M.N.A Hazim Shafii's Portfolio
Volunteering at Asare Home for People With Autism
Asare Home for People With Autism is located in Manipal, Karnataka which is less than an hour from the town of Udupi. The Asare Home was first started by Archana Trust, an organization that aims to promote general welfare of mentally challenged in Udupi district. There were at least 20 residents that live in the home with no less than 8 staffs to take care of them. Before we begin our activities with the residents, we were warned of certain members of the home that have the history of being violent and should be left alone. I notice that the female and male residents were living under the same roof and of different age.
The youngest was Akash, a friendly 12 year old boy who was unable to speak. He loves watches. When I first met him, he took my hand and tapped my watch with his finger instead of the usual handshake. Naturally, the other volunteers who had no watches were completely ignored by him. Even though most of the residents were unable to work or learn like normal people, there were a few exceptions. There were residents that were paid to arrange and sort out files and records in Kasturba Hospital. They were able to communicate well in English and very bright too.
We spent the whole evening with the residents by playing games, drawing and colouring. During the drawing session, I was paired with an old man. The funny story about this particular old man was that he likes to take pictures with girls. When we first arrived to the Asare Home, he would innocently took the hands of the female volunteers to try and take pictures with them. The female volunteers were a little bit scared of her naturally and so I was assigned to work with the old man for the whole evening and to keep his hands off the female volunteers. But he turned out to be a sport as he and his close friend would teach me the different names of colour in Kannada and laughed at my poor attempt to speak Kannada.
The thing that I really enjoyed spending time with the residents was the opportunity to listen to their stories despite our language barrier. They were interested to know where I came from and what it was like to live there. One particular resident was positively sure that he has been to Kuala Lumpur despite the protest by some of his friends whom they called him a liar. I also enjoyed communicating with them and learned about their different talents and interests. For an instance, one young male resident was particularly good in dancing to Bollywood songs that once he hears a song, he would start dancing. Another one likes to sing to Bollywood songs and from what I was told, he knew the lyrics to a lot of Bollywood songs. It is truly an experience that has brought a whole new perspective in my life.