When and why did you start Destination? Please share your personal journey, inspiration and challenges faced?
Well, I started Destination, which is essentially a real home for persons / children with special needs on June 1 2005 in a very simple manner. Meaning it was started casually without any formal official procedure. I wanted this home to be replete with all the necessary infrastructure and facilities that would translate to the wellbeing of the inmates. I had envisaged a homely ambience where the inmates can live with their peers in a homely ambience without any fear or abuse. I believe that today I have succeeded in this mission.
Destination strives to teach the specially abled people how to attain and maintain a respectable position within mainstream society. Talking about my inspiration, I will say that it was simply the pressing need for care, affection, security and safety of the specially abled that I perceived, which translated to my inspiration. The thought for Destination Home also came to me as my own son Rishi is specially abled.
I was always very concerned about his future life in my absence and this apprehension desperately pushed me to conceptualise an idea of creating a real home for the specially abled where the tradition of helping by people outside the ambit of blood relations is etched forever.
Eventually after its inception in 2005, Destination was registered as a non-profit organisation under the Society's Registration Act and formally started providing residential care for the homeless, abandoned mentally challenged children and adults loitering in the street.
I started Destination initially with just two residents, my own son Rishi and Liza, a child with autism from a family known to me. I am grateful to my now deceased husband Shantanu Hazarika, my now deceased father- in-law Leeleshwar Hazarika (founder president of Destination) and my brother Anjal Kumar Das for their cooperation and encouragement for laying the foundation of the institution.
I must say that much of my challenges were mitigated because I received incredible support from a number of kind individuals, organisations and even the state government.
Pease describe in detail all the work that Destination is doing and has done for mentally and physically challenged people?
Destination has been providing institutional care to the children and adults with special needs since the day of its inception and for doing this it is running three homes cum rehabilitation centers simultaneously. At present there are 135 such people in these three homes from different parts of Assam. Some of them are intellectually challenged, some are autistic, some have cerebral palsy, some have downs syndrome and there are also individuals with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, among others.
We have a process through which each 'special need individual' is assessed thoroughly by our team of professionals. Consequently, the team prepares individualized training programmes. The programme plans are mostly need based and are prepared basis the current level of performance and functionality demonstrated by the assessed individual.
In our residential rehabilitation programme we provide self-help skill training, pre-vocational training and domestic skills training. We also have a behavior modification programme, medical and psychiatric interventions, therapeutic interventions and impart special education, basic communication skills, computer training, yoga/exercise, music and dance etc with an objective of developing independent living skills for mainstreaming the beneficiary. The special needs people who reside in Destination are monitored around the clock and are being trained in their day to day habits and activities. Besides the residents are occasionally taken out for sightseeing, picnic and excursions to rejuvenate them from time to time.
Apart from these initiatives with a view to sensitize and strengthen the community and the families having special needs people (to cope with different problems Destination organises several awareness programmes on various topics related to mental health in many vulnerable places across the state . The organisation also imparts workshops and seminars for the students and general public routinely for capacity building and empowerment. Destination offers internship programmes to the interested students of different colleges and universities throughout the year. We have organised several awareness programmes in rural areas on early identification and early intervention and sports activities, art competitions, cultural programmes for differently abled children and youths.
What have been your major achievements till date? What is your vision and future plans for Destination?
To be honest for me the greatest achievement our organisation has received is revitalizing the lives of more than hundreds of members of the society who have often been discarded or ignored for their limitations. I must reiterate that the specially abled children or adults are often overlooked and isolated from mainstream society.
Providing shelter to these wonderful albeit unfortunate people, securing them with basic necessities, teaching them skills to make them self-sufficient and nourishing them with our love and care are my biggest achievements and actually I wish nothing more.
Here I would like to share the case of one of our inmates who was referred to us by Ms. Riniki Bhuyan Sharma, wife of the Honourable Chief Minister of Assam. She was in a pathetic condition at the time of arrival, rescued from a remote village of Chirang district.
The girl was in paralyzed condition due to her mental illness and had lost her speech too. We received her and eventually with the loving care and treatment in our orgnisation she miraculously recovered from her paralysis. Now she is able to walk, talk and do her daily activities. She has also learned to make handmade vocational items.
We have put years of hard work to accomplish numerous feats. One of our residents has progressed much from his autism disorder and was able to reach post graduation education under my guidance. Infact today he is happily married too. With due permission from the legendary artist Late Bhupen Hazarika he sung 6 popular songs of Bhupen Da in English which are released in a album named Shradhanjali, produced by Destination. Another specially abled student can perform guitar nicely after learning here in Destination and now he is at home doing a small trade.
Through some inter-state rescue missions, we were able to reunite as many as three specially abled residents of our NGO to their lost families last year.
Vision: Destination aims at providing an ultimate destination for the persons or children with special needs where they may have enough opportunity to be educated, get medical services, an opportunity to enjoy a family life, an opportunity to participate in community activities and finally an opportunity to enjoy all the human rights. It also aims for capacity building and works to sensitize and strengthen the community on child rights protection, mental health and women empowerment.
Destination possesses a plot of land measuring 3 bighas at Kharshia, Sonapur, Kamrup (M). In the coming days we are planning to lay the foundation stone for a permanent home cum rehabilitation centre (of 150 persons capacity) for the special needs children and adult persons. We hope that in the coming days we can provide better rehabilitation and shelter more scientifically in an effective manner.
What are your specific experiences and observations while working with disadvantaged people?
Over the course of 17 years I have observed that our organisation not only aided in providing a better lifestyle to our specially abled residents but also improved the lives of many employees who have provided their outmost selflessness to the cause of our organisation. Some of them have been with us since our inception and been ever trustworthy.
A drop does not make an ocean and it is the collective support from these individuals along with mine through which we were able to build what we have today. Meanwhile, I have also realized that Destination has also helped in women empowerment, as most of our workforce is women.
Another observation I have made is that in recent times, especially for the past few years or so, the awareness regarding mental health and specially abled people has risen to great heights. We have had more number of people visiting us almost on a regular basis and donating necessities to the organisation. It is these noble gestures which act as the backbone of our work. In other words, this heartening culture of coming forward to help has greatly facilitated us. The residents are also happy when people visit them and provide their care and support; their smiles are ever more precious in those moments.
The awareness amongst youngsters regarding helping people, willingness to work for social causes and understand mental health issues is indeed a positive sign for our society. People like to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and many such special occasions with these special people as part of their social responsibilities.
What is your message to society? How can people help the physically and mentally challenged sections?
I believe that social work begins from one's own home. Services for humanity can be initiated by helping the person nearest to us who is in need. I was compassionate and had an inner spirit for helping the needy which later on inspired me to render services for the cause of humanity within my capacity. I realised that God had given me the opportunity to render my service to the cause of humanity and feel the pain of others through my own family. This is because like I stated earlier my eldest son Rishi, has autism with multiple disabilities.
I have learnt that a heart full of love and compassion with a caring voice can heal oppressed souls. Be it in a private home or an institution a caring voice, little time, patience and understanding can go a long way in making a world of difference to the specially abled. An intellectual disability must not exclude someone from the society to get an opportunity to live an independent and meaningful life.
Last but not the least providing care and protecting their human rights must be considered as a collective effort of the society.
Please share a little about your other social works too?
As I have mentioned earlier, under the banner of Destination and with the support of the team I have organised many awareness programmes, workshops, seminars and camps pertaining to and revolving around mental health and disabilities. The highlights of these have been documented and released through a magazine since the ast five consecutive years. Ahbban is the name of the magazine. I have been initiated to raise awareness on mental health issues in the society. Professionally I am a B.Sc., DSE (MR) and have voluntarily offered services as a special educator in Mon Vikash Kendra, Guwahati (a special school for mentally retarded children). I had also worked in the capacity of voluntary special educator in Assam Autism Foundation and there I had provided behavioral modification and special educational programmes to the autistic children. I started working as the director cum secretary of Destination from 2005-2013 and from 2013 to 2017 as the president of the organisation. Apart from, I was also working as the vice president of the NGO Coordination Committee of Assam and as the executive member of the Catholic Women Welfare Society. I was the president of PRAGATI, a confederation of 12 NGOs in Guwahati from 2006-2008 and was also the treasurer of EKTA, a NGO network comprising of 8 reputed NGOs in Guwahati. At present, I am rendering my service as a member of Assam State Commission of Protection of Child Rights in the component of child psychology, health and mental health.
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