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TEAM DREAMS at the INDIAN PINGALWARA TRUST in AMRITSAR COME TRUE
INTERNATIONAL WEEK OF THE DEAF
Autumn, 2009 - It takes a lot more than a dream to change the world for children in need. Required is 100% belief in positive energy to carry this dream on to reality, and the Home of Hope, Inc. has been doing so for 12 years.
They have touched the lives of thousands of children in India positively, and an example of their hope and success is the Indian Pingalwara Trust in Amritsar.
None of this could have happened without the focus of Founder, Nilima Sabharwal, Co- Founder Anil Lal, Current President Nalini Bhat, Legal Council Anoop Judge, Treasurer Namrata Sharma, and others who work as volunteers in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The first Fund-Raising Event raised $7,800. Since then, this 'grass roots beginning' has matured, and over $1,500,000 has been raised for children in need at 16 existing Organizations in India, and the most recent Program is in Berkeley, California.
There is no question that there are many children in India that need help, but how does HOH select one, and why?
"It is very important to know the past of Pingalwara, to best understand it's future," says Harinber Kohli. "This began as a dream in 1904, of Bhagat Puran Singh. He was only 14 years old and from a very poor family. His dream was to help otherslike himself and among the first environmentalists.
"In 1948, he went to Amistar, and continued his mission. In a hand-pushed carriage, he took crippled and ill people to any abandoned building near the Rail Station. In 1952, through donations, he was given a permanent location to take care of handicapped and sick. He called it Pingalwara. In Punjabi, the word 'pingal' means handicapped person; the word 'wara' means a compound or shelter."
In 1992, Bhagat Puran Singh passed away, however, the scope of his visions had gained momentum. In the slums, a school was created for children, and a medical support increased. In 2002, a donation of 25 acres of land became the Manawala Complex, supporting a few hundred abandoned or orphaned children, and in 2005, the Ardash School was created, that included a School for the Deaf, and their dreams becoming reality connected with the goals of the Home of Hope.
Ranjinder Pal Singh, a former Group Captain who had been in the Air Force for 32 years, has been working with the children for eleven years. Since 2006, he has been the HOH Contact for the Computer Lab Project, and the School of Deaf.
"We had only 16 deaf children in the school at the time, and only 250 in the Adarsh School," says Singh. "Since then the number of children has grown, and we have expanded to reach 85 mentally challenged children, as well."
Today, the Ardash School has 543 children; the School of Deaf has 63; 105 are mentally handicapped children; 30 in the vocational training. What is amazing is to know is that all of these children are training on only 28 computers!
When asked if computers work well for the deaf children, the answer is immediately positive.
"For the deaf children, we are developing and using a Punjabi Sign Language. Originally, we thought this was their first step, but we see them responding so quickly," says Singh enthusiastically. "It is rewarding to see how they are reacting positively to the computer education. This is an opening for them that is critical for all of them. By combining the computer with lessons to teach them English, science and even math, the process is immediate.
"These kids also respond to the visual impact of the computer", continues Kohli. "We want to expand these lessons, and take them to other schools for children facing an extra hurdle in growing up. To see how this Project is flourishing, a new building has been donated with 30 rooms for the School of the Deaf, and will be inaugurated in October, 2009. HOH has also helped a school for deaf children in Berkeley, California, and we are looking forward to working with them, also. The contact there will share with us their thoughts and information about their system for reaching these children. Our goal is to extend the reach across all of India!"
