Humans of SF | Suhail

“If you want to learn about inclusion, you need to experience it. To understand it realistically, come here, live with them and know – I was recently saying this to my professors.” says Suhail.

“I found out about SF through university. University was telling us to select form a list of 300 organisations and I wanted to select something new. From past experience, I’ve had exposure to gender, livelihood, research and other fields. I wanted to learn something new. After looking at the website and programs, I chose Snehadhara. When I joined, it was very different. With a development course background, I’m used to instant response, immediate actions and so on. But it was different here. It broke my myths, especially those from the romantic ideas you see in movies about children with needs. I was feeling restless after seeing the real situation actually. From being here, I came to know about special needs, got a sense of the behaviour and what it means.”

“This is quite personal but I had my own argument with the higher being (God) about fairness while trying to understand and make sense of everything. During my second week, I spent more time with children. I learnt that I need more patience. Being different from my earlier work, there was a lot of unlearning which is very difficult for me, especially what I’d learnt from childhood. I’ve learnt to be as much human, joyous and humble as possible from my time here. Don’t discriminate. Treat children equally, give space and time, irrespective of age. SF is a space without boundaries of constraint. It’s the first time I’m seeing respect for each other’s values, space and all with great understanding. After this, I want to work with children now because its breaking a lot of my myths. I’ve learnt that intervention is not just for the economically disadvantaged. Development can take place is all places. I hope SF opens more branches. I was thinking of my own hometown and I know so many people will benefit from this.”