9.1.2023. 7pm IST
Kindness you put into this world ,
Has a way of coming back to you .
5 homeless men suffering ONCE from disabilities & chronic alcohol related issues get togther and build a huge SOAK PIT in one of our shelter homes along with the entire plumbing work.
The attached video will show you how they went about this difficult job. 👇👇
Of these five men :
☆ Two are suffering from mental disabilities but are now stabilized with medication.
☆ One man is on cluthes with a heavy bandage leg and is the site supervisor.
☆Two men are chronic alcoholic now rehabilitated & have stopped alcohol for good.
Well rehabilitating the homeless in the biggest home of ours was leading to a lot of water being misused as most of the men in this home are chronic and severe Cases of mental disabilites where it's next to impossible to teach then how to use water or the rest room .
It's a problem with no solution ( so please don't give your suggestions).
Well excess stagnant water leads to mosquitoes and smell .
The current soak pit was getting over loaded and things got messy.
Well our manager Mr Sapnesh Salgaonkar got a good idea to me ” why don't we build a bigger soakpit using our manpower “.
I agreed and it worked.
We hired a JCB and dug the ground as it's totally rock and hilly area and that costed us
Rs 25000.
Casually Sapnesh took a quote for labour :
☆ for the plumbing &
☆ for the masonry work
Both the labour for plumbing & masonry works quoted was more than Rs 1 lac, reason being hilly area and isolated area where labour has to be transported one way 20kms .
Such expensive rate only for labour was not what I expected.
Then the cost of the material.
Sapnesh used his mind and got the men to start the work and daily Supervised them with instructions given every morning how to do and what to do.
An elderly homeless man who has skills as a plumber gave the instructions and got these men to do the plumbing.
I remember they had to redo the chamber twice due to technical issues.
Flat in 30 days we got this huge soak pit built and completed without hiring outside labour.
Who are these 5 men who did this job ?
Supervisor on crutches is a goan
The 2 men with mental disabilities don't speak much but understand everything told.
The other 2 men were living on the streets in very horrible and pathetic condition .
One had a broken head
One was living and sleeping on a street for over two months too weak to get up .
We took all of them in and cared for them many months / years ago and they stabilized over a period of time with timely and daily medications.
Who expects them to undertake and complete such a huge and difficult job with ease and time bound ?
Today I feel proud that most of our labour work in our homes like :
☆ Basic Plumbing
☆ Masonary
☆ Painting
☆ Cleaning
☆ Etc
Is undertaken by these homeless street men who once were lost and looked down upon.
It's the KINDNESS which we provided as a SERVICE.
God bless you all
Donald Fernandes
8380097564/7020314848