SIVANANDA REHABILITATION CENTRE

Yesterday we went to Sivananda rehabilitation centre Established by Smt. Kumudini Devi in 1958 in Hyderabad, India, Sivananda Rehabilitation Home (SRH) is dedicated to the Treatment, Care and Rehabilitation of patients suffering from Leprosy, Tuberculosis (TB) & HIV/AIDS. SRH also runs an Old Age Home for Elderly Ladies.
I had my first ride in a tuc tuc or ‘Auto’ as they call them here. It was mental! Us four girls and Radha.
Radha Mittu lives in valley view apartments, she is 12 years old, goes to little star school by bus and is one out of 23 children that Tom sponsors to go to school out of his own pension! It costs about £25 a year to sponsor a childs schooling. Radha’s family met Tom when she was 7 years old and came to live in valley view apts, her father is the gateman. She visits the flat every day and has been so helpful to us all, when I interviewed her I wrote down, she is very helpful and pretty and she added “and naughty” !
All four of us and Radha squeezed in to the auto and whizzed through the traffic, there seems to be no rules on the road and yet everyone manages to navigate around eachother with a series of different honks and hoots and some efficient zigzagging and darting about on the road! I thought I’d be worried but I did trust the driving….though if is was on public transport in the UK. I’d be out of mind and shouting at the driver! The auto ride gave me a perfect tour into the different areas of Hyderabad, where we are staying is quite a well to do in places, Tom would call it middle class, but as we got further away from the Banjara hills it was apparent that we were leaving the wealth behind us by the impoverished housing, buildings and roads.
When we pulled into the red dust driveway, the cab driver did his best to get more money from us, but my experienced companions did a very good job of asserting their limits! I feel lucky to have the girls and they have been wonderful at welcoming me and showing me the ropes!
The centre is like a compound with many buildings to house the patients. Because of the festivals the leprosy patients were visiting family, so we worked with the HIV children who sadly are orphans, most of them abandoned by their families who could not afford to pay for medication and to care for them or who’s parents themselves have died from Aids. There are 41 children in the hostel at the moment but there is room for 50, last year two new residents arrived they are both 6 year old girls, the youngest resident is 3 and the oldest resident is 18, when they reach 18 they are then expected to live independently and are trained and helped with finding work so they can pay for their own medication. As the centre has only been there for 18 years she will be the first resident to leave the centre as an independent young woman! The work they do there is fantastic!