Tag: girls

shuktara - Lula Bari home for disabled girls - photo by Sarah Annay Photography

Spirit of Frida Kahlo at Lula Bari

Posted on by shuktara

Last month our photographer friend Sarah Annay came to Lula Bari with her friend Aslyn Beringer to do a Frida Kahlo workshop with the girls. First she explained about Frida Kahlo’s life as an artist who suffered a lot from injuries from an accident. Then she discussed different types of portraits and illustrated these with photos of Frida.

What happened next was quite extraordinary as you can see from the photos below. Thank you Sarah and Aslyn for a fantastic day!

Adam and his son visit shuktara

Posted on by shuktara

Adam Thompson first visited shuktara back in 2001. After that visit he was committed to supporting the work of shuktara in whatever way he could and when Shuktara Trust UK was registered he naturally became a Trustee.

On the 18th February Adam returned to shuktara with his son Frankie. Being able to show them around Anna Bari, Lula Bari and Shuktara Cakes was a thrill for all of us.

In Adam’s words…

“I know it sounds like just the ridiculous talk of a cosseted north London liberal (which I am!), but everything felt like… home. This is what I remember feeling a decade and a half ago and it was amazing to feel it, perhaps even more strongly, on this visit.”

“The great privilege for both of us was to feel like we were welcomed into this zany, slightly chaotic, incredibly warm family. It just felt so special.”

To read the full transcript of what Adam wrote about his visit to shuktara please click here: https://us7.campaign-archive.com/?u=19bfe4a278e40a10e7e00286b&id=f79a2a8073

Saraswati Puja at Anna Bari

Posted on by shuktara

Saraswati Puja is an annual event at shuktara and everyone is invited. Shuktara has a history of celebrating Saraswati Puja going back to the early days in Jubilee Park when our first boys attended REACH school.
Even though they have finished, Aakash has just started! Now that our girls are coming to the end of their studies at the same school, this Puja has a special place in the story of shuktara and this year we remembered Anna and kept his photo next to the goddess.

Here are some photos of the festivities – many thanks to Marci Radin and Sarah Annay for their fantastic images.

shuktara homes for young people with disabilities

Spa Day at Lula Bari

Posted on by shuktara

Sunnie Niklaus is visiting shuktara and that always means exciting activities for the girls. Last Sunday she went to Lula Bari for a "spa day" - let's just let Sunnie tell you about it in her own words...

"Home "spa days" are one of my favorite things. I do them with my young nieces, my roommate, my friends, etc. It’s basically relaxing and catching up with a little nail polish, face masks and probably some glitter mixed in.

A spa day with everyone at Lula Bari seemed like a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

There were cleansing face wipes, aloe moisturizer and face massages, epic amounts of sparkly blush and lipstick.
After lunch it was manicures, pedicures, a lipstick color swap and crafting some floral hair accessories.

The afternoon ended as everything should, with pizza. 🙂 All in all, a fantastic girly afternoon at Lula Bari!"

Tamina took the prize for epic amount of blush

Muniya for working the heck out of a flower hair accessory

Guria for lipstick color swaps (red, pink, red, pink)

Lali for pure enthusiasm

Prity for rocking a hint of blush with just a touch of lip gloss

Moni for a solid braid game

Puja for mastering the art of relaxation

Thank you Sunnie for the wonderful "spa day"!
shuktara homes for young people with disabilities

New clothes continued…

Posted on by shuktara

New clothes at Lula Bari continued...

The young women at Lula Bari had such fun dressing up and modeling their new outfits donated by Mustard Seeds that we couldn't resist posting a second batch of photos, of course) with a few more new-to-us clothes.

Thank you again Maura Hurley for picking out exactly the right outfits for everyone at Lula Bari!

New clothes at Lula Bari

Posted on by shuktara

Maura Hurley is a longtime friend of shuktara who runs Mustard Seeds, a wonderful Kolkata organisation dedicated to art, the environment and education. Every year they undertake a local used clothing drive and distribute the clothes to local organisations. This year shuktara was one of the fortunate beneficiaries!

Everyone loves new clothes and as you can see in the photos, our girls had a great time trying on and modelling their gifts. Thank you Maura Hurley for the fabulous new-to-us clothes, just in time for Pujas!

shuktara homes for young people with disabilities

Happy birthday Moni!

Posted on by shuktara

Although most actual birth dates of the young people at shuktara are unknown we think that birthdays are an important part of someone's identity. At some point after each new person arrives at shuktara they choose their own birthday. These birthdays are remembered and celebrated.

Moni's birthday was 11th September and a celebration complete with birthday cake was held at Lula Bari.

Looks like the girls dressed up in their best frocks for Moni's birthday - maybe because of that beautiful chocolate cake!

Learning to cook at Lula Bari

Posted on by shuktara

We like to encourage self-sufficiency at shuktara so a cooking class was arranged by the maashis for the girls at Lula Bari. Everyone has to start at the beginning so you can see that they were taught simple tasks like slicing tomatoes and potatoes.

Practice makes perfect as Lali demonstrates in the video below as she uses the traditional vegetable cutter on tomatoes.

We're looking forward to their first chicken curry but that may take a bit more time...