Recovered from Facebook Notes, posted Sep 17, 2008, written probably in 2004.
Kalyani is a school that works under the Bangladesh Protibondhi Foundation (BPF). It is basically a school for ‘challenged’ children.
I won’t say ‘disabled’ children or ‘handicapped’ children; not even ‘abnormal’ children, because after all, no one can define the word ‘normal’. They are human beings, and we know that no two human beings are alike. Everyone has their own share of abilities and disabilities; so why should we single out these children just because their disabilities are not seen in most people? It’s not what you cannot do that makes a person, it’s what you can do; and these children can do a lot of things.
Most challenged children are born with brain damage. One or more areas of their brain do not function; hence they have problems in speaking, movement, etc. At Kalyani, these children are given stimuli to help them overcome these problems. Some children are autistic. No one knows what causes autism. Autistic children have no visible defects, except that they do not communicate with the outside world. All the doors and windows of their brain seem to be closed, which may open momentarily to pick up something and then close again. These children are completely wrapped up in their own world.
At Kalyani there are ‘Down babies’ as well. They suffer from Down’s syndrome, which means their cells contain one extra chromosome. This causes their intelligence level to be low. Nevertheless, they show diligence in certain aspects, e.g. repetitive jobs, singing, drawing, etc. Students from Kalyani have amazing achievements. I have seen beautiful paintings there, which were done by an ex-student. The paintings look like professionals did them. Kalyani is also making a banner for the next Commonwealth Games. The students are doing excellent paintings and embroidery on the banner. They also make tie-dyed cloth and block-printed saris. They need just a little help and guidance from their teachers. The school Kalyani does not want to seclude these children. It wants them to join the mainstream. It is up to us to accept them as one of us and not keep them cut off from the world.
Tushmit's Stream of Consciousness 