Quest for a place

Our life with our daughter Delna, born with Down’s syndrome, has been one of achievement and fulfillment. We have learnt to see what Delna can do, not what she cannot. She continues to progress despite her own nature and peculiarities. As she reaches the age of 25, and we as parents grow older, we find around us many families where parents and their differently-abled children are even older. There are single parents, struggling with poor health and others where siblings have found it difficult to adjust to behavioral patterns that affect their own children owing to the presence of differently-abled persons in their families. Each case is different. Some of the differently-abled adults are already without parents with no one to care for them. We shudder to think of our daughter’s future when we are no more.

Ahura Support is an NGO (nongovernmental organization) of parents and a few like-minded individuals who have formed a support group and are running a day care center to impart skills to keep the differently-abled occupied and train them to become useful citizens. The trustees are Burzis Taraporevala, Hutoxi Doodhwalla, Bapsy Kharas, Cyrus Bagwadia, Behram Khodaiji and myself. For the last seven years we have been aware of the need to create an assisted living facility along with a vocational center and a therapy cum resource center in Bombay. The ideal location would be within the city and close to or within a medical facility. The reasons for this are mainly availability of trained manpower and employment opportunities for the children and proximity to old parents, siblings and cousins. Ahura Support also works to raise sensitivity among the community about persons with special needs so that society may focus on their abilities rather than disabilities.
Right thinking members of the community with its philanthropic traditions are requested to provide such a space for differently-abled adults. I firmly believe that the community possesses the resources and the space. Parsis owning property which they wish to donate to a good cause could come forward and those who have contacts with corporate houses should suggest a way to provide a suitable space for this worthwhile purpose.
Dr VISPI JOKHI
vhjokhi@gmail.com