Mothers’ day out in the capital

Thiruvananthapuram: It has been more than a decade since Raheena, a mother of two, went out of home alone or even attended a wedding function in her neighbourhood. Not that she did not want to. She simply could not afford to leave her 15-year-old son Fasal, who is mentally challenged, even for a minute.
For her, Tuesday could well be the best day of her life so far. In the morning, she boarded a flight from Kannur airport along with her son, reached the capital city an hour later, visited the zoo and legislative assembly complex, which she and her son had seen only on television and finally enjoyed the evening at the Shanghumugham beach.
Raheena and Fasal were not alone in the journey. They were accompanied by 25 other children with special needs and their mothers. The children were all students of Government Vocational Higher Secondary School, Payyoli, Kannur. The group included children who suffered from cerebral palsy, mental retardation and autism.
‘’Our school has over 3,000 students and as many as 30 are suffering from conditions like cerebral palsy, mental retardation and autism. Four of them could not make it to the trip owing to various inconveniences,” said Binoy Kumar, the principal of the school. The trip was made possible with financial help from Payyoli residents and our panchayat. The state police department coordinated the group’s trip, food and accommodation here.
“We organized this trip not for the children but for their mothers,” said Kumar. Ever since he took charge as the principal of the school two years ago, he used to regularly conduct meetings of parents of children with special needs. It was during one such meeting in October last year, he realized that the world of these mothers have shrinked to their children.
“These children are dependent on their mothers. So it is important for these women to travel to different places and gain new experiences in order to support their children better,” he said, adding that all these women and children hail from poor or middle-class families.
The responses of women like Raheena prove that Kumar is right.
The group will meet health minister K K Shailaja at 10am on Wednesday at her office in the Secretariat followed by the governor Arif Mohammad Khan in Raj Bhavan.