Sanjay Bhavsar and Tula Patel
Nominated for : Giving a secure home to orphaned and
homeless children
Initiative - Adopted 18 orphaned children
Nominated for : Giving a secure home to orphaned and
homeless children
Initiative - Adopted 18 orphaned children
The world has many ugly corners and it is indeed a tough place for or-phaned and homeless children to live in. One comes across many such children at Ahmedabad railway station. But many of them bumped into Sanjay Bhavsar, 49, and his wife Tula Patel, 46, their lives changed at a unique home the Amdavadi couple has built at Bansa village near Visnagar.When Sanjay and Tula met in Ahmedabad, Sanjay was pursuing BTech while Tula was studying commerce. They fell in love, got married and moved to the US. However, the desire to do something uncommon pushed them off the beaten track and brought them back to Ahmedabad. In 1993, they founded Vishwagram, an NGO, which aimed to serve the needy. In 2006, they took up the cause of the orphaned children and with the help of NGO Childline they built the orphanage at Basna.
Tula and Sanjay have adopted 18 orphaned kids wandering on the state’s railway stations, and are offering them upbringing, educa-tion and identity. They have given these kids the surname Bharatiya and celebrate a common birthday on December 25.
After investing almost two decades in social work in villages near Rajkot, Surat, Ahmedabad, Mehsana, Patan and Kutch, the couple set up their ashram-residence to house their big Bharatiya family.
It was an innocent question by a kid which once unnerved the cou-ple and led to the celebration of a common birthday. They were preparing for their biological daughter Gulal’s birthday celebration when their adopted son Vipul, now 14, asked, “When is my birth-day?”
“We felt sad,” said Sanjay. “We cancelled Gulal’s birthday celebration, and since then we have been celebrating birthday for all our 18 children on December 25,” he said.
Previously these kids begged on streets and stations, and had to work as carriers for drugs; they had witnessed gory crimes and suf-fered harshest of thrashings and brutal exploitation. Their traumatic stories of life at stations, addiction and sexual exploitation, are too grisly even for Bollywood. But the couple turned these children’s lives upside down, literally.
These young kids had been running away from criminals who wanted to use them for their illegal activities. Their travail came to end only after they met Tula and Sanjay. The latter took them home and officially adopted them to give them shelter, food, education and family.
Today, at their home Vishwagram, these kids learn to live with creative discipline in an unconventional set-up specially designed to bring back positive emotions of childhood, including naiveté, curiosity, trust and smile that the cruel system prevailing in outside world had once snatched away from them.
The children begin their day at 6 am with a ‘nature walk’. In natu-ral surroundings, they learn to identify bird species and also learn botany. Their routine starts with lessons in self-hygiene, and at breakfast they learn about healthy food habits. They learn to read and write and cook and clean. After lunch, these kids spin yarn and make about 75 metres of khadi cloth every year
During early evenings, the kids spend a few hours learning various arts. “Children learn painting, clay work, pottery, origami, puppet making, experiment to make various utensils like solar cooker or learn carpentry to make small wooden items,” said Tula.
“Innovative practical sessions like designing a newspaper or pam-phlet for the village, making pots and lamps for sale - these activi-ties arouse their curiosity. That helps to re-generate the sensitivities of these young hearts which were hurt and had withdrawn too deep inside,” added Sanjay.
“When we happen to rescue such a kid, it initially looks at us with distrust. After a few days, while taking a morning walk or doing art activities together the child starts opening up, and the distance gradually melts away. Being able to restore a gleam of hope and a smile within those tiny frightened eyes is the reward which keeps us go-ing,” says Sanjay.
Tula and Sanjay have adopted 18 orphaned kids wandering on the state’s railway stations, and are offering them upbringing, educa-tion and identity. They have given these kids the surname Bharatiya and celebrate a common birthday on December 25.
After investing almost two decades in social work in villages near Rajkot, Surat, Ahmedabad, Mehsana, Patan and Kutch, the couple set up their ashram-residence to house their big Bharatiya family.
It was an innocent question by a kid which once unnerved the cou-ple and led to the celebration of a common birthday. They were preparing for their biological daughter Gulal’s birthday celebration when their adopted son Vipul, now 14, asked, “When is my birth-day?”
“We felt sad,” said Sanjay. “We cancelled Gulal’s birthday celebration, and since then we have been celebrating birthday for all our 18 children on December 25,” he said.
Previously these kids begged on streets and stations, and had to work as carriers for drugs; they had witnessed gory crimes and suf-fered harshest of thrashings and brutal exploitation. Their traumatic stories of life at stations, addiction and sexual exploitation, are too grisly even for Bollywood. But the couple turned these children’s lives upside down, literally.
These young kids had been running away from criminals who wanted to use them for their illegal activities. Their travail came to end only after they met Tula and Sanjay. The latter took them home and officially adopted them to give them shelter, food, education and family.
Today, at their home Vishwagram, these kids learn to live with creative discipline in an unconventional set-up specially designed to bring back positive emotions of childhood, including naiveté, curiosity, trust and smile that the cruel system prevailing in outside world had once snatched away from them.
The children begin their day at 6 am with a ‘nature walk’. In natu-ral surroundings, they learn to identify bird species and also learn botany. Their routine starts with lessons in self-hygiene, and at breakfast they learn about healthy food habits. They learn to read and write and cook and clean. After lunch, these kids spin yarn and make about 75 metres of khadi cloth every year
During early evenings, the kids spend a few hours learning various arts. “Children learn painting, clay work, pottery, origami, puppet making, experiment to make various utensils like solar cooker or learn carpentry to make small wooden items,” said Tula.
“Innovative practical sessions like designing a newspaper or pam-phlet for the village, making pots and lamps for sale - these activi-ties arouse their curiosity. That helps to re-generate the sensitivities of these young hearts which were hurt and had withdrawn too deep inside,” added Sanjay.
“When we happen to rescue such a kid, it initially looks at us with distrust. After a few days, while taking a morning walk or doing art activities together the child starts opening up, and the distance gradually melts away. Being able to restore a gleam of hope and a smile within those tiny frightened eyes is the reward which keeps us go-ing,” says Sanjay.
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