AFDB Supports Oldest Indian Orphanage

Thu, Jun 1, 2017 | By publisher


Foreign

Grace Adesina, wife of Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, donates 450000 Rupees to the Mahipatram Rupram Ashram, oldest Indian orphanage

THE African Development Bank, AFDB, May 24, donated 450000 Rupees to Mahipatram Rupram Ashram, one of the largest and oldest orphanages in India. Grace Adesina, wife of the AFDB president, presented the cheque to Naranbhai Patel, president of the Mahipatram Rupram Ashram, at the end of the tour of the orphanage, which was part of the two-day spouse programme organised on the margins of the just-ended African Development Bank Annual Meetings in Ahmedabad, India, from May 22 to 26.

“We are pleased to be here. We are here for the Annual Meetings of the AFDB. The spouses as stakeholders of the bank are on an excursion programme. We have all been warmly welcomed. I want to commend the management of the orphanage. It is obvious that they are taking care of the most vulnerable in the society, especially women and children. Not only are they taken care of them, they are also training them so they can be useful in the society. We are presenting the cheque of 450000 Rupees to support their programme,” Adesina told audience comprising AfDB spouses, delegates and both officials of the orphanage and the Tourism Corporation of Gujarat.

Patel, on behalf of the orphanage, thanked the African development, saying that they will deploy the money to further the objectives of the orphanage.

Established on a humanitarian ground for more than a century ago, the Mahipatram Rupram Ashram was founded on December 17, 1892, in the sacred memory of a great social reformist late Shri Mahipatram Rupram. Started on a small footing at Panchuva with only seven inmates, it flourished over the years into a large institution and has grown into a huge monolith humming with multifarious activities, mainly working as a protective institute for the deserted women and orphaned children who are given shelter and training for a future independent life.

The objectives of the institution include protecting, nursing and bringing new born and infants abandoned by society and providing them with shelter till they become major; rescuing, protecting and giving psychological support to the rejected, homeless and exploited women of the society along with their children; providing facilities for secret deliveries and giving shelter to pregnant maidens who have become victims of circumstances. Others are giving shelter to deserted women and widows and training them in some occupational skill so that they can become self-supporting. It also provides facilities to the helpless, blind, lame and handicapped children, subject to the accommodation and finance available to the Ashram.

It also serves as a parent institution and organises marriages of young girls who desire matrimonial life based on specific rules set by the government.

Academic activities were started by the Ashram in the campus to meet the academic needs of the inmates. It runs Pre-primary, Primary, Secondary and Higher schools for the inmates and for other socially deprived children.

Prior to going to the orphanage, the spouses and delegates toured historic temple sites, Gandhi Ashram where Mahatma Ghandi lived after his sojourn in South Africa. They also went on a one-hour heritage walk of Ahmedabad, an old city comprising pols and self-contained neighborhoods, sheltering large number of peoples. Some of these virtually small villages, transversed by narrowed streets, usually terminating in square with community wells and chabutaras for feeding birds, gates, cul-de-sacs and secret passages.

The first day of the excursion was also a unique experience for visitors to historical sites in India on Tuesday, May 23.

Sriram Prayaga, tour guide from the Tourism Corporation of Gujarat, set the expectations of the spouses high when he told them they were going to one of the greatest monuments in India, which was built without modern technology in 1495. The ancient seven-storey below the ground monument, about 510 years old was built by Queen Rudabai Mehsana to provide a place of rest for caravans coming into the area.

“I don’t have the words to describe what you will be seeing. I can only assure you this much that the saying: ‘seeing is believing,’ will come true when we get to where we are going,” he said.

“It is unbelievable that somebody can think of erecting such a monument only for conserving water,” Prayaga enthused while at the monument as the visitors nodded their heads in agreement as they climbed down the steps of monument. Gujarat has about 360 of such monuments.

The excursion also took the visitors to the modern Mahatma Ghandi Museum where tour guides told them the story of the life and times of the revolutionary figure, regarded as the father of Indian nation. Mahatma Ghandi whose real name is Mohan Das Karmchand Gandhi fought for the independence of India, and died on January 30, 1947, aged 79 years. He was married at age 13 to his wife aged 14 and had four sons. They lived together for 69 years.

Three children in the Mahatma Ghandi costume welcomed the participants to the museum while officials of the Tourism Corporation placed the ceremonial Indian calico neckerchief on them.

An obviously impressed Adesina said the excursion was well organised and very informative, describing the Indian architecture as “lovely”. “Ghandi museum is very well taken care of.  I feel good about it,” she said.

Another elated participant, who wishes anonymity, said: “I have heard of Ghandi but I did not know the details of his life. Now I know the meaning of the saying that if we don’t know Ghandi, we don’t understand India. His life is important to understanding India”.

Felicita Atanga, spouse of an Intepreter with the African Development Bank, simply described her experience as good.

Tierre Debraine, United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund said: “It’s impressive history of different cultures. When there is history, it is always interesting.”

June 01, 2017 @ 16:10 GMT

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