CHENNAI: Eleven-year-old Ashwariya had never seen a train before. In her excitement, she didn’t sleep the whole night as she awaited the morning of her maiden journey. She was not alone. There were many others who had neither seen nor stepped into a train. These are all mentally challenged children from various institutions and special schools in the city who, for the first time in their lives, were taking a train to Tirupati.Flagged off from Chennai Central, festooned with balloons and with a band playing in the background, this eight-coach train chugged out carrying 1,008 mentally challenged children, volunteers and a medical team early on Tuesday morning.The children owed their excitement, their smiles and giggles to the Chennai Food Bank, which has served over two crore meals since its inception. In celebration of 25 years of service, it arranged this chartered train trip under the project Apna Bana Lo to give these children the experience of their lifetime. Chennai Food Bank, which was started by businessmen under the banner of Rajasthan Youth Association (RYA) Madras Metro Trust, supplies 26,000 kgs of grains every month to over 200 orphanages and institutions for the differently-abled in the city.Deva, a staff member from New Leed Trust who was travelling with his team of mentally challenged children, said, “This is an amazing experience. Putting together so many numbers is a challenging task, but the organisers have done a great job.”The volunteers from RYA and their families did their bit towards making this come true, said Asha Mehta, family member of a volunteer.Madendran and Dilip, school students who are volunteers with the RYA, said, “We are here to help and we are excited about it.”Ashwairya and Shakunthala from Mansa Special School said, “Last night, we couldn’t sleep because of the excitement. This is the first time we are seeing a train and travelling in it. We kept talking about things we could do on this trip.”Lalitha Muralidaran, secretary of Mansa Special School, said, “Most of the children who are travelling today have never been on a train. They are very excited. Each one has a different kind of mental disability. They are mostly from marginalised families.”G D Ranka, founder of Chennai Food Bank, said, “We wanted to do something that puts the smiles back on the children’s faces. To see the joy on their faces gives us satisfaction and a sense of fulfilment.”The rest of the 300 volunteers who are not travelling on the train will be following the train in their respective cars.
Comments
0 comment