Tag: Tamina

shuktara homes for young people with disabilities

Spa Day at Lula Bari

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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"!

Bijoya – farewell to Durga

Posted on by shuktara

After the goddess Durga's five day sojourn (celebrated as Durga Puja) she returns with her four children (Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik and Ganesh) to her abode in Kailash. On this day, Bijoya, the clay images of the goddess are taken from the pandals and immersed in rivers, lakes and ponds throughout West Bengal.

Lali and Tamina accompanied David and Pappu to our local house Puja where the immersion of the goddess took place.

(all photos by Raegan Hodge)

shuktara homes for young people with disabilities

Durga Puja – visiting the pandals

Posted on by shuktara

If you follow shuktara you know that Durga Puja is the biggest festival of the year in Kolkata. All over the city elaborate handmade pandals are created to house clay statues of the goddess Durga and her family who come down once a year from their heavenly abode for a five day holiday.

This year the young people of shuktara visited the pandals on the 1st day of Pujas which was Shashti and 3rd day which was Ashtami. Everyone dressed up in their new clothes, piled in the cars and went pandal-hopping.

(thank you Raegan Hodge for all the fabulous photos!)

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

Gifts from London

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Jewellrey gifts from friends in London arrived just in time for the beginning of the Puja season here in Kolkata. This season is similar to Christmas - everyone looks forward to getting new clothes and gifts.

As you can see the recipients of these wonderful gifts were thrilled to receive them.

Special thanks to Patricia Brady for thinking of shuktara and to Cecile Tiano for the wonderful jewellery and for your generosity in passing it along.

Shuktara Documentary Interview video - Belinda, Ashok and Lali

Belinda speaks about shuktara

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Belinda Carlisle has been a longtime supporter of shuktara and she is a frequent visitor to both homes in Kolkata. While in Atlanta she kindly gave some of her time to Yep! Films International and talked about her experiences with shuktara.

To help support the new shuktara documentary click here:

www.gofundme.com/shuktarafilm

19 years of shuktara homes for young people with disabilities

19 years of shuktara!

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On 1 July 1999 shuktara started with just two boys, Anna and Sunil. Our story began in a rented flat on Southern Avenue and then moved to rented houses in Jubilee Park and then Kudghat.

Today there are two homes in Behala, owned by shuktara, where 23 young people live. Ages range from teenagers to young men in their 30s. Coming from institutions or lonely lives without family, shuktara provides everything needed for a healthy, happy and perhaps most important, safe life.

Join with all of us in celebrating 19 years of shuktara - founder David Earp, Pappu (chairman of shuktara in India, guardian, advocate and friend), carers and maashis, and of course all of the young people who have a home for life filled with love and laughter. Thank you for your support, all of this is possible because of you!