New Resource centre opens

On Monday 9th July our new Sevice Support Centre for Children with disabilities opened in Chandanpur, 11kms from Puri where I am based for my work as CBRW (Community Based Rehabilitation Worker) trainer. After a month of travelling around doing Home based visits for the children it became aparent that resources in the home were limited and travelling time was restricting how many times the CBRWs could visit the homes. When I discussed this with Basant we both agreed a building in the community and central for the families would be a good starting point.

Basant already had a building in mind and after visiting it and discussions with the owner, a rent and lease agreement was reached. The building consists of 4 rooms of which 2 were to be rented by SNDAYP as our Resource Centre.

Madhab outside the new building

 It still had no electricity and no water nearby but it was a reasonable price and the rooms a good size. A lot of work was needed to prepare the rooms for the equipment and a team of us set to work sanding, painting and cleaning.


Madhab and Pravakar working on the skirting to get it ready for painting.

                                                    

                                                        It took a lot of elbow grease and was a lot of fun too!

The following few days saw a wonderful transformation of the main Therapy room while Madhab and I were off shopping for all the equipment and toys. I helped a little with the finishing touches too! It was also great fun choosing the Disney Characters to brighten the walls!

But the main wrok was done by this young artist:

He did the following amazing transformation:

Then we just needed to add the equipment

 and of course children:



Cutting the ribbon to open the new Centre



A young boy walks with a rolator for the first time

A picture paints a thousand words, and by the look on Basanta's face and that of the children I don't think I can add much more: It was a privelige and a pleasure to be involved in this project.



A special thank you goes to Mr John Stewart and members of the Andover Rotary Club, UK for their very timely and important donation to the setting up of this centre.

A week after the opening I unfortunately had to return to Europe due to a family illness. I will be returning in a few weeks to continue this work into the New Year and will keep everyone updated of the progress of my work and adventures I am lucky to have in wonderful India......