Gajendra Kumar
A DIFFERENTLY-ABLED PERSON
We met Gajendra-Kumar, a pleasant 27 year old young lad on his wheel-chair selling lottery tickets near the ‘Belek-Kade Pola’ in Ratmalana. We got to know more about him and his family during a casual chat. He lives by the side of the rail track on the Ratmalana beach area. He is paralyzed waist downwards from birth, lives with his mother, sister, her husband and their three little girls (12 years, 11 years and 4 months). Gajendra sells lottery tickets and supports the family with his daily earnings of around Rs 200 to 300 per day. His mother works in houses as a domestic aid and the brother-in-law works in the Pola as a porter whenever work is available for them.
We asked Gajendra how we could help him? His first request was for us to repair his wheel chair, which is his feet and then requested us to build a toilet for him if possible. He invited us to visit his humble home.
Gajendra lives in a small 10 ft x 12 ft area covered with wooden planks, and a roof that is in a very dilapidated state. They don’t have a toilet so the family uses a public toilet which is across the rail track. Gajendra with his disability cannot cross the rail track so he uses a neighbor’s toilet for which he has to pay a nominal sum monthly. Seeing the plight of this family we decided to build a very basic toilet for them. A used commode and a washbasin was donated to us and we had to spend only for the toilet structure.
The following would be most welcome to help this family.
1) A donation of a walker for Gajendra. (Thank you Natasha for your kind gesture - 4 April 2010)
2) A sponsor for the 3 little girls so that they can have basic needs like milk food, some nourishing food, books/uniforms etc.
3) We would like to set up a home based 'kola kenda' business for Sumathi so that she could earn a few rupees daily whilst being at home looking after the 3 kids. A kind donation of a Blender, a kerosine cooker and a coconut scraper for this purpose is also welcome. (Thank you Jalthy Seneviratne for very kindly donating the Blender/Grinder for the 'kola kenda' project. All merit to our dearly beloved Nirmala - her 7th death anniversary falls on 24 Apr 2010). A kind donor also gave Sumathi 2 saucepans. Sumathi started her 'kola kenda' business on 24th April by giving merit to Nirmala. See pictures below.
We repaired Gajendra's wheel chair handle and replaced a tube which was worn out.
Gajendra Kumar and Family were very appreciative of the newly built toilet. We still have to get the water connection which would cost approximately Rs 24,000/=
Cost of construction
Labor charges Rs 13,700/=
Materials Rs 30,887/=
T O T A L Rs 44,587/=
Repairs to wheel chair Rs 1,300/=