Reunion after a seven year tale of misery

Seven years after struggling in the streets with barely anything to hide the body, 30-year-old Abrar Ahmed would have never dreamed of reuniting with his family of nine members in Uttar Pradesh after being rescued by Udavum Karangal in Chennai.

The frail looking crippled naked man found crawling under the hot sun near Olympia Techpark in Ekkatuthangal and rescued by Udavum Karangal got back his family thanks to the initiative of P N Sundaresan, a social worker with Udavan Karangal.

Sundaresan who rescued him last June, says that Abrar had a history of having undergone psychiatry treatment. After regular counselling and interaction, he came out with details about his family at a village near Hasimpur , Muzaffar Nagar District, Uttar Pradesh.

“We contacted his family. Since he was missing for nearly seven years, the family members thought he had died.  Once the family got the news about him, his father and brother cried with joy. His brother Gulzar rushed to Chennai,” says Sundaresan.

Abrar’s family is huge with eight siblings. His parents are still alive and were affectionate towards him. All his six sisters, have been married. “He is said to have taken psychiatric treatment at Meerut and Delhi for one year. He was non-cooperative with the family members. He didn’t want to be a burden to the family and so he disappeared from his house under the state of depression,” said Sundaresan..

“These days even a physically normal person with mental illness is rejected by the society. We were heartened to see a totally dependent disabled and mentally challenged person is wanted by the family with full affection and love.  He was restored to his brother Gulzar, said Sundaresan.

Meanwhile, Udavum Karangam has developed a mobile application to reach out to destitute, psychiatric patients and senior citizens who are left in lurch on the streets and for whom there is no one to care. Youth who find a person in distress can access the APP and direct them to our organisation where social workers were waiting to render the required help, said Sundaresan.

He said the app will provide a platform for the people, especially the youth who are techno-savvy, to get into the mode of human service orientation. There are a lot of people who are ready to help both physically and through their financial contributions, but are still to find a way to do it. To encourage such people the Mobile Solution through the APP – Helper’s Choice has been developed, he said.

This mobile App can be internationally accessed. However, with the limited scope for physical operation like rescuing patients and destitute it operates currently in Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai and Tiruvannamalai,  where the Homes of Udavum Karangal function.