USHAS

Long time back, 20 years to be precise, a student came to his teacher, with the news that his wife gave birth to a baby girl, and there was some problem and the child was kept in an incubator at Ahmedabad. When seeking information of the delivery of the baby, it was found out that the child had brain damage, and the child would be a special child.

The journey started with going to the medical college library and started collecting and reading various books on retardation. At that time no medical personal was able to give the duo a clear picture of what it would be. The duo went door to door collecting information and in vain. During that time there was only one physiotherapist in North Karnataka.

The physiotherapist promised to teach the teacher the exercises, and the teacher should come to her clinic every day with the child and do the exercises. It took the child four years before it could walk. The student felt that he would shift base from Hubli to Bombay then (Mumbai now). The teachers reply to the student, that if all of you shift to Bombay, what about those children who cannot go to Bombay. The student replied by asking the teacher that could he take the leadership and start a school for such children at Hubli.

Thus the concept of the USHAS took seed. They traveled all over India, and studied what is best in each school, so as to incorporate this into the plan. To assess the total number of mentally challenged children in this part of Karnataka, they planed to have a camp, with the help of National Institute of Mental Health, Secunderabad and with the help of Rotary club of Hubli. The camp was of three days, before the day of the camp there was only 28 registrations, we were thinking what we would be doing with the team of experts for three days.

We wrote an article for the local news paper Samyukta Karnataka, as a curtain raising topic. The day of the camp, we had over 60 children, it was one of its kind camps, and the second day all the leading newspaper had captured about it on the front page. By the second and third day we had more 418 cases registered right from the northern part of Karnataka to down south.

It was immediately decided to start a school. We still remember the helping hand we received from the principal of Sophia School, Bangalore, Sister Jayanthi and Sister Nayana, gave us the teaching aids and also identified a special educator who was willing to come to Hubli and run the school. It was disappointment for us for on the first day of the school only 3 children registered. We started the school at the local municipal hospital premises.

An asbestos roof shed, we had less money but our spirit was high, we ourselves painted the black board, we still have that black board. We continued in this place for a period of 6 years, later shifted to the ancestral house of the teacher. The teacher still remembers when he gave a lecture at BMS architectural college in Bangalore, for designing a school for the handicapped. The students asked what the area of the land for the design was, he said design the best school and then tell me the land required. The drawing won a prize in the national competition.

The teacher always dreamt that we need to have physiotherapy in the centre. We came to know that one Dr.Kiran Bhat who was specialized in pediatric neuro physiotherapy had just joined the local physiotherapy college, we went and requested her, and she liked the centre and promised to come in the evening after her college hours. We were put into a dilemma, for getting children in the evening was a big problem.

The teachers father-in-law had come to visit Hubli, the teacher humbly asked his father in law could he use his good books with Dr.Veerendra Heggde, the President of SDM physiotherapy and Medical College for asking for posting at the centre. It was God’s wish, the next day in the paper we read that Dr.Veerendra Heggde had visited Dharwad, we went to him with the request. He readily agreed to have Dr.Kiran Bhat posting with the students at our centre free of cost.

We invested on the equipments, and long dream came true. At the same time we were dreaming about a speech therapist, for this part of Karnataka we never had a speech therapist, a prayer to god was answered with Ms.Vinaya Gaitonde, who came to settle at Hubli, we started the speech and language development centre. Our dream of having an occupational therapist was also answered by God, by sending us Dr. Madhu Lodaya, with rich experience at Manipal Hospital, who willingly came and helped us.

The dream of the building came also true, when three sisters donated a piece of land. Thus everything came into creation. Piece by piece the big picture, the vision the dream started joining together, today we have about 14,000 sq. ft built in area and 98 children with nineteen facilities. The teachers’ wife Mrs. Rupa took the mantle and the leadership and became the CEO of the centre.

We only dream, for we believe that it is the divine Lords’ work that we are doing, and we are only an instrument in his hand. We also believe that we all come together for a purpose in our life, it is divine Lord’s wish that we all came together. We are thankful to the Lord for choosing us.