Speech
Opening Day of REWA Ability Center,
July
20, 2009
By
Karola Kostial, Director of Ladakh-Hilfe e.V.
Dear
Guests, hello dear children and parents, dear employees, members of
REWA and volunteers from Germany,
I
would like to introduce myself: My name is Karola Kostial from Germany;
I am the founder and director of Ladakh-Hilfe, the German NGO that
started this work in Ladakh. My professions are physiotherapist and
author. I am married, mother of 4 children and grandmother.
In 2001, while giving Ladakhi nuns English lessons a German medical
student with helping hands found
a two year old, severely disabled child in Lingshed. She promised
the mother to get professional help for the child. When she returned
to Germany 2002 she posted an article in a German Physiotherapist
Magazine: Disabled child in a remote village of Ladakh needs help.
I read this article and lightening shot through me, igniting a fire
that had never stopped burning until now. My husband is an orthopaedic
technician and we both just felt drawn to Ladakh, to this child, the
people, and the mountains.
2003 in September, after preparing diligently for this task, we finally
arrived in Lingshed and faced an enormous challenge. The little girl
Rigzin proved to be a very happy patient and she still is the same
today. The people of Lingshed and two devoted monks supported us with
the job and during the weeks we spent there, we fell in love with
the people and the country. When we came back to Leh we sought contact
with NIRLAC, it being the only institution working with the disabled
at that time . They showed us many other children with disabilities
receiving no physical treatment at all. We were devastated and knew
something had to be done. I knew I could not stay in Ladakh to help
since I had a family, mortgage of our house to pay off, and I was
holding a responsible job as the head of the physiotherapy department
in a neurological hospital.
So I got the idea of sending professional volunteers to help the disabled
and posted articles in physiotherapy magazines seeking for them to
come. I was so surprised about the enthusiastic response and the first
volunteers with helping hands came
to Ladakh in August 2004. My husband and I had returned to Ladakh
in June 2004 ourselves to look after another severely disabled girl
in a remote area that had been isolated for 14 years. We found and
treated many other patients during this trip and established contact
with Mr. Gergan from the Moravian Mission School. He helped us with
offering free staff quarters for the volunteers, with advice and support
and later on with a small room where we started to treat and teach
local disabled children on a regular base.
With the assistance of NIRLAC and Mr. Gergan the volunteers soon started
to hold camps for medicals workers, teachers and pharmacist to teach
them about disability. At that time we had no telephone, no vehicle,
and no local employees. They took public busses to reach the children,
sometimes they rented a taxi. I came back every year to help and to
build up structures and spend all my free time in Germany to raise
funds to built up this work.
2006 a major change took place when we were able to hire our first
local employee: Tsering Dolkar, a woman with a big heart and helping
hands. She is now our Senior Coordinator and local manager.
At the same time we employed Thugjay, the mother of our first child
Rigzin-Stanzin as our faithful housekeeper. 2007 in February we hired
Chuskit from Saboo. She is physio aid, takes care of the REWA bookkeeping
and is learning to be a speech therapist. Later this year there was
Tundup, our faithful driver, physio aid and handyman. This year also
we won Mr. Sonam David to be our fatherly advisor, man of wisdom and
soon to be President of REWA Society. Beginning of 2008 Kunzang joined
us, holding a diploma as a physiotherapist. With their help and the
help of the German speaking volunteers the work developed and expanded
in a phenomenal way. It has always been our goal to turn over this
work and responsibility into local hands, local
helping hands. That's why we founded the local NGO REWA
Society as the official organisation representing our ideas in Ladakh.
Just last week we sent the local girl Rinchen Dolker to Delhi for
a two year education in Physiotherapy. We fully finance this education
from Germany.
So far we have had over 80 volunteers with helping
hands come to Ladakh. They pay for their own flight and
cost of living. Some of them help me with fundraising in Germany to
sustain this work. But with the worldwide recession it has become
difficult, very difficult. Prices have risen, also here in Ladakh.
Today we have Anja and Tina with us, both being Physiotherapist, Marika,
a speech therapist and Simone, a designer, helping us with the development
of the invitation card, posters and pictures.
Our
local employees Dolkar, Kunzang, Chuskit, Tundup and Thugjay are very
dedicated people with helping
hands, working beyond of what
is expected of them with a heart beating for the people with disability
in Ladakh. They have learned a lot about Physiotherapy, they know
the children in all the remote areas, know about their needs and help
wherever they can. They have become professionals in the disability
work themselves, pioneering and labouring all over Ladakh. But we
are able only to pay them a modest salary they can barely survive
on. They need help with insurance, health- and pension plans; they
need a better salary so they continue their work with REWA Society
without constant financial worries. We cannot afford to loose such
well trained and dedicated people. We are all a big family: our employees,
the volunteers, Mr. Sonam David and myself, we share good and bad,
we stick together, love each other and care about each other.
This year in March I published a book in Germany in about our experiences
in Ladakh. It talks about our travels, the miracles, the children.
Partially it is an autobiography and it explains in detail about how
this work came about. Help me pray that I find a publisher to print
it in English so you all can read it. I have a German copy here for
you to look at. For reasons of health I had to give up my well paying
job last year. Now I live on a small pension, I draw no salary from
the German NGO. I have come to a limit of my abilities and I feel
the time has come for a change.
It
is my challenge to the Ladakhi people to help their own people. It
is your land; the precious disabled are your children, your responsibility.
Please help our local employees that dedicate their life to serve
those children. Please help the employees of REWA Society with moral
support, appreciation and financial help. I challenge you to stretch
our your helping hands to support
REWA Society to continue this work in Ladakh. I challenge you to become
part of our vision, to see the happy faces of the children, to see
the change our work creates in their lives. I know you can do it,
I know you will do it.
Thank you so much for your respected attention.
Karola
Kostial talking to visitors
