- Just a couple of days before, I read a news in Nagarik about a social worker who has a heart of Gold and her name is Dil Shova Shrestha. But this front page news defamed her as sex offenders. It was so hard to believe that a social worker like her was caught in deep scandal like that. To support their front page news report, Nagarik has clanged on to a phone record a little more than a three minutes long, claiming the voice was of Dil shova with some unknown person to supply a minor girl child who was in her shelter.
The next day other news hit the headline, rescuing thirty-four children who were in her children home, citing they were kept there without legal process. The rescuer was none other than but an NGO [national human right activist] whose bus was shown in the news picture. The bus took the children with them. I yet have to read where they were located. They said the condition of the AmakoGhar was so pathetic, kind of home which seem to be inviting many disease. What is griping about the condition of the Dilshova’s shelter home is revelation of its condition by a Doctor, a friend of Reshma Singh a student social worker who has been associated with Ama Ghar for about a month at the same time when this news of sex abuse surfaced in the media. Her doctor friend said, it hygienic condition was almost the condition of one of ‘our government hospitals’. Scary it may sound but it was mentioned in the news that it looked like home to many disease. In her article which was published in setopati Reshma writes, “I have talked with them, even brought a kid to stay with my family for a couple of days, taken some clothes and chocolates for them, put shoes on the feet of some bare footed kids, build a kind of rapport with them, and I know their situation is dire, extremely dire which needs immediate attention, but nowhere could I smell the rat about anything like sex abuse. That is way too farfetched and dishonest thing to say.”
Before this article was published, I knew that this is the condition of dire financial need she face, as Dilshova do not have the marketing skill of BBC journalist and front face of Help Nepal - Mission, Rabindra Mishra to go around the world to raise money to run his children home, where only about 40 children are sheltered. However he is raising money to run it, as if he is on the path to run a nation.
July 12, 2012 Dil Shova was in DishaNirdhesh, a talk show by Bijay Kumar. Something triggered me so much after watching this show, I have written about her in my blog before also; just like the show host Bijay Kumar keeps coming in my blog, although mine is not a news base blog site not even contemporary subject. You can read my prior post about her in a cultural difference. The real problem in her shelter home is not hidden but ignored by the media, as a whole; instead its a dire need of financial, which is causing problem there. Ironically, instead of making it as an issue, media really went for the hygienic issue or hyped the news in whole different direction. Let me make my point here, that unhygienic and stingy environment should not be accepted in any children's homes, but even to keep clean place one needs little bit of money to pay the cleaning staff, but then again it seems to me that the dire need of money is forbidding her to hire people who can giver her clean place to breath fresh air. It is not hard to understand that with limited number of staff, who are there to lend her much needed extra pairs of hands to run her shelter home are not making it an issue to keep it that clean, which will be accepted to some child right observer.
It was really hard for me to swallow the hard truth, which she was sharing with the talk show host about the death and financial matter. Suppose if one of her ‘mother’ dies and the last rite cost about 5-6 thousands only; but, that means the whole month goes by without lentil for the rest of the members in her shelter or tea without sugar for all. I myself grew up in Bal Mandir and did not have a knowledge about the existence of black tea forget about a tea without sugar, when I was child. Besides as a child, I really had not seen in my life anyone crying for lack of finance.
She being the lady with a golden heart wants to help so many people beyond her capacity, and at times more than she really can accommodate and feed them. She can not say ‘no’ to anyone coming in her shelter home, mostly sent by some kind policemen or civil citizens. At times she also started accepting children who were mostly maobadi victims. To add her problems she is not a rich lady who has a plenty of money in her bank balance to pour on her kind work; to provide shelter to those who are abandoned or needy nor she is educated enough to write fancy proposals to ask for donation from foreign aid agencies. She accepts, whatever she is given from kind hearted people within the country, which is not sufficient to run her shelter home and there was also a time when one of her acquainted used her building as collateral. However DilShova is the one who found herself in deep soup to get her home back from the bank when it was supposed to under hammer. When the news hit the headlines, she was partially rescued by the Government of Nepal. Tear freely had flowed down from her eyes, when show was sharing this story with the TV host.
It is very clear that the reason she can not run her shelter home with minimum standard which is acceptable to those who are there to observe the condition but not her good intention it is because she never goes out anywhere asking for money to run her shelter home. She however accepts whatever comes in. We can blame it mismanagement issue but not her intention here and news should have rather focused on the need of finance to run the shelter home not the pure intention to abuse or exploit anyone who are there in her shelter home.
If we diagnose her real problem wrong way people will never ever trust the kind hearted social workers, who knows nothing about management and art of marketing skill. That sure will cause so many unwanted problems in society. And this news which appeared on the front page of Nagarik is one of them. Bijay Kumar from Kantipur found himself defending Dilshova because we know about her after her appearance on his show.
We keep hearing story about people giving her foods, goods and small cash but not the big money to ease her big project. Here people think Rs 100,000 is big money, try to buy grocery for the 100 people for a month. Then this much money do have power to make you feel dwarf and its not like running a family of four to say that much is enough money. Besides it takes lots of money to run such shelter home and education sure do cost more than sheltering them under a roof.
That news tarnished squeaky clean image of a social worker with a heart of pure gold. It may have taken her work to be recognized time but it is gone in a day with such negative news. But, I am sure, her tainted image will be resorted sooner than later and journalists and media will play a substantial role to get her image back intact. All I have to do is wait and watch for this to happen.
---
No comments:
Post a Comment