AOL celebrates its anniversary every year on 20th May and we call it as “Monster help day”. All AOL employees across the globe render their services for community help. They form groups and the entire day is spent in various places like orphanages, old age homes, eye-camps, serving food for the needy etc. This year I decided to be part of “The refugee home” for a day service. The service included taking 20 kids to Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium. Sharvari, Dhivya (sharu’s daughter) and I reached office at 8:00 A.M and with a bunch of other volunteers we reached the venue in two hours time. Before I narrate the entire day’s event, let me give you a brief introduction about this place:
The refugee home is a home for underprivileged kids, run by a lady called Buella. She has adopted twenty kids and looking after them as her own children. yes, you read it right, I am not kidding. Technically, she has twenty two kids along with her twin boys. Buella mam grew up admiring Mother Theresa and her charity work. She was her role model from her childhood days and always dreamt of doing at least a fraction of what Mother Theresa has done to the society. Buella mam's heart wrenched when she saw kids who were begging on the streets. She even had nightmares when she saw physical abuses with moms who delivered baby girls. Buella mam worked as a teacher till 2007. She quit her job and decided to do something to the society. With the support from her family she started this home for refugees. In the refugee home, we can see kids with different age groups, the youngest being close to two and the oldest being eight years old. She is taking care of all the children with at most care and affection. Her passion for giving life for the underprivileged kids is something significant.
We picked up the kids from their place and headed towards planetarium. On our way to the planetarium the kids entertained us by singing prayers, songs and rhymes. I was refreshed with all my nursery poems, not bad I still remembered all of them. We reached the venue at 11.00 A.M since the show was only at 12:30, we still had one and a half hour. We took the kids inside the park and let them play games (swing, see-saw). While they were playing, we distributed some snacks (biscuits, frooti, chips, and chocolates).What really impressed me was, the moment we gave them to eat, they ate only after the prayers, each one thanked god for that moment. It was simply touching!
The kids really had good time coming out of their home. They thoroughly enjoyed their outing playing with all of us. It was time for us to go for the show; though kids were slightly tired it didn’t show up on their faces, they were excited to watch the show. As this was their first visit to planetarium, they didn’t know what to expect inside. It was dark and with the air conditioners the place was cool inside. They had played some soothing music, after few minutes the lights were turned off. The first thing we saw was the stars all over the place, it was wonderful. The kids started clapping and screaming in joy. The show was for about forty-five minutes, most of them enjoyed the show, but the little ones were so tired they slept off. Once we came out, we played with them for some more time and the kids thanked all of us for the wonderful opportunity given to them from AOL. We took some pictures with all of them. The happiness on each of their face was truly priceless.
We just spent a day with twenty kids and that was tiring. What do we say about Buella mam, who spends every single day with them? My heart ached just listening to the stories about the kid’s background. It takes a lot of courage to step up and do such a great service. I am so glad we have people like Buella mam to do such things without expecting anything. What a selfless service isn’t it?
The refugee home is a home for underprivileged kids, run by a lady called Buella. She has adopted twenty kids and looking after them as her own children. yes, you read it right, I am not kidding. Technically, she has twenty two kids along with her twin boys. Buella mam grew up admiring Mother Theresa and her charity work. She was her role model from her childhood days and always dreamt of doing at least a fraction of what Mother Theresa has done to the society. Buella mam's heart wrenched when she saw kids who were begging on the streets. She even had nightmares when she saw physical abuses with moms who delivered baby girls. Buella mam worked as a teacher till 2007. She quit her job and decided to do something to the society. With the support from her family she started this home for refugees. In the refugee home, we can see kids with different age groups, the youngest being close to two and the oldest being eight years old. She is taking care of all the children with at most care and affection. Her passion for giving life for the underprivileged kids is something significant.
We picked up the kids from their place and headed towards planetarium. On our way to the planetarium the kids entertained us by singing prayers, songs and rhymes. I was refreshed with all my nursery poems, not bad I still remembered all of them. We reached the venue at 11.00 A.M since the show was only at 12:30, we still had one and a half hour. We took the kids inside the park and let them play games (swing, see-saw). While they were playing, we distributed some snacks (biscuits, frooti, chips, and chocolates).What really impressed me was, the moment we gave them to eat, they ate only after the prayers, each one thanked god for that moment. It was simply touching!
The kids really had good time coming out of their home. They thoroughly enjoyed their outing playing with all of us. It was time for us to go for the show; though kids were slightly tired it didn’t show up on their faces, they were excited to watch the show. As this was their first visit to planetarium, they didn’t know what to expect inside. It was dark and with the air conditioners the place was cool inside. They had played some soothing music, after few minutes the lights were turned off. The first thing we saw was the stars all over the place, it was wonderful. The kids started clapping and screaming in joy. The show was for about forty-five minutes, most of them enjoyed the show, but the little ones were so tired they slept off. Once we came out, we played with them for some more time and the kids thanked all of us for the wonderful opportunity given to them from AOL. We took some pictures with all of them. The happiness on each of their face was truly priceless.
We just spent a day with twenty kids and that was tiring. What do we say about Buella mam, who spends every single day with them? My heart ached just listening to the stories about the kid’s background. It takes a lot of courage to step up and do such a great service. I am so glad we have people like Buella mam to do such things without expecting anything. What a selfless service isn’t it?
( Monster helpers at "The refugee home")
(The refugee home family)
(We with the kids)
(Nithya, who just turned three. Her father disowned her because she was a girl child and mom committed suicide out of depression)
(Anupriya, who is the youngest & cutest kid in the home is disowned by her father too for being a girl child)
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