GHOSTS of PARTITION
July 20, 2014
Anup Singh’s Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost, based on the Partition, is slated for its India release on September 20. The filmmaker spoke to LISA ANN MONTEIRO
Qissa The Tale of a Lonely Ghost, made by Geneva- based filmmaker Anup Singh is certainly appealing to international audiences.
The film made in Punjabi with four co- producers in Germany, France, Netherlands and NDFC India saw its release in Germany earlier this month.
The film’s central theme is the Partition and its protagonist, Umber ( played by Irrfan Khan), a Sikh, who is forced to flee his homeland during the 1947 upheaval. He obsesses about a male heir and when his wife gives birth to yet another girl, his fanaticism drives him to alter the course of her destiny.
The inspiration for the film came from Singh’s own grandfather who fled the Pakistani side of Punjab to Africa during the Partition. He carried a burning resentment about his loss of home and this tore him apart.
Often he couldn’t help but turn on his own family with a despairing remorseless violence. Bereft of his land, home country, he lived a bitter life of loss as a refugee.
His tales of the Partition scarred Singh’s imagination in his childhood and this film is his attempt to put his grandfather’s ghost to rest. One of the most disturbing stories he heard about the Partition was from an old man who told him how his daughter, barely a teenager. jumped into a well to escape rape (like many other women at the time). Sixty years later, he is still haunted by dreams of her ghost in the well looking up at the circle of sky above waiting for him to come for her. This story was one of the starting points of Qissa . A personal film on one level, Singh says Qissa also deals with the wounds in the collective memory of the India nation that gets maneuvered and manipulated by politicians looking to exploit the situation to their own ends. However the film’s focus isn’t on the 1947 Partition solely, but on partitions of all kinds— of body, gender, inner and outer truth, life and death.
“ We know how these violent separations are used to label and define things and people and to put them in a predetermined place to make them easier to control and exploit,” Singh says.
Singh knocked on many doors in India for five years looking for a producer.
NFDC was the only production house that stood with him but he needed more money.
Everyone was interested in the script but insisted that the film be done in Hindi. They couldn’t come to any consensus on the cast either. Finally a fated meeting with the German producers of Heimatfilm, Bettina Brokemper and Johannes Rexin, initiated Qissa ’s adventures into the world of co- production. Very quickly then Thierry Lenouvel of Cine- Sud, France, joined, and then Bero Beyer of Augustus Films, Netherlands.
Singh stuck to his convictions to the end, believing that every tale and every film seeks its own mode of coming into being. “ In any authentic creation, there is no separation between content and language. The spoken language of the characters then has as much value as any other element of the film— be it music, light, colours or quality of performance.
Every language has its terrain, its music. If I hadn’t fought to retain the language, I think it would have been a little like selling the soul of the film.” The large co- production with international crew meant that different cultural perceptions and approaches to filmmaking brought huge cultural misunderstandings to the fore and also heated debates about filmmaking.
Singh knew while writing the script that Irrfan Khan would be suited to play the role of the father.
The film also stars Tillotama Shome, Rasika Dugal, Tisca Chopra, Faezeh Jalali and Sonia Bindra. Tisca Chopra is Singh’s dream come true. She can suggest an emotion simply by a shift in her breath, he says.
Tillotama Shome has won two best actress awards for her role of the victim who steadily learns to trust her own conscience. Rasika Dugal plays the role of chaos in the film, disorienting everyone. She is one of the most metamorphic actresses Singh has ever worked with.
More than sixty years after the Partition, Singh says we continue to live our lives influenced by the same partisan divisions within our nation.
The old wounds are constantly scratched at by politicians to create confusions whenever it suits them.
“ One of the main reasons to make Qissa was precisely to see how this cycle of violence has today seeped into even the intimate spaces of our family. If we’re unable to be compassionate and respectful with the women of our family, for example, then what hope is there for anyone else?” He says the film isn’t cynical or bitter but suggests through its women characters the scope for tenderness and redemption.
Qissa received the NETPAC award for the best Asian film at the Toronto International Film Festival. It received the audience award at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam, the best actress award for Tillotama Shome at the Abu Dhabi International Film Festival. At the Indian Film Festival of Queensland, Australia it received best actress for Tillotama Shome, best actor for Irrfan Khan, best cinematography and best director.
The film was screened at the Mumbai International Film Festival last year where it won the Silver Gateway Award. It is slated to release in India on September 20 this year. Review Bureau
INDIA APPEALS
But paedophile could walk free
Conditions in Goa jail, not justice for children, uppermost in UK judge’s mind
Herald Review July 20, 2014
Raymond Varley, child sex abuser may walk free, if India’s appeal to get him extradited to face trial here fails. Wanted for over two decades as part of an international paedophile ring that sexually abused and photographed children as young as five years old in Goa, the UK court instead is concerned about his weak knees, conditions in prisons in Goa and a ‘dementia’ certificate he produced. Herald Review managed to get a copy of the ruling
LISA ANN MONTEIRO
On May 8 this year, the Westminster Magistrates’ Court dismissed an application filed by the Government of India to extradite Raymond Varley to face trial in India for charges of historical child sexual abuse carried out in the late 1980s to early 1990s. Justice Quentin Purdy accepted the defence argument that Varley’s physical and mental health was such that it would be unjust and oppressive to allow the extradition.
On July 10 at a case management hearing in the UK, India appealed the decision and is currently seeking to submit fresh evidence at the appeal stage. The court directed the counsel for the Republic of India to submit a statement addressing the issues of why India chose not to submit separate expert testimony on Varley’s health at the earlier hearing, and the nature of evidence sought to be submitted at this stage. The appeal hearing has been set for October 10 this year.
The May 8 judgement by Justice Purdy created a furore as Varley's arrest warrant dates back to October 1996 and he has been elusive for almost two decades. Child rights activists are angry that he got away too easily on grounds of dementia.
Pursued by the law for almost 20 years, Varley attempted to cover up his identity. He changed his name to Martin Ashley by deed poll in 2000 and his lawyer claimed he never visited India and was not the man in the pictures with the children. The photos and the children’s statements is the hard evidence that has continued to stalk him all these years.
In the prima facie case Justice Purdy said that he couldn’t compare Martin Ashley today against photographs of an adult Western male that were at least 20 years old and not of good quality. He said he was however “ bound to consider all the evidence.
In my judgement the documented visits on the preserved records ( those alone now remaining) of visits to the Tourist Hostel, Margao, Goa can safely and accurately be confirmed to be this Requested person by precise reference to his British passport number." Varley’s lawyer further argued that he cannot face extradition in 2014 for allegations at least 20 years ago because " by reason of passage of time" and blamed Indian authorities for delays.
Indian immigration records show Varley was in India in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995. Despite Thailand and India having an extradition treaty and a Bangkok address having being provided in 1996, there was no extradition request. Not until 1997 does a superintendent of police send extradition papers to the Minister for External affairs seeking extradition.
Martin Ashley left Thailand on March 28, 1997 and the Interpol Red Notice to track him down came only on January 23, 1998. There was a failed London arrest attempt in 2000.
But the deed poll name change cannot be an excuse for the delay on the part of the Indian authorities, because by August 8, 2000 the UK authorities informed India of the new name and new passport. He was eventually found in Thailand and deported and then arrested in 2012 in his native Halifax, Yorkshire.
Peter Caldwell prosecution advocate argued that India was facing a " global enquiry" with " numerous suspects" beyond India and that a " consistent pursuit by the Indians globally without success" cannot be said to be culpable delay.
The judge rejected Varley’s ' passage of time' challenge.
The defence also argued that Varley should not be extradited because of human rights— namely prison conditions in Goa and his failing health.
Just how convoluted the process of justice for the Goa children has become can be viewed from the fact that the UK sent two experts to Goa to review the prison facilities here in the interests of the “ human rights” of the child abuser. In 2013 Lord Ramsbottam ( former chief inspector of HM’s prisons) and Prof Rod Morgan visited prisons in Goa and concluded that Varley’s human rights would not be infringed here.
In Prof Morgan’s report he states “ … in my judgement a prisoner such a Raymond Varley, taking account of his age, medical condition and culture, would likely find living stressful but I do not think it can be said that his human rights would be infringed.” Lord Ramsbottom takes a similar stance. " Although differently applied than in the UK, no aspects of human rights conditions appeared to be at risk of being breached in Colvell ( meaning Colvale) prison". The British paedophile however has used every trick in the bag to escape extradition to India. Under ‘ medical evidence’, Varley speaks of “ very bad knees” for which he takes medication.
The problem has “ got worse throughout 2013”, meaning he “ simply” cannot squat. The significance is that Prof Morgan’s report says the toilet arrangements ( in the Goa jail) are a hole requiring squatting, therefore help from others would be needed.
After seeing the reports by Lord Ramsbottam and Prof Morgan and the Indian reply on prison conditions, Linda Atterton, a neuropsychologist who examined Varley said she has no doubt that he has “ moderate to severe dementia already”. The prosecution challenged her qualification to make such findings pointing out that she wasn't a psychiatrist within the National Health Service ( NHS) and that there was " little actual evidence available to support the assertion of unfitness”. He said one could not simply conclude that dementia makes extradition oppressive.
The defence argued that India had chosen not to commission its own expert merely to challenge Atterton’s competence.
But neuropsychologist’s report weighed heavily with the British judge who was swayed more by his concern for the health of the child abuser than serving the interests of justice for Indian children. Justice Purdy concluded, " This case has been long and heavy going for all involved. Complainants in India may very well feel denied due process for allegations of the most grave. As indicated in detail I reject all challenges raised for the reasons given save per S 91 finding an extradition order to face trial for a man suffering from dementia needing " immediate daily support" must be both " unjust' and " oppressive" and therefore barred.
Bharti Patel, CEO of ECPAT UK, an NGO that is campaigning against child trafficking and transnational child exploitation says India should have ensured better preparation on evidence gathering and this would have helped argue the case considering the time lapse and Varley’s age.
“ Medical evidence on health of an individual facing trial should have been anticipated by India and better case notes could have been prepared.
India should have submitted expert evidence with regards to Varley’s defence of his health condition.” During the pendency of the extradition proceedings against him, Varley is on bail with conditions attached such as staying away from places where he could come into contact with children. UK newspapers have recently photographed him freely walking the streets amidst unsuspecting shoppers in the market town of Todmorden West Yorks.
If the Indian government’s appeal against the magistrate’s ruling fails and Varley is not extradited, there will be no charge against him in the UK and he will therefore walk free as a result.
Kanchan Prasad spokesperson for the CBI pointed out to the racial element in the case. “ It has a lot to do with white mindsets and attitude.
They wouldn’t like a white person to be tried by a brown person. They feel his rights will be violated in India under the present conditions.” It isn’t only India she says but sentiments abroad also who are shocked at the verdict given by Justice Purdy.
Varley’s case dates back to 1991 with the arrest of the notorious Freddie Peats an Anglo German who ran an international paedophile network from Goa under the guise of caring for street children and orphans. The children in the Margao home operated by Peats would be photographed while being sexually abused by a string of foreigners, among them, Raymond Varley. Peats was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1996 and died in prison in 2005 at the age of 81.
Varley visited the orphanage since the 1980’ s almost every year during Christmas. Some of the children he abused were boys as young as five and seven. Review Bureau
Playing Favourites
July 13, 2014
Discrimination in allocation of funds has meant that students in colleges across the state are paying more than seven times the fees for the BCA course compared to what they are paying at the newly commissioned Dharbandora College which is run by BJP MLA Ganesh Gaonkar. Some colleges say they will have to close down their courses next year.
LISA ANN MONTEIRO
The grant- in- aid received by a oneyear old college in Dharbandora for their BCA and BBA courses has met with mixed reactions from other colleges in the State. The Gopal Gaonkar Memorial Goa Multi Faculty College in Dharbandora commissioned by BJP MLA Ganesh Gaonkar began functioning in June 20 last year, offering both BCom and BBA courses.
This academic year the college offered its students BCA ( Bachelor in Computer Applications) and managed to get a grant- in- aid from the government for the course. Nine colleges in Goa-- Damodar, Rosary, Fr Agnel, GVM, MES, Don Bosco, St Xavier’s, Saraswat and DMC have been offering the selffinanced BCA course for over a decade now. They were rather surprised to find that a tenth college that began operations only last year with no proper campus has managed to get a grantin- aid for the course.
The college is being run from the premises of the government middle school in Dharbandora and transport is being provided for the students from Ponda. BCA students in the new college have to shell out only Rs 5000 per year while students in other colleges pay over Rs 39,000 per year. For the threeyear course they spend well over one lakh Rupees.
The nine colleges have seen a very low turnout this year for their BCA courses. Some principals attribute this to the high fees. Others associate it with the drop in the number of students seeking admission this year while others believe the new college has robbed them of their students.
Principal of DMC college, Mapusa, DB Arolkar says the college has seen a 50 per cent drop in students enrolling into the BCA course this year compared to last year. The high fees for the course mean that students need to opt for education loans and other schemes being offered by the government.
It is not only the students who have to bear the high cost of the fees. Lecturers appointed for the self- financed course are appointed on a contract basis and have no job security. One lecturer said she found it strange that the government cannot finance the course.
“ The course is being governed and managed by Goa University. It is GU which sets the syllabus, conducts the exams and confers students their degrees.” Lecturers fear the fees which have been rising steadily each year will go up yet again with the excuse of the 7th Pay Commission which will be implemented in 2016.
The BCA course offers IT education to students from different streams. The students learn accounting, economics, networking, web designing, advertising, animation, graphic designing and software testing. It gives those who have not taken science as a subject in the higher secondary, another chance to get back to technical education.
Damodar College in Margao, the first to set up the BCA course in the State has also seen its numbers drop by half this year.
The Principal of MES College, Dr Maria Rodrigues says the college would usually get students to fill up two divisions ( 40 each). This year they haven’t managed to get 30 students.
She cites the high fees as one reason behind the falling numbers. She also finds it unfair that only one college has managed to get grants for their course.
“ It would be fair if the government could share the burden of the cost for all of us,” she says.
One of the worst effected this year has been Ponda based GVM College that has been offering the course for the past 14 years. Principal P M Bhende says the college already has an established lab with all the facilities for the course even as GU continues to impose conditions on the college, asking them to change computers and upgrade facilities. The new college, he says, has created an imbalance. “ We have received only 15 students this year and will have no option but to close down the course next year. If the new college has been set up to cater to underprivileged students, my college has a fair share of such students as well. Many of my students come from rural areas and from the ST, SC and OBC communities. Some of them cannot even afford to pay the B Com fee of Rs 6000 and ask for time.” BJP MLA Ganesh Gaonkar claims that most of the students enrolled in the course at Dharbandora are from economically backward and deprived sections of society. The students, he said, weren’t from Ponda but hail from Dharbandora, Sanguem, Pali and Velguem and cannot afford to pay Rs 39,000 per year. “ It is not discrimination because the management of those colleges haven’t followed procedures to obtain grants from the government.
If they have applied for grants, what has happened to their applications? Have they been rejected? They have to go through the proper channels.” The college, administered by Shree Sateri Pissani Education Society is presided over by Gaonkar and has been permitted to have two batches of BBA and one of BCA this year.
College principals allege Gaonkar got funds because of his political affiliation.
They say they haven’t applied for grants because the courses were self financed right from the beginning.
When the issue was raised in the last Assembly session, the CM declined to give the colleges grants.
The principals of the affected colleges met chief minister Manohar Parrikar recently in Panjim and raised this issue among others. But Parrikar sidestepped the obvious partisanship of only a single college benefitting from grants and made it clear that self- financed courses would remain self- financed, providing little hope to the assembled principals. Herald Review
MEDICLAIM
Making sense of the fine print
July 13, 2014
Insurance companies, hospitals and patients are constantly at loggerheads when it comes to medical insurance claims. While medical insurance is a must in these times of super specialty facilities that come at a super cost, private hospitals and doctors have not been averse to taking advantage by spiking the bills of those who are covered by mediclaim. Herald Review makes a diagnosis of the many pitfalls concealed in the policy fine print
LISA ANN MONTEIRO
Medical insurance has come into India in a big way. Yet we are still novices when it comes to making claims or making sense of the fine print, something people in the West have grown really adept at. One of the most common errors committed by Goans being treated under medical insurance is when the person who is hospitalized decides to upgrade to a better room which isn’t covered by one’s policy.
The patient decides he will merely pay the difference in the room rates but what he doesn’t realize is that in a special room, it is not only the room rent but all charges— doctors fees, operation charges, nurses charges, and so on, that increase. When faced with a large bill that the insurance company refuses to pay, the patient cries foul.
Hospitals today offer rooms that are not unlike hotel rooms. General rooms, semi special rooms, special rooms and deluxe. Some also offer suites, all at a price of course.
Each policy comes with clauses and the lower the sum assured of one’s policy, the more clauses/ terms and conditions the policy will have.
Pre- existing diseases are also a cause for much exasperation for patients.
Certain policies don’t allow patients to claim insurance for pre- existing illnesses like cataract, prostrate, hernia, piles, stones in urinary system, certain tumours, stones in gall bladders, skin disorders, varicose veins among others until the waiting period ( usually around three years from the date of the inception of the policy) has passed.
Being upfront about your medical history and health may mean you pay a higher premium but insurance agents suggest this is the only way forward.
The health checkup required to be taken before making a policy is very comprehensive where ultrasound, chest x- rays, blood tests are all carried out to detect illnesses. “ You shouldn’t lie about being a smoker or alcoholic because tests can tell whether you were a smoker, and doctors’ records will have the history of the patient.
People making false claims get caught at the time of reimbursement, when insurance companies cancel the claim,” an agent said.
Tourists engaging in adventure sports who meet with accidents in Goa are often dismayed to find out that their treatment at the hospital is not covered under their medical insurance policy. Certain policies cover adventure sports while others don’t.
Some policies cover disasters and acts of nature while others don’t. “ Don’t pay a pittance and expect the company to insure you for everything,” an agent says.
One patient recalls visiting the hospital for an angiogram and being told that she could do an angioplasty procedure too, if she had insurance. Problems also arise when people seek treatment from hospitals not empanelled with the insurance company. Extra tests are requested and extra procedures recommended to inflate costs.
“ These hospitals usually follow unethical practices. Empanelled hospitals cannot do this because people from the insurance company are visiting the hospital periodically and auditing practices there. They check closely for frauds, especially when the company offers their patients cashless transactions,” Ashwin Furtado, Manager at Apollo Hospital says.
With insurance companies keeping a close watch, doctors complain that they cannot function independently.
Dr Suresh Dubashi, surgeon and director Vintage Hospital says insurance companies not only in India but the world over dictate terms to the doctors.
“ They try to tell us how to treat our patients. I’ve operated on one person twenty times in a period of forty days. Each patient’s case is different.
You cannot equate the cost of good treatment. Once a patient almost 80 years old came to the hospital with diarrhea and I requested for an ECG. The insurance company asked me why the ECG was required for him.
What’s the qualification of this man, asking me this kind of question?” Malika Essani, an insurance agent from Margao says it is critical to renew one’s medical insurance policy on time. “ If you delay any sickness in between will be treated as pre- existing illness. The client will lose his bonus and may be asked to make an entirely new policy.” Many insurance companies also have TPAs ( Third Party Administrators) who are in charge of settling claims on behalf of insurance companies.
A medical practitioner advised against making a policy with a company that has TPA. In the case of TPAs, a client at the time of claims cannot speak to the insurance company but has to deal only with the TPA and this can be problematic. “ The one performance criteria for TPAs is how efficiently they run the business for insurance companies. The more money they save the better will be their relation with the company. Hence they sometimes do whatever they can to reject claims,” a doctor said.
The Goa government spent Rs 18.48 crore last year on mediclaim for 1461 people. Major claimants were for cardiac surgeries and the government expects this to reduce after the setting up of the super specialty cardiac unit at GMC. The government mediclaim offers financial assistance to the maximum extent of Rs 1.50 lakh per illness for super specialties, treatment for which is not available in state government hospitals. In the case of open heart surgery, kidney transplants and neurosurgery, the patient can claim up to Rs 3 lakh. For cancer the upper limit is Rs 5 lakh and for bone marrow transplant disease it is Rs 8 lakh.
Government mediclaim is only offered to those who have been staying in the state for a minimum of 15 years and whose annual household income is less than Rs1,50,000 per annum. A fraudulent income certificate from the Mamlatdar has allowed others to take advantage of the scheme.
Apart from mediclaim, the Goa government also offered health insurance Swamajayanti Aarogya Bima Yojana introduced by the Digambar Kamat government in 2011. With ICICI Lombard as the implementing agency, the scheme provided a cover of Rs 60,000 per family. ‘ Resident Population’ under the policy was defined as a person residing in Goa for more than five years and pre- existing diseases were to be covered from day one. It was stopped on January 31 last year.
A new medical insurance policy is being framed by the BJP government, Deen Dayal Swasthya Suraksha Yojana, where the ceiling benefit will be raised. Health Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said the new policy has reached the finalization stage and will be tendered in a fortnight’s time.
“ It was tendered earlier, but has thereafter gone through many changes and so it has to be retendered.” He declined to give out any more details about the new policy. Review Bureau
WALKING TALL
July 6, 2014
Creativity has helped documentary film maker Jason Da Silva battle a degenerative disease. His latest film When I walk documents this.
LISA ANN MONTEIRO
It is creativity that keeps filmmaker Jason Da Silva going when he encounters more challenges than triumphs in his life. His first short film Olivia’s Puzzle was shot in Aldona. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2003 and was aired on HBO. He went on to make A song for Daniel, Twins of Mankala and First Steps . He also made Lest we Forget a feature length documentary film.
At the peak of his career in 2005, he was diagnosed with progressive primary multiple sclerosis. All of 25 years, he didn’t pay much heed to the diagnosis.
It only hit him in 2006 when during a Caribbean vacation he fell on the beach and couldn’t pick himself up.
From there on his numerous medical appointments began. He found that his disability was quickly worsening, and with doctors’ appointments taking up most of his time, he was losing out on what he loved doing— making films.
He refused his mother’s advice to give up filmmaking. Instead, he decided to take his camera along to all his appointments and film various aspects of his living with the new disability. And so began his film spanning seven years of his life from the time of his fall. When I walk was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival in 2013 and won ‘ best Canadian feature documentary’ award at HotDocs, the grand jury award for ‘ best film’ at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and ‘ most popular Canadian documentary’ at the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Turning the camera on himself wasn’t something he was comfortable with at first especially after being habituated to shooting the scenes, constructing the shots and editing his own films. He found a ray of hope in a girl he met at an MS support group. Alice and Jason wed in 2010. Marrying Alice he says was an exhilarating moment for him. Alice plays a vital role in the production, shooting and editing of the film.
Over the period of seven years the film shows Jason’s physical condition deteriorating, his unsuccessful search for a cure, his struggle coping with it and the various challenges he faces getting around accessing facilities in New York. In 2006 he began walking with a limp, in 2007 he walked with a cane, in 2008 he used a walker, then wheelchair and now a motorized scooter. The hardest part of the day, he says, is waking up after a whole night of dreams where he can walk and dance with friends.
The film, he told Herald Review was challenging yet rewarding. “ Every day was more difficult than the previous one as my physical self got worse. I wanted to put the camera down so many times but realized the importance of the project, so I kept going on.” Having to edit footage of himself on screen wasn’t a pleasant experience either.
His story is about the universal struggle of triumph over tragedy and he wants people to relate to that in any way they can.
A disability can be an isolating experience presenting challenges in accessing facilities. Up to this day Jason has trouble calling for a cab in which his scooter can fit into. Restaurants don’t have ramps and subways are the least accessibly with no elevators. A lot of the new constructions build accessibility into their design. But the old constructions don’t have this accessibility and this sets limits on facilities that the challenged can enjoy.
A spokesperson for the differently abled, Jason is developing ways to facilitate movement around the city for those with mobility challenges through an AXS map ( access map) funded by Google Charitable Giving and other foundations. The crowd- sourced tool helps share reviews on the wheelchair accessibility of businesses and places.
The map is available online as well as on android and iPhone applications.
Jason was born in Ohio. He moved to Vancouver when he was 14 and later moved to Brooklyn, New York where he currently lives. The last time he was in Goa, he worked on a short fictional film in Panjim. He is expanding this into a feature film called ‘ Trance’ and hopes to film in Goa in the next two years. Jason’s life took a wonderful turn last year when Alice gave birth to Jase. Review Bureau
Tough call for Goan family in Dubai
… as hospital bills soar and air charges to bring ailing grandma home will cost Rs 9 lakh
Herald Review July 6, 2014
With each passing day that Rosalind Fernandes spends in the ICU at NMC Hospital, Dubai, her medical bills keep mounting. The 66- year-old grandmother from Margao has been in the ICU since June 10 and breathes with the help of a ventilator. Her stage four cancer has spread to her lungs and one of her lungs has already collapsed.
Clifford Fernandes, her only child cannot afford to keep her in hospital or have her discharged due to her condition. He would like to bring her back home to Goa for treatment but this is turning out to be complicated and costlier than he had ever imagined.
Clifford stays in Abu Dhabi and works in the sales section of a hotel. He travels back and forth and has taken emergency leave for one month to care for his mother.
His earnings go towards his family’s daily expenses. He has a ten month- old daughter to care for and his wife is six months pregnant.
His mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010 and was operated in Mumbai.
She has been visiting her son over the years. When she visited Clifford’s cousins in Dubai this year they took her to the hospital when they noticed her heavy breathing.
Hospital bills have mounted to more than AED further.
The family has taken a decision to send her back to Goa as medical expenses are too high and insurance isn’t covering it either.
If brought back to Goa by flight, Rosalind will require a portable ventilator and a medical team to accompany her. She will need to be transferred directly to the hospital. Clifford expects this will cost him nothing less than AED 60,000 ( approx Rs 9 lakh). The hospital insists that they send their own doctor to accompany Few airlines want to take the risk and the family has narrowed down on Air India as this is the only direct flight to Goa which allows a stretcher case to be taken. The airlines in turn have to seek approvals and clearances from Dubai airport authorities and the health ministry.
The complicated procedure and delay is taking a toll on the family. Each day that Rosalind spends on hospital costs the family AED 4200 ( approx Rs 69,000).
Clifford says churches in Dubai and Sharjah have donated some money and are helping liaise with the insurance company and the hospital for a settlement. An important lesson he learnt, he says, is to do quarterly checkups after the required cancer treatment. His mother couldn’t have her regular check- up and the family never expected her cancer to spread so rapidly. LISA ANN MONTEIRO
A sensitive touch
Herald Review June 29, 2014
Sense International and Caritas Goa run a programme that is transforming the lives of the deafblind in Goa
LISA ANN MONTEIRO
Confined to a world of darkness and silence, the deafblind who found hope in the Caritas resource room in Panjim have found a new sense of self worth. On Friday, the eve of Hellen Keller’s birthday, and with the help of special educators they began various economic generation activities.
Mahesh, 23, is one such promising adult who has benefitted from the centre. Totally blind but with partial hearing, Mahesh sits cross- legged on the floor and skillfully threads beads to make pretty bracelets. His special educator tells him which box has which coloured beads and he alternates the beads, making a fancy pattern that he unfortunately cannot admire visually.
Mahesh attended the National Academy for the Blind but had to stop schooling when he fell sick. For seven years he was kept indoors where he did practically nothing. His parents were at a loss how to deal with the situation either, as is the case with many parents of deafblind.
Once his parents got in touch with Caritas, a special educator began coming home. His educator taught him to differentiate between different notes of Rs 10, Rs 50 and Rs 100 and to count using them. He also taught Mahesh to walk to a store nearby, shop for eggs and then cook them.
Likewise, special educators trained in the field of deafblindness make house visits across the state when the children and young adults cannot make it to the centre.
Sense International partnered with Caritas Goa in 2012 and has been funding the project since. The resource room run from Caritas Holiday Home has six special educators and 12 children visiting the resource room each week. Medical aid is also provided to those who require it and tutors are arranged for those who are studying at school.
The unique disability— a combination of visual and hearing impairment means that the deafblind are often denied admission into special schools for the blind and schools for the deaf. The degree of deafness and blindness varies but the combination of dual sensory loss leads to unique problems in an individual’s communication, mobility and ability to access information. This makes deafblindness one of the most isolating disabilities.
Caritas’ individual education programme designs short- term and longterm goals for each child and their progress is monitored. From eating, drinking to toileting, the educators teach them everything they need to function as independently as they can.
A 13 year old deafblind boy diagnosed with cerebral palsy was kept on the bed at home with no activity for years. He wasn’t able to walk or sit down. After working with physiotherapists and special educators over months, he is able to sit cross- legged on the floor. Another boy, all of 14 years, would get five seizures each day. With medical intervention these have reduced considerably.
A special educator travels to Sanguem once a week to work with him.
Project co- ordinator Reflino Fernandes says Caritas is looking for a place in Agaçaim where the deafblind can run their activity. “ Here they will make their knick knacks, sell them and even handle all the accounts.” Until then they will work through the week and their creations will be put up for sale outside churches and temples on Sundays.
Fr Maverick Fernandes, director of Caritas, says the centre is looking for more deafblind children and adults. They have only managed to survey North Goa.
They will soon venture into South Goa scouting hospitals, schools and slums for these children.
The centre can be contacted at 9049685117/ 22226509. Review Bureau
