Film: Kiran Centre (India)

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00:00:00: SOUND UP; [MUSIC PLAYS]
00:00:09: CHARLIE [NARRATING]: Anyone who has been to Varanasi would realize how almost impossible to live a life where one is handicapped.; [MUSIC PLAYS]; CHARLIE [NARRATING]: Imagine living in India, where there really are no rights for people with disabilities. There just simply are no ramps, no help - nothing.; [MUSIC PLAYS]; CHARLIE [NARRATING]: The Kiran Centre is right outside the ancient city of Varanasi. It's an oasis for children with disabilities. Helping the disabled is a new concept in India, and Judith Keller is taking this concept to a new frontier.
00:01:01: J. K. SANGEETA: People may little by little come to realize that yes, disabled are not disabled, they are just differently-abled, they have different abilities. And that is the biggest need, you know, that people recognized their abilities and accept them.; [MUSIC PLAYS]; CHILD: [CAPTIONED] Namaste.; SANGEETA: Namaste.; CHARLIE: Namaste. Namaste.; CHILD: Namaste.; CHARLIE: Thank you. These are beautiful.; SANGEETA: [CAPTIONED, TRANSLATED] Give it to the person behind him.; CHARLIE [NARRATING]: In Sanskrit, the word namaste means “the god in me, greets the god in you.”; CHARLIE: Do you live here?; CHILD: [CAPTIONED] Yes.; CHARLIE: Where are you guys from?; CHILD: [CAPTIONED] Bihar.; CHARLIE: Bihar.; CHARLIE [NARRATING]: Bihar is one of the poorest states in India. It provides no social services for children who are disabled.; [SOUNDS OF CHILDREN LAUGHING]
00:02:06: CHARLIE [NARRATING]: What makes the Kiran Centre unique, is their workshops. Children from the surrounding villages are brought in, and not just rehabilitated, but given job skills, and training. You’ll find a toy factory. A music workshop. You’ll find a child with polio, reciting India’s Constitution, saying, “I want to be a future leader and make this world a better place.” The soul rises to the surface, and the physical disappears.
00:02:33: SANGEETA: Here we are in our good toy workshop.; [SOUNDS OF WORK]; SANGEETA: [INTRODUCES CHILDREN]; CHARLIE: What are they making?; SANGEETA: Toys for our educational purpose in the Kiran Centre. It is to develop the brain of the children. This work program has in mind also to let work with other schools, where we will share these toys. Sanjit (?), can you show what other toys you have put there?; CHARLIE: So I have to get this ring through here...and over here.; SANJIT: Yes.; CHARLIE: Okay. This is going to take a while. Oh no...this is...really! Will you show me? Do it once yourself. [LAUGHTER]
00:03:38: CHARLIE [NARRATING]: I was invited into the caliper workshop, where the braces are made for the children’s legs.; WORKER: Many people depend on this work for their mobility.; CHARLIE: What is this?; WORKER: This is a caliper, no, it stabilizes the paralyzed limb, so it will provide support for the person.; SANGEETA: There are two things. Artificial limb is one thing for prosthetics, and what we are mainly doing here is for the paralyzed limbs. Which means, the support.; WORKER: Support for the limbs, so that a child can walk. Exactly.; SANGEETA: Because muscle power has gone to polio. Unfortunately, in spite of the whole vaccination campaign, there are so many affected by polio paralysis. It is very much a social problem. Unless there is a proper rehabilitation process, the child is separated from the rest of society. Because of being paralyzed, they cannot go to school like the other children. So we found out that some surgeries are done for paralyzed children, but then they are left to themselves.; [MUSIC PLAYS]
00:04:44: SANGEETA: Calipers which were made at that time—heavy, aluminum calipers—they are just left in the house and the children continued to crawl on the floor. We started to look at what they need.; CHARLIE: What are you making, a special shoe?; WORKER: Yeah, they are making a special shoe. You know, [CAPTIONED] if the child has some limb shortening, you know, then we use this material, which is very light and very durable.
00:05:10: SANGEETA: We realized what is needed is a holistic approach, which means education and physical rehabilitation together. We need to put them on their legs, so they can go to school, they can be psychologically and physically strengthened, so that we have a goal for these children.; [MUSIC PLAYS]
00:05:32: SANGEETA: [CAPTIONED] Suchie is the headmistress.; CHARLIE: Hello.; SUCHIE: [CAPTIONED, TRANSLATED] Come this way.; CHARLIE: So they teach music here.; SUCHIE: Yes.; [SOUND OF DRUMMING]; CHARLIE: Will you help me? Will you help? How do you do that?; [SOUND OF DRUMMING]; CHARLIE: What’s the name of that instrument?; DRUMMER: [CAPTIONED, TRANSLATED] Tabla. I like the tablas very much because they are now my life.; SUCHI: [CAPTIONED, TRANSLATED] Every aspect of our lives is interwoven with music.; CHARLIE: Will you play a song that means a lot to your heart?
00:06:12: SUCHIE: [CAPTIONED, TRANSLATED] Will you sing a ghazal (verses of poetry that are sung)?; HARMONIUM PLAYER: [CAPTIONED] This is about love, feeling. [SINGS AND PLAYS] [CAPTIONED, TRANSLATED] “The suffering of love never leaves the heart. Even one mad with love cannot escape. Even after you give your life, the madness does not abate. We don’t know what this world is, my God. I don’t see any scene that brings me peace.” [DRUMMING ADDED]; CHARLIE: All right! [APPLAUDS] Way to go. Thank you. Just keep doin’ it. That’s great! Great.
00:07:21: SUCHIE: Yes, yes, good music...[LAUGHTER]; CHARLIE: Well, I’m here to get music. Anyway, you guys, thank you so much.
00:07:34: CHARLIE: [WALKING] He’s a talented musician.; SANGEETA: Yes, yes, he is talented. His teacher says he’s God-gifted.; CHARLIE: Yeah, no, you can feel it. You can see it in his eyes, you know?; SANGEETA: Yes, yes, yes.
00:07:41: SANGEETA: [CAPTIONED, TRANSLATED] Gundar! This is Charlie.; CHARLIE: What are you learning today? What can you teach me?; GUNDAR: Jawaharlal Nehru.; CHARLIE: Studying about the [late] prime minister. What’s your favorite subject?; TRANSLATORS TRANSLATE; GUNDAR: [CAPTIONED, TRANSLATED] Everything.; TRANSLATOR: [CAPTIONED, TRANSLATED] What do you like best?; GUNDAR: Hindi.; TRANSLATOR: Hindi. He likes Hindi.; CHARLIE: What does he want to be when he grows up?; MOTHER: [CAPTIONED, TRANSLATED] Stand up straight, please.; CHARLIE: You wanted to be a politician?; [TRANSLATOR TRANSLATES]; GUNDAR: Yes.; CHARLIE: I knew it! I could see it in his eyes. This is a future leader, this one. Do you want to be the prime minister of India?; [TRANSLATOR TRANSLATES]; GUNDAR: [shakes head, “no”]; CHARLIE: You have time to think.; [MUSIC PLAYS]
00:08:28: CHARLIE: So the next phase is to try to create a teachers’ training program so teachers can come here and learn how to deal with handicapped children and then go into the villages and into the fields and teach the children in the villages.; SANGEETA: Exactly. Yes. And not so much teachers, but youngsters, after their graduation.
00:08:48: MALAIKA: I was just sitting one day, in Canada. And just finished university and really wanted to give back. I’ve always felt this pull. Then I searched the Internet in special education, and the Kiran Centre popped up. And the image of this little child, with crutches, and the saying was, “Education and Rehabilitation for Children with Different Abilities.” And I automatically knew that this was a very special place, because Sangeeta has really given many children, I mean, thousands of children, in this part of India, a new chance in life. Just to see that so many children here are learning how to walk for the first time, to gain independence. And this setting here, in the village outside of the chaos of the busy city, is really a piece of heaven for these children. Because they spend their daily lives in what for us seems like horrific conditions. But here, they get to come to school every day, with wonderful staff. There’s a very special feeling—everyone here seems to work together and help each other. Lots of love. And everyone is conscious of the fact that they’re working for the children, to better their lives.
00:10:13: CHILDREN SING: [CAPTIONED] Bollywood movie song: “He took my heart and left, he never came back.” That’s it.; TRANSLATOR: [CAPTIONED] Tell them what you want to be when you grow up.; CHILDREN: Engineer. I want to direct an Indian classical dance troupe. [loosely translated]; SANGEETA: Dance director! Wow.
00:10:49: CHARLIE: It's interesting. Your lotus garden right here. Lotus is symbolic of being able to grow beauty within murky waters.; SANGEETA: When we look at it, it is what is happening in the life of these children, definitely. So many come out of a shady place, hidden in the families because they didn’t have any possibility to develop their capacities and do well. Once they come here, they bloom! That is very often…they bloom like the lotus flower. So that is great. And we are grateful, together with the children.; CHARLIE: What is your dream?; SANGEETA: [LAUGHS GENTLY] Oh! My hope, my dream is that this will remain alive, and that it will, just these children who have been with us here for several years, may carry in their life a spark of this…hope, life, joy, which they have experienced here, and share it with others. And that this idea of teaching others so that they may go and take this message of hope, of joy, even in these tragedies. Children are not disabled, but that they are able and that they bring this ability into the villages, into the family. That is my dream.; [MUSIC PLAYS]; [CHILDREN GIGGLE]; END OF FILM

Now Viewing: Kiran Centre

At the Kiran Centre in Varanasi, India, children do not have disabilities, but different abilities. By focusing on hope and growth, and working closely with parents, the Centre empowers differently-abled children to lead healthy, happy, and fulfilling lives.