NGO By Jaya Wahi That Supports Rape Survivors

Jaya Wahi, who is not just the Founder and Chairperson of NGO SAIBISA, but also a social activist, a gifted healer and a spiritual leader, is on a quest to support the education of girl child and help in the upliftment of girls that have survived something as traumatising as rape by their own people.

To know more about the NG,HerZindagi got in touch with Wahi.

What Does The NGO Work On And How Does It Change Lives?

We have been working extensively with children across the country. We do a lot of work, like working with children in hospitals. The children are mostly terminally ill babies, or they are suffering from cancer, tuberculosis, AIDS... We try to provide for children with clothes and other necessary essentials, and whatever else they need. We try to bring in more happiness in their lives. We dance for them, sing for them, put up magic shows or puppet shows to take away the pain. As the part of the same initiative, we work with shelters and government remand homes.

We also have an initiative called 'My Golden Pen'. Here we have little children both girls and boys, but the focus is on the girl child. These children that we educate... going back to my background.. I had decided very much earlier in my life that I will not have children of my own and instead dedicate myself to these children and wanted to embrace all the children who have nobody. I started working with children who had gone through different kinds of trauma like disabilities, rape victims.

We are also helping out certain government bodies in taking care and providing happiness to these children. We would pick that child up an send them to a good resident in the country. We don't break them from their parents, the parents would come with us and get the admission done. If the child is from Delhi and studying in Chennai right now, the parents come with us, go to the city, go for the admission of the child, file the papers etc. and we only pay the fee. Then from there on we look after the child. Since the parents are far away, so we would have a local guardian and have the complete support system for them. The medical facilities, the clothes and everything, is provided by us in addition to the school fees.

How Did This Journey Start?

I was on a flight when my co-passenger started talking to me about my work, and we had a general conversation. That is when she got to know what we do, which in turn made her share a story of a girl child. She had been looking for someone to help a girl child and nobody was stepping up. A little girl was raped at the age of 4 by a 55-year-old man. She was left in a pool of blood to die. The man had taken the baby to an isolated place and raped her. Her insides were out and exposed, and in the morning when the cops found her, she was declared dead.

But, when she was taken to the mortuary and handed her over to the doctor on duty felt a little pulse. The baby was still alive. It took 9 months for the doctor to put back just her intestines in her body. She was so badly ripped apart and thrown by the man.

Read More:Women Superheroes Are Out To Save The World, We Should Too

So, when this lady told me about this baby I was terrified and I jumped at the opportunity to take her under my wing and care for her. Honest to God I had never heard such a thing in my life.

Now, it has been over four years, she is now a class topper, she got a 97% in her class and, we were told that she is weak, but now she is a runner. She is a gold medalist now! That too an inter-school gold medalist.

If she can do it, then there are many such children who can and we can help them, so we started taking more children like her and one after the other we got such terrible cases, where children had been raped by their uncles, cousins and fathers. Many times, in fact, the mothers would not register a case to the police with the excuse that 'ghar ke ladke ki life kharaab hojayegi'!

This mentality is so common where the boys of the house go scot free! Tomorrow he will attack more girls because he knows he will wriggle out of the situation without a scratch, and that he was protected and saved by the parents themselves.

The parents think that the girl is ruined now and we cannot even wed her. So what they do in many cases is that they put the girl into prostitution. Their own girls! With the thought that 'ek baar hogya fir baar baar ho toh' what difference does it make'!

For us, it is very important to get inside such families and tell them, educate them that don't do this to your children. She has a life ahead. Marriage and birthing is not a woman's identity, there is more to her life! That is not how you decide whether the woman is complete or incomplete! It is a huge challenge for us.

This NGO is working hard on spreading awareness on this subject and talk about it openly. No more closed hush-hush talks inside your bedroom. Let's talk about this openly so that we can do something for the babies. It is not something to be ashamed of, it happened! It is not your fault and why can't we talk about it in the society to change it. We need to educate our girls as well as the boys about it.

Talks of good touch and bad touch is not just for girls but for boys as well.

Recommended Video