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Sunny's Story : a poignant insight into the life of a boy with Down's Syndrome and his family
[Last updated Friday, April 8, 2005]
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Pramila Balasundaram |
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Early integration in Drupri |
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Mothers' Self Help Group |
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Parents and Children |
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Puppet Theatre and below, Ashu |
SUNNY'S STORY written by Pramila Balasundaram is an extraordinary little book . Pramila founded SAMADHAN, an NGO in New Delhi, India, for children with intellectual disability living in poverty and thus doubly handicapped by their disability and poverty and this book is a result of her twenty years of experience .
The story she tells is the true story of Ranjan (usually called Sunny), a young man with Downs Syndrome living in Delhi , who disappeared (perhaps kidnapped as seems likely from certain remarks made by Sunny ) and came back miraculously after one whole year. He is the son of the very first volunteer who came to help with setting up Samadhan, Rajkumari Kaul and who died unfortunately before Sunny’s safe return.
The story is a narration of the extraordinary situations in which Sunny found himself and how he always found support and help . This reflects the fact that Sunny was included in the lives of ordinary men and women who do not see “inclusion” as a concept but as the most sensible way to deal with someone like Sunny.
In this sense it is a story about inclusion and how even though story shows how he is vulnerable to exploitation , he does achieve a lot because some people see him not as a person with intellectual disability but as someone who also has dreams and ambitions even if the rest of the world does not recognize them as such.
It is heartening therefore that the author focuses on how Sunny, for all his disability survives in the outside world of people, who often have neither an awareness nor knowledge about intellectual disability nor experience of interacting with such persons. It is a story which ends happily for Sunny , awakens a sympathetic response in most people by sheer force of personality , which is a combination of innocence, perseverance in face of odds plus to some extant innate skills of survival. This is the core of the book. How Sunny is a self proclaimed advocate and survives the kind of situations, often negative, in which he finds himself.
The book is written for all disability activists and also for parents so that they can take heart and not be afraid for the future of their children with intellectual disability. The greatest impact it makes is to show us that persons with intellectual disability will and do learn and change if given the opportunities and a supportive, non threatening environment,which includes them as people not as disabled.
As a text for universities offering disability studies this is good source material since the story reflects the lives of persons with intellectual disability in India, is culturally sensitive and brings out the situation in which they are placed. As fiction based on facts it provides an interesting insight into the life of a person with intellectual disability in India and how he and his family cope and overcome problems they face.
Published by ISPCK and available at SAMADHAN's office in Delhi. Write to Pramila at
samdh10@hotmail.com or lila.bala@gmail.com
or the Samadhan office at samadhan@del3.vsnl.net.in.
The book costs U.S $ 6 , BP 4 and Rs 95 .Please add Rs 150 for postage if outside India and Rs 46 if within India . The amount may vary depending on the number of books ordered. Money from sale of this book will go toward the support of SAMADHAN services, in particular the Early identification and Intervention Units and the Community Outreach Service, which empowers women particularly the mothers of persons with intellectual disability in the low income target areas where Samadhan’s services are established.
For more information please visit SAMADHAN's website
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