Tag: girls

Lula Bari home for girls with disability

Wheels on fire #2 – mobility at Lula Bari

Posted on by shuktara

We just can't stop telling you about the amazing generosity of Sanjib Shaw and his friends. Our last post was about the boys getting wheelchairs and this one celebrates a new form of mobility for Prity and Guria.

Everyone at shuktara is just so excited about going on vacation with Sanjib and the gift of six wheelchairs will enable those less mobile shuktara young people to move around much more easily.

Thank you again Sanjib!

shuktara homes for young people with disabilities

New physiotherapist at shuktara

Posted on by shuktara

We now have a local physiotherapist who is coming to Lula Bari and the shuktara boys' house. He may increase his timing but for now he is starting slowly with one hour in each home twice a week. After only a couple of sessions the results were obvious.

We are very grateful to two wonderful shuktara supporters who are sponsoring his stipend for one year.

We expect regular physio sessions will make a difference in both comfort and mobility for Moni, Prity, Guria, Aakash, Subhash, Suman and Ratan.

And it's great fun, especially with the exercise balls!

shuktara home for young people with disabilities - Moni

Studying at Lula Bari

Posted on by shuktara

We have a lot of fun at shuktara but we can also be serious.

None of the young people at our homes have ever been forced to go to school. We believe in letting them settle at home before enrolling them at school.

In India, home tuitions are an integral part of education. Below are some photos of Moni and Muniya studying at Lula Bari. Don't let their smiles fool you - they are intently doing their lessons!

shuktara home for young people with disabilities

It’s all about being independent

Posted on by shuktara

At shuktara we have always encouraged everyone to be as independent as they can be. Prity has found her very own unique way of comfortably getting around Lula Bari.

She has cerebral palsy and cannot walk, so she devised this way of getting upstairs with Lali's help.
Each of the young people who live at shuktara have their own ways of getting around and some need more help than others.

Please click on the link below to see the trailer for the shuktara Documentary Film and donate to help tell more of their stories:
https://www.gofundme.com/shuktarafilm

shuktara homes for disabled young people

Update on the documentary

Posted on by shuktara

Phoebe (one of the filmmakers) says:
"I wanted to share this small bit of video that didn't make the trailer cut -- because the sentiment is very important to David and also to us as filmmakers...

On this next trip, cameras will be shared and I'm working on ideas that will allow the kids who don't have the motor control to hold a camera to shoot differently. Or to let that movement be part of the making. The shuktara community's eyes are as important - if not more important than - our eyes."

To be part of this amazing documentary about shuktara please click here:

https://www.gofundme.com/shuktarafilm

"True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity.

False charity constrains the fearful and subdued, the 'rejects of life' to extend their trembling hands.

True generosity lies in striving so that these hands — whether of individuals or entire peoples — need be extended less and less in supplication, so that more and more they become human hands which work and, working, transform the world."

Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

shuktara homes for young people with disability

A documentary on shuktara

Posted on by shuktara

Filmmakers Phoebe Brown and Elizabeth Strickler were in Kolkata working on a video training programme for girls called The Cross Stitch Project when they first came across shuktara and began to think about making a documentary.

In August last year cinematographer Raegan Hodge came here to shoot some footage for this documentary. What she shot has been edited and is here for you to see. Phoebe and Raegan would like to come back and continue filming this Spring. Please take a look and see if you can be part of it by supporting their journey in the making of this documentary.

Please take a look - this is what Phoebe said about shuktara:

"We want to make this film because shuktara is home to an amazing group of young people - wonderful, glowing and complex young people - who have rich, full lives - because they have love, attention and care in their lives."

This is their story:

https://www.gofundme.com/shuktarafilm

shuktara celebrates Holi, festival of colours

Happy Holi from shuktara!

Posted on by shuktara

Holi is an Indian spring festival also known as the "festival of colours". As Wikipedia says: "It signifies the victory of good over evil, the arrival of spring, end of winter, and for many a festive day to meet others, play and laugh."

As you can see from the photos, this is a favorite festival at shuktara, celebrated by everyone.

Happy Holi from all of us at shuktara!

shuktara home for disabled girls

A regular evening at Lula Bari

Posted on by shuktara

Our girls house tutor Priyanka (photo on right) is with the girls most evenings from about 6pm and sometimes stays the night.

Last Thursday night, 15th Feb, Guria and Moni were drawing (we particularly love her fish) while Lali was doing basic Bengali/English and Prity along with Muniya were doing their school homework.

It's great to see Guria taking part in all the activities and Priyanka makes sure that she is included in everything.

Read more about:
Guria
Moni
Lali
Prity
Muniya