A ray of hope – Kiran Village
28th May 2018
The 100th district for the ShikshaDaan yatra was the holy city of Kashi (also known as Varanasi or Benaras) and it brought us in contact with some amazing institutions and individuals. The first meeting we had was on the 17th with an NGO named Kiran Village. It was a on the outskirts of Varanasi so we took a taxi. The drive took an hour and half as the traffic was quite high and lots of re-routing of traffic happened due to the unfortunate bridge collapse that had happened on the 15th.
After a certain point the driver got into a tiny lane and entered a rural area… houses that had mounds of cowdung cakes that are used as fuel or as manure. Then finally we reached the Kiran Village’s campus and entered a world of hope !
Kiran Village is an inclusive centre for differently-abled children and youngsters. They provide rehabilitation, education and vocational training. Founded in September 1990 by Sangeeta JK who is originally from Switzerland and has pretty much made Varanasi her home since 1972. She is a trained nurse who spent 20 years serving leprosy patients in Varanasi and then set up the Kiran Society to ensure differently abled children are able to get inclusive education and become productive members of the society.
Please read about them at this link – http://kiranvillage.org
We were met by Ashok ji and Satish Ji who first showed us an Audio Visual presentation, interspersed with interesting discussions and then they showed us around the premises. The centre has state of the art equipment and facilities and most importantly a team of dedicated teachers and facilitators. Kiran Village also offers a diploma course in teaching special children which is accredited and helps anyone become a special educator.
This is auditorium and the training centre for the special educators.
Satish Ji, Ashok Ji, Krishnan and I on our way to the carpentry and food processing section ! While we were about to leave, we realised that Ashok Ji and we share a common friend in Sathya… the world is indeed a circle and rather small.
We left the Kiran Village filled with hope that the world will have a better tomorrow because of people like Sangeeta JK and the entire community of teachers and facilitators at Kiran Village who are working towards an inclusive society.
Remembering APD Bangalore, Arushi Bhopal and Sishu Sarothi, Guwahati – three other outstanding organisations that are working towards a more inclusive and humane world. More power to them and very proud to be partnering in some small way with all of them.