She makes paraplegics ‘stand on their feet’
Despite being restricted to a wheelchair since her teens, Naseema Mohammed Amin Hurzuk, 69, symbolizes a story of sheer struggle and grit that has helped many like her to ‘stand on their feet’ and face life proudly and independently.
The founder-president of the Helpers of the Handicapped Kolhapur (HOHK - 1984), based in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur town, Naseema Didi, as she is fondly called, has succeeded in the rehabilitation of more than 13,000 girls and boys afflicted by paraplegia and rendered service to tens of thousands of such physically challenged people in the past 35 years.
This was despite her own ambition to become an athlete being snuffed out when paraplegia sneaked into her life when she was 17 and left her disabled. Paraplegia is a condition when both legs are partially or fully paralysed below the hip following disease or damage to the spinal cord in the thoracic or lumbar region of the back.
“I not only excelled in academics, but was a very social, enterprising, sportsgirl, and took part in cultural activitiesï. But, one day, all my dreams of becoming an athlete were shattered,” Naseema told IANS at her home in Sindhudurg. She was confined to her room, with limited mobility, through a wheelchair.
“She felt ashamed of herself as she had to seek help for even going to toilet... She retreated into a shell, avoided people for nearly three years, and prayed daily to the Almighty to end her miserable life,” said her younger brother, Aziz Hurzuk. Six months later, another shock hit the family when their father expired suddenly.
It was around this time she came in contact with a local businessman, the late N D ‘Babukaka’ Diwan, himself a paraplegic, but living a full life, driving his own modified car and even travelling in India and abroad. The elderly Diwan was one of the founders of The Association of People with Disability (APD) in Bengaluru. Inspired by him, Naseema gradually emerged from her private hell, picked up the broken academic strands and graduated from Shivaji University Kolhapur. She acquired a job in the Central Excise & Customs and with dedication and hard work rose to the post of a deputy superintendent.
“At that time, I used to give away almost my entire salary to give all kinds of help to handicapped childrenï. But it was never enough; I wanted to do something for the total rehabilitation’ of a handicapped person to make them independent in life, but was unsure how to go about it,” she recalled.
Again, with Babukaka’s help, she founded the Apang Punarvasan Sanstha in Kolhapur to help the handicapped and took voluntary retirement from her job. From an initial trickle, it virtually became a mecca for paraplegics who thronged there from all over the state and beyond, and she helped all. In 1984, she decided to launch the HOHK with the support of another handicapped woman, Rajani Karkare, and the erstwhile royal scions of the Kagal kingdom, Vijayadevi Ghatge and her daughter-in-law Suhasinidevi Ghatge.
Since diagnosing paraplegia in early stages was crucial for the victim’s well-being and stable future, they started with the motto of ‘catch-em young’, tackled the deep psychological and emotional problems that came with their handicap and strove to make them independent on their own feet, said HOHK Trustee P.D. Deshpande.
After 35 years, Naseema looks back with satisfaction at the HOHK’s progress. “Today, we have Gharonda Hotel-cum-Rehab Centre built in 1996 for 110 paraplegic male and female college students, without barriers, and even a majority of the staffers are physically challenged,” HOHK CEO Ayaz Sangrar said. The students are given vocational skills like computers, cuisine, tailoring, embroidery and other trades. All HOHK’s works are carried out through donations from India and abroad.
The dream project of Naseema -- Swapna Nagari (or Dream Town) -- came up in 2000, on a river bank in Sindhudurg with a generous gift of 12 acres land by the Mangaonkar family. “It was a barren land, surrounded by river on three sides, but with the help of various government and other organisations, we set up a cashewnut processing unit to generate some income. Around 50 disabled persons live there along with 100 other staffers,” said Naseema.
Conferred with national and international honours, Naseema continues to work in her low-profile style among the less-privileged in society and attributes her achievements to her family, colleagues, supporters, and known and anonymous
donors. Naseema silently remembers her father’s words: “Khudi ko kar buland itna, Ke har taqdeer se pehle; Khuda bande se khud poochhe -- Bataa, teri raza kya hai” (Raise yourself to such heights, that God may himself ask ‘ What’s your wish?’). (A positive-journalism feature supported
by the Frank Islam Foundation)