17/12/2017

PETALS were at Naba Kushtha Ashram Purulia for two days from 17th December 2017. The residents of the Ashram were the people who previously suffered from Leprosy, but are now cured. But in spite of being presently cured of the deadly disease, their families refuse to accept them back and so they have nowhere to go. They live in this ashram away from the village. They are downcasted by the entire village and are not even allowed to board public vehicles. Even the sick have to walk to the hospital which is far away. Those who can’t walk have to stay without any medical help. “Since there is no one whom we can call our own, we have submitted ourselves to God,” they said. Amidst such conditions when PETALS greeted them with love and warmth, they shed tears of joy that there were people who did not make them feel unwanted and out-casted. Their expressions of joy, their dance, their smile, and at the end their remark, “We saw THE ALMIGHTY!” said it all.
Our working agenda according to their wishes was:
 We arranged for a Rickshaw-van so that they may take their sick ones to the hospital or at least the dead ones to the burial or burning ghat.
 “We don’t remember the last time we had non-veg food,” they told us, so on the 17th afternoon, we arranged for a lunch party for them where we served non-veg food.
 We saw them having food in broken utensils and buckets! So PETALS arranged for proper utensils for them.
“We want to spend the rest of our lives singing hymns of the Lord. Can you all arrange something for us?” was there a humble request? So PETALS gave them musical instruments like Khol, Kartal, etc.
Our dear member Tanusree Chakravarty also donated a Harmonium for them.
 “Someone gave us a T. V. because we have no entertainment in life but there is no connection so it is of no use,” they told us sadly. So PETALS also arranged for a cable connection.
They praised our donors Jyotima Mazumdar, Tanusree Chakravarty, Ayan Karmakar, Jui Kar, and Kushal Parui in their melodious songs. We were joined by a new member, Ankur Gupta in this mission. He had donated to many of our programs, but this was the first time he joined us in person. He worked with us with great enthusiasm and we were greatly pleased with him.
Here are the pictures and videos of our project take a look and feel the joy that we have witnessed with our own eyes.