Site visit report

Society for Health & Educational Development (SHED)

Satyajit Nath

Asha for Education Seattle chapter

March 19, 2014

I met Lanu Aimol, the founder of SHED, in Guwahati on March 19, 2014, on a family visit there. I have met him twice earlier the last two years. Through my interactions, I have seen that Lanu is dedicated to take care of underprivileged children who are disabled or non-disabled and provide them a safe place to get their education and a sense of dignity.

When I first met him in 2011, I was amazed to note that he was doing a full-time job as a mental health practitioner in a government department, while running a school for disabled children as a separate NGO. Not only that, but I found out after talking to other members of the community that he regularly contributes a portion of his government salary to run SHED!

At that time, SHED operated from a rented building in Bhetapara (which is close to the capital area, Dispur). When I visited the school, I was struck by Lanu’s dedication as he spoke passionately about the children. I was also impressed by the passion of the other staff I met. Lanu’s wife, Ranjeeta, runs the administrative office taking care of bills, student fees, project proposal data, as well as day-to-day logistics. I interacted with some of the children in the school that day. The disabilities included mental retardation (MR), cerebral palsy (CP), Down’s syndrome, epilepsy, sight-disability, as well as physical disability. It was an amazing experience interacting with the children.

Bimola, who has sight-disability, sang some Assamese and Hindi songs beautifully.

Bhaskar, who has Down’s syndrome, danced the Bihu dance with grace and energy. I also met with Rafiqul (shown above with Lanu), whose right hand is amputated, showed tremendous energy and joy when he came to meet with Lanu to give him a paper in his office, where I was chatting with him. I was also impressed by the care and attention of the teachers who worked with the children in the classroom.

When I visited SHED in 2012, there was a crisis. The landlord and neighbors in the rental building in Bhetapara were trying their best to push SHED out of the neighborhood. Their fear, unfounded of course, was that the disabilities in those children, would somehow rub off on their families. This seems very incredible that in an educated, reasonably prosperous neighborhood, such a blind faith was in place. After some digging, I found that the real issue was related to a general worry by the landlord and the neighbors that the resale value of their property will be reduced due to the presence of an “unwanted entity” (meaning SHED) in the neighborhood. Lanu and his teachers tried to reason with the landlord and the neighbors using facts that the children and their disabilities posed no risk to the neighborhood. But the pressure, over a period of time, was too much. So, an alternative plan had to be worked out.

After some investigation, Lanu identified a plot of land in Sonapur that SHED could consider purchasing to relocate the school. This location is more than 20 kms from the Bhetapara rental building. I visited the new location in November 2012, shown here with Ranjeeta and another visitor from Seattle, Dr. Prem Kumar of IAEF who had joined me in the visit.

With some support from Assam Foundation of North America and Lanu’s own personal funds, SHED completed the formalities of acquiring this piece of land in June 2013.

Construction started earlier in December 2013, after the intent to purchase was established. Lanu and the rest of the team pitching in to do the work to build the new school building.

This construction was completed in record time with classes starting in February 2013.

When I caught up with Lanu during my March 2014 trip, it was very good to understand that SHED and the students had made the relocation to Sonapur really well. It was also good to see that the plans to extend support to non-disabled students were also becoming real.

SHED and the team faced many challenges in the months since then, including the water supply in that remote location being shut off. They were able to get a ringwell installed urgently, with support from Assam Foundation of North America, to ensure the children’s health was not impacted.

The lack of adequate hostel facilities and good quality classrooms that are weather proof continue to be challenges for SHED.

Given my observations noted above of the consistent ability of the SHED team to overcome obstacles, I have no doubt that they will continue to do everything needed in their power to solve those problems. The proposal from SHED to Asha this year, if approved, will enable SHED to overcome those obstacles faster, and serve even more disabled and abled children of underprivileged backgrounds in the area.

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