About the Chingari Rehabilitation Centre
The Chingari Rehabilitation Centre is dedicated to providing free, ethical and sustainable healthcare to congenitally disabled children born into gas and contaminated water affected families in Bhopal.
About the Chingari Rehabilitation Centre
The Chingari Rehabilitation Centre is dedicated to providing free, ethical and sustainable healthcare to congenitally disabled children born into gas and contaminated water affected families in Bhopal.
The Chingari Rehabilitation Centre
The Chingari Rehabilitation Centre was founded in 2006 by Rashida Bi and Champa Devi Shukla, both gas survivors themselves. The two women campaigned on behalf of the survivors for years and have never given up the fight for true compensation and justice. The courage and tenacity they showed in their struggle won them the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in 2004, and they used every penny to open Chingari two years later.
Chingari now supports 229 disabled children every day, providing therapies and special education, as well as lunch and transport to and from the centre. But there are a further 1000 registered children in the area who would benefit if resources allowed. The child rehabilitation fund aims to support continued treatment and education and provide a community space to physically and psychologically disabled children and young adults born into families affected by the gas and water poisoning.
When Chingari proudly marked their 10th anniversary in 2016, the founders reflected upon their incredible progress:
We started Chingari in a single room with 15 disabled children and limited resources' said Rashida and Champa. 'The only thing we had at that point was the passion to improve the lives of congenitally disabled children born into families affected by the gas tragedy and subsequent water contamination.
Over the years Chingari has continued to grow, and we have achieved things we would never have believed were possible back then. Almost all the children come from impoverished backgrounds and have family members with long-term health conditions, situations which often compound their struggles.
Chingari Trust operates a clinic committed to helping children in Bhopal born with various psychological and physical disabilities. The Chingari Trust Rehabilitation Center is around half a kilometer away from the Sambhavna clinic.
Presently there are over 930 children registered with the Chingari Trust and 200 children come to the centre each day and receive long-term care. Most children come with their mothers but there are a few children who come on their own. Chingari has five vans and their drivers drive out to the bastis every morning to pick the children up and bring them to the centre.
The services offered at the Chingari Rehabilitation Center include physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, special education and sports activities. The children who visit Chingari are supported, stimulated, and encouraged—all of this makes them happy and leaves them feeling “normal”, an experience they do not often encounter at home and in their neighborhoods. Almost all of these children come from families that are impoverished and one can only imagine how much poverty compounds their existing health problems. This is a major reason why the free care and therapy that is given at the Chingari Rehabilitation center is so crucial.
The staff at Chingari are made up of skilled doctors and therapists who every day take on the challenging task of working with these children. Not only do they work with the children, but they also counsel and instruct their mothers on how to best care for and stimulate their children when they are at home.
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Your money helps us provide free medical care to the survivors of the continuing disaster in Bhopal. We are funded almost exclusively by the generosity of ordinary people around the world.
