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Padma:
born early 1970's, died October 26, 2008 survived by mother, brother, and two sons |
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We knew Padma for about two and a half years, before she passed away. We're not sure how old she was, but she was likely in her early to mid 30s given the age of her kids. She had two little boys, Harish (age 9) and Devaraj (age 7), and the three of them lived on the streets of Mysore in an alleyway behind a popular drugstore. Padma lost her husband a few years ago and found herself on the street with her two boys. Despite Padma's drinking problem, she cared for her boys. When we met them, Padma cleaned the floors at the drugstore and the boys helped her to earn a few rupees. In 2007, she asked us to send her boys to boarding school, so that they could live away from the street. She was worried that they were being exposed to negative influences on the street, as Harish had started to hang out with other street boys. |
After a year at boarding school, her boys came to stay with us at Karunya Mane this year. Padma asked about them often, and visited them when she could. She had gotten another job as a sweeper at a local bank and earned 700 rupees a month (about $16). Padma was a quiet, soft-spoken woman, often kept to herself and had few friends. She had a mom who was also destitute and stayed in the same area of the street that Padma did. Grannie often asked about the boys and always told us to tell them about her. It's hard to be a mom living on the street; you don't always know where your kids are or what they're doing, and making them go to school consistently is difficult. With little more than the clothes on your back and no husband or education to support you, you really can't do much more than worry about your kids and find whatever work you can to simply survive, day by day. That was Padma's life. But she knew that if her boys got off the street, into school, and had a decent place to live, they might have a chance at a better life. |
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© Operation
Shanti |
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