get a passport in 10 days amongst many other things.
Pappu arranged for a guy to come to the shuktara homes to take the necessary information. For each person in shuktara he took digital fingerprints of all 10 fingers and eye retina pattern as well as a photo of the individual. All of this information is put into a database and the Government of India issues the card within a fixed time limit.

Here's more information on Aadhaar:
The government of India has taken up the initiative to establish a single identification method of its citizens. Like in developed countries where the social security number gives every detail of that citizen to the government India is also attempting to establish an identification method by which every citizen is registered under the country and the government has the exact count of the number of people in the country. This is why aadhaar card has been started and it is made free to every citizen so that each one can obtain it easily.

The government has realized the importance of a unique identification number much like social security numbers in the United States of America. This number is a onetime number provided to the citizens irrespective of their social background, their caste, creed or religion.

shuktara May 2016 - Sanjay and family-by David

Sanjay brings his family to shuktara

As the young people of shuktara grow up our job is to support them to live independent lives integrated into the community.

Sanjay came to shuktara in 2000. From the very beginning his dream was to have a family of his own.

Through his work at Shuktara Cakes and the experience of living at our boys home, we think he learned the true meaning of family as well as the skills he needed to start his own family.

He now has a wife and daughter of his own and these photos were taken when they came to visit his shuktara family!

Read more about Sanjay.

shuktara May 2016 - Raja painting

Raja Mohan Das, deaf artist

Raja is deaf and the resident artist at shuktara. In 2009 he was the youngest artist to be showcased at CIMA gallery in Kolkata.

Like all artists Raja has times of incredible energy and creativity as well as periods of inactivity. Right now he is in a very productive phase creating dozens of works in his trademark vibrant colours.

Read more about Raja here.