News

First Day at School
Published:  4/27/2004

One day last month one of our neighbours came to our door. This woman lives in a tiny rented room with her husband, a labourer, and five kids. One of her children, Nazeem, contracted polio as a baby and now has virtually no movement in his legs. He squats on the ground and using his hands to pick up his feet, he shuffles around the place. He manages to get around ok, but it is still a terribly degrading and unhygenic way of living in a slum area, negotiating piles of refuse and overflowing sewers. Nazeem is now twelve years old and has never been to school.

Nazeem's mother asked us if we knew where there was a school where she could enrol Nazeem.. We didn't know ourselves but we could easily find out. Apparantly Nazeem's mother had tried to enrol him in the local government school but they wouldn't take him. The local school is too far for Nazeem to 'walk' himself and too far for his mother to carry him.

It didn't take us long to find the government institute and school for the handicapped. Nazeem and his mother were keen and ready to go with us at 9am the following day.

For an illiterate Muslim woman who hardly ever ventures out of her immediate neighbourhood it was all quite daunting. Forms and affadavits needed to be filled in and signed and she needed to arrange for a birth certificate for Nazeem.

Although there was one very helpful officer at the institute, there were others who were more interested in their tea break than in actually helping someone. We were shuffled from one room to another. Never the less, that very day Nazeem's Mum proudy rolled him back into their community in a brand new wheelchair!!!

In the next few days Nazeem's mother had gone back again to get Nazeem measured for calipers and crutches and to enrol him in the school. Finding her own way back there and negotiating the intricacies of beauracratic government systems was quite a feat for her but she remained determined.

That evening Nazeem's mother made us tea in her room. As we sat sipping the sweet milky drink she was telling her sisters about us, calling us 'angels'. We just laughed and said, no we're definitely not angels. This was just a small thing. We like trying to help people because we want to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, who loves all people. He even gave his own life, He loves us that much.

[Don and Alison Smith (names changed for security reasons) live in a muslim slum in a huge Indian city. They are expecting their first child any day now...]