Nurturing love and peace

Vijaysinh Parmar ,TNNJAGUDAN (MEHSANA): What will a typical child answer if asked what the essential things in life are? Air, water and food, probably. But, a child nurtured in Karunagram replied: "Love and peace." Karunagram, set up by Sanjay Bhavsar and wife Tula, cares for and educates 12 children at present . Many of these children don't know their father's name. But that is no problem - they adopt the surname 'Bhartiya' . "Most of these children come from Childline and have been physically abused by parents or people they worked for. Here, they are allowed to enjoy their childhood freely," says Sanjay, a mechanical engineer who plunged into social work. A month ago, a circus artiste came to Jagudan village to leave his five-year-old son Meghraj, with the couple. The reason - he wanted them to educate the child so that he didn't enter the same profession. At present, the institution is located in an old-age home. A new campus on the new Mehsana-Visnagar Road, which will accommodate 50 children, is being built with funds donated by a non-resident Gujarati impressed by the couple's work. Education is imparted through shibirs (camps) on science, nature, farming, painting and even birdwatching ! "When we organised a coastal camp, we went to coastal areas for five days and an expert explained things to us. This approach yielded encouraging results,'' says Pravin Dulera, a teacher and caretaker at the institute. "The children are disciplined - they even cook their meals together . We assess their progress regularly, and it's positive,'' says Balbhadra Gohil, another teacher. Six teachers from different schools volunteer on weekends at Karunagram . The plan is to enrol them in regular schools from class VIII. "They can decide on their careers later. First, the aim is to make them good human beings," adds the idealistic educator.