2 kids’ dream of a meal, home comes true

Thiruvananthapuram: They starved. Didn’t have a proper shelter to stay. Their father had abandoned them after he came to know about their mother’s illness and their grandfather was bed-ridden.
For the two kids at Alachalkonam ward at Ottasekharamangalam grama panchayat, who studied in Class I and II at a nearby government school, a meal a day was a distant dream, let alone online classes. Most days they survived eating wild fruits and slept hoping for a better tomorrow.
One day, a chance call from a volunteer to a representative at Bhavana Library, Poozhanad, changed the children’s lives, for better.
The volunteers had called to inform that the children didn’t have a television to access lessons broadcast through Victers channel. But when the representatives of the library, who have been arranging facilities for children in their region to attend online classes as part of reading month observance, visited the children’s house to verify the claim a few weeks back, they found that more than a television, the kids needed a proper house and food. They were living with their grandfather and mentally ill mother under a structure covered with plastic sheets.
Soon, they decided to renovate the structure into a proper house for the children through crowd funding.
According to Alachalkkonam ward member Cherupushpam R, the attempt to get them registered under Life Mission was not possible as they did not have any documents.
“We tried to help them financially, but the mother used to drive us away. When the library representatives approached us to help the family, we all extended our support. We took the mother to a hospital in Peroorkada and spoke to her husband who was staying at his home in Poovachal. Now, the woman, who returned after treatment, is now staying with her husband and children at his house temporarily. We recently took them to the construction site and they were happy to see the work,” said Cherupushpam.
The earlier structure was removed and the basement of the house has been constructed. “It was a pathetic sight when we first visited them. We started crowd funding to build a house and we could complete the basement work with some financial help. We hope that more people will support the initiative to complete the work so that the children can return to their house soon,” said Poozhanad Gopan, president of Bhavana Library.
The construction work began on Friday and Gopan has made an open call for volunteers who may join the work for a day or more to complete the project on time.