#13: God's favourite ones

Geeta Mondol with her son Samarpan

Meet Geeta Mondol, the founder of Ashish Foundation, who works towards acceptance of differently abled kids in the normal society. 

Brought up in a Punjabi family, Geeta did her college education in Delhi and the US. She later married her batch mate from JNU, and is now a parent of 2 handsome young boys - Samarpan and Saday. “Samarpan is 18 years old and has autism. Saday studies in class 10. Both my husband and I work in fields where we hope to change the mindset of people towards a particular group of people, me towards that of those with disabilities and he towards the girl child,” shares Geeta.

When Samarpan was diagnosed with autism, he was just 8 years old. At that time Geeta lived in West Delhi, where she looked for facilities where her son could receive all the therapies he needed. However, she could not find any. “As I prayed, I felt led by God to start my own place. Initially I was afraid. But when I went to withdraw my child from a mainstream school where he was studying, I was asked to help the school set up an integrated section. Eventually I helped the school in setting it up, and after 2 ½ years I resigned from there to set up my own place, after I trained in the US,” she elaborates.

Samarpan was her biggest inspiration. “My belief system said that everyone is created in God’s image with no exceptions, yet when I saw around, all I saw was the burden that parents felt having to raise children with disabilities. Some parents were so overwhelmed by the disability of their child, which they had no time to understand or look at it differently. We never see those with disabilities on our roads, our festivals, or our weddings. I wanted to, and still want to change the way people think and bring those with disabilities into the mainstream of our society,” explains Geeta.

When Geeta decided to embark on this journey, she knew that this journey would have its share of ups and downs. But she prefers to look at the brighter side. "The joys are many, and so are the difficulties. I love working with children with autism, but I struggle with administration. Yet when I see children improving, or seeing my staff just pushing boundaries, it gives me a lot of encouragement. Finances have been difficult to come by, because we cannot give large numbers. Each child with disability requires individual attention. We cannot put 40 children in one classroom. So we maintain a ratio of 1:4 special educator to child, and 1:2 adult to child ratio in the centre. It is very costly, and sometimes making the ends meet gets very difficult,” she says.

Ask Geeta about some of her experiences and she remembers two of them vividly. “We had a student with Cerebral Palsy who came to us when he was not able to hold his head. He had no vocabulary either. We worked with him for 3 years. One day, we heard him screaming “Ma’am, Ma’am” The guests in the centre wondered why we did not stop him from screaming, but for us it was such a high point that he was finally speaking! We also had one student who refused to walk without help and would scream every time we jumped by saying, “Bachao, bachao”. However with help of an intensive worker, one day I entered the centre, to see the kid skating perfectly with his eyes closed, looking at peace with himself. I will never forget his face to this day.

The best part of Geeta’s job is watching her staff having a world of patience and working with children with a sense of humour even when they get violent. “A few days back, one of our students tore the shirt of the staff. The staff came into the office and asked for a new shirt. He laughed and said, “It is one of those days”. For me that is the best part to see the staff having inculcated the values I shared with them!” says Geeta.

Geeta wishes she could share the success of Ashish Foundation with others, and hold training programs where she can share the principles she believes in and how they make a difference. “In the future, I see these young adults contributing to the nation and becoming part of the mainstream, rather than living on the fringes of society and marginalized even among those who are marginalized,” she ends.