A Million Reasons… It’s In the little things.

Do we need a reason to show love? Does something have to trigger our desire to show gratitude?

We considered these questions and decided to send out a word to all of our esteemed beneficiaries seeking answers, if there were any to this.

A few responses were elicited from the guardians and we thought these were very emotional and touched deeply on the human condition of living despite challenges.

Not only did it show that we were not just a group catering to special needs, but it humbles us to see that we are taking a part of our shared existence in reducing the worry of those who would not have known where to look to for solutions.

Or isn’t that what being truly human is?

That we can identify something wrong in our world and proffer to the best of our abilities, solutions to see that we get to live a little lighter; a weight lifted off our shoulders.

Sometimes, it might look like the impact we make is small. A minute detail. Only carrying a few relevant forms of assistance. Then we go out, listen to people, get into conversations and realise that there are a lot of things that have changed in the lives of other people that we might not have figured out earlier.

One of the greatest ideals of humility states that we do not get to presume that we are the only ones who can do what we are doing.

We just do what we can do; add our own cup of water to the ocean and hope that it touches the life of someone.

This is what we at The Straight Child Foundation are grateful for: the ability to make impact in the world and find out from the lives of those who have been impacted upon of its benefits.

The program titled, “What is your Million reason for …(please add the name of the topic)”, one of our respondents shared a rather touching story of a safe birth that turned out to be a traumatic one for her child. In her words, she narrates what she thought to be the futility of life in her growing child:

At that tender age, nobody knew he would survive it. All hope on him was lost. After that exercise other complications developed, he lost his vocal power, lost a bit of his sight, lost full coordination and started experiencing seizures.

The word, hopeless, is only a word that can easily be translated to its opposite, things took a turn for the better as she went on to narrate the effect of seeking out a way out of the problem. She says:

“Candidly speaking, your organization through their teachings, seminars, talks and various other programmes has restored hope on earlier hopeless situations…Today for instance, “Chiboy” as he is fondly called can now do some things he didn’t do before. Though the seizure is still there which happens occasionally, he can now eat on his own even try using spoon, attempt bathing himself and drying his body after, can now remember where items used to be in the house and place them there, try speaking though inaudibly and try doing some family chores as directed.”

We now understand that sometimes love might not have just one reason to exist. For this guardian, she expresses her gratitude for being able,

“…to see and understand that [her] daughter’s condition is not spiritual,…[and] has made her love and care more for her daughter more.”

Just as we are working everyday to see that life can be lived one day at a time without limitations, we now affirm again what we have always known, that life is not just about the big things. This minute detail in this mother’s words has shown us that “Your various words of encouragement have raised my hope that my son would still be useful to himself and others one day.”

However few the responses were, our hearts are full to hear these stories. We are still in this business of hearing your own stories of love and how you have overcome. You can reach us as always through our the website www.thestraightchildfoundation.org.

Till we come your way next time, stay afloat and always remember that God loves you always.