NEW DELHI: Life has been difficult for Jenish, a mere 13-year-old boy, who had lost his parents at the tender age of 7. However, things got worse when he met with an accident a year after losing his parents, rendering him immobile with speech loss. Fortunately, years later, things have improved as the largest self-implementing childcare NGO in India, SOS Children’s Villages of India, has been assisting Jenish in experiencing life once again.
Jenish is a resident of Anja, Gujarat. In 2016, his parents passed away, and in 2017, he met with an accident that resulted in a brain haemorrhage. The Sunday Guardian reached out to Preeti, his aunt, who left her nursing career to give full attention and care to Jenish. “Jenish faces a few challenges in remembering things, but currently he is in better shape. When it comes to physical activity, he doesn’t have many struggles except for walking but that is manageable. Currently, he is playing cricket and has got many friends.”
However, society has not always been nice to him because he occasionally encounters problems from his friends, but he has been overcoming such societal hurdles. Currently, SOS Children’s Villages of India’s Kinship Care programme covers all costs associated with health, education, and medicine.
The secretary-general Sumanta Kar, SOS Children’s Villages of India, told this paper, “The organisation has been working pan-India helping out children who have lost their parents or are on the verge of losing parental care. Currently, we have customised solutions like family lifecare, family strengthening program, kinship care, and so on. Under the Kinship care program, we take care of the education, and health of children and also provide training in parenting skills to the caregivers.”
While speaking of Jenish’s challenges, Preeti said, “He has challenges in learning things, this is due to the brain haemorrhage. The doctors have said that he will recover slowly so we are hopeful. The growth of bones will help him to recover naturally so there are no strong medicines. Coming from a middle-class family, we are not financially strong, but we still try to provide everything to Jenish.”
This correspondent also reached out to Jenish who happily stated that he would want to be an IPS officer or an army officer. He keeps himself motivated through movies and listening to inspirational audio. Currently, Jenish is studying in grade 9 and he is slowly making improvements in recalling his past experiences.