January 10, 2025
The World I Will Never Know
Having lived 99% of my life in not only the US but one of the nicest parts of the country, I always knew that I had a wide variety of privileges. Even knowing that, there are times where I realize the extent of those privileges go much farther than I fully understand.
On January 9th, it started as a standard GCIL morning – with a quick breakfast, blog reading, and the usual drive to a location. Today’s destination was the Spastics Society of Karnataka, an organization dedicated to the education and rehabilitation of India’s impeded youth. Upon arrival, we were greeted by the company’s founder, Rukmini Krishnaswamy. Over 40 years ago, after having already accomplished so much at prestigious universities like Columbia and Harvard, Krishnaswamy realized she wanted to do even more. She regaled how one of the most impactful moments that served as a catalyst for eventually forming SSK was her family member telling her not to hold the hand of her friend with cerebral palsy in order to keep up appearances. Being directed to treat her friend like dirt under her shoe lit the spark for a movement that would help tens of thousands of families with children like the girl she was told to ignore.
One of the core philosophies of SSK is teaching each child to learn to thrive with what they are strong in. Children engage in five subjects of their choice (with some required options like languages but other parts having more choice like for example teacher’s aid or political science or even several STEM focuses), and the rest of our time was spent in observing what some of those classes and subjects looked like. The variety of disabilities SSK accommodated for was remarkable, with a large range from cerebral palsy to the likes of autism, dwarfism, muscle dystrophy or speech issues. Activities for the children ranged from specialties aiming to prepare for adult life for certain careers like the aforementioned teacher’s aid, to simple actions that most people take for granted like moving forward with a left leg before a right leg. Even just simple things like washing hands before a meal need to often be taught multiple times. Seeing it right in front of my eyes made me realize just how much goes into the simplest of actions or thinking that many including myself just auto pilot through.
And after all that, you realize just how insane the scale required for such an organization to function needs to be. 80% of kids are very poor and scattered all across the map. The amount of labor needed even just for one child is worth a full time’s labor and each teacher handles 4-8 children depending on the condition of the child. The sheer range of disabilities requires such a specific but large expertise. Despite all that, SSK has been going strong for over 40 years, nearly two of my lifetimes and they still put in all the work needed and actively go beyond it. Not even with only the goal of taking care of the kids, but ensuring they have what they need going into adulthood and seeing the preparation in real time is an oddly beautiful thing. There is an entire world that I just take for granted and will never fully grasp the depth of how deep it goes. SSK was built from scraps in a jungle with no water for a lifelong cause most able bodied people will MAYBE passively think about from time to time If the founder can do this for 40 years well into her 90’s, I only can hope I’m able to do a fraction of the good she has, using my own strengths to do the best I can for the world.
By
Simon