Habitat For Humanity India

Home Partner

Sick in the Slums have Habitat Homes

Gabe Jones, Andrew Bracking & Shauna Sheehy, Division of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Media, Department of English, College of Arts & Sciences, University of Kentucky.

Forced to quit his job because of diabetes-induced blindness, Muslim Noorjahan rests his eyes in a well lit bedroom. Tanzilla Khan spends much of her time indoors away from the 118 ºF heat (48º C) that complicates her undiagnosed breathing condition. Mamta Singh sits on her bed studying, staying off of the foot that polio has claimed. Illnesses such as these are all too common in the Bawana resettlement colony near New Delhi, India, where Habitat for Humanity is helping families build both homes and better lives.

Issues of health present challenges for the residents of this community, challenges magnified by the unfortunate reality that many who live in Bawana, do so without adequate housing. After being moved miles away from sources of income and quality medical clinics, these families are forced to make healthcare decisions based on what’s affordable, rather than what’s needed. In this context, children rush to the nearest water pumps to bathe and drink. But without a home, it is nearly impossible to boil this water that is otherwise infested with bacteria.

But hungry families also ignore the health and safety of food, while those who have homes are able to wash and cook their food, killing harmful germs and bacteria. They have access to the cleaner, healthier foods that are necessary to fight disease.

This ability to fight disease is important to the Tanzilla family. Like most residents of Bawana, the Tanzillas were forced to move from the banks of the Yamuna and start from scratch. For a family of 13, life without a home was difficult, especially for Mrs. Tanzilla who has an undiagnosed breathing disease that is aggravated by heat and other environmental factors.

The huts that many, like Mrs. Tanzilla, call home provide no protection from the sun or from disease-carrying insects. Instead, the permeable walls of the huts invite insects into the food supplies and sleeping quarters. These situations make disease inevitable.

One of the major difficulties of Mrs. Tanzilla’s illness is that it has not yet been diagnosed. In circumstances such as these, when illness is both unavoidable and unpredictable and even doctors have no answers, the best

one can do is adjust to the illness by removing some of the environmental factors that can exacerbate symptoms. A home built with the help of Habitat for Humanity has helped Mrs. Tanzilla do just that.

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Mamta Singh is 15 years old. As a child she was diagnosed with polio, leaving her left foot and lower leg severely disfigured. Living in a Habitat home with her mother and younger brother, Mamta is now able to lead a relatively normal life despite her disability. She has access to adequate nutrition, clean water, and shelter from the elements. But her situation has not always been so pleasant.

Prior to receiving a Habitat home, Mamta and her mother also lived along the river bank, where was no place for her to safely store her medicine and often no access to medical care. Living with a disability was frequently complicated by concerns that nature would destroy her hut, that thieves would steal family possessions, and that malnutrition would further endanger Mamta’s health.

Not far from Mamta’s house, however-not even two blocks away-the neighbors are excited. A lady sits among boxes of rubber gloves and syringes of polio vaccine. A mother brings her infant, who after a small poke, is no longer threatened by polio. This child will never have to experience the hardships that Mamta faces. Unfortunately, it is too late to protect Mamta from polio, but her home has helped her make the best of a difficult situation.

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Across the colony, there is seldom a dull moment in the Noorjahan household. A father of six, Muslim Noorjahan faces more challenges than most, challenges he often cannot see coming. Muslim had the vision in his right eye destroyed by diabetes; his left eye has also been partially damaged. Before being forcibly relocated to Bawana by a New Delhi beautification project, Muslim and his family lived on the banks of the Yamuna River in a thatched hut, a living situation that forced him to put his own health concerns behind the well being of his family, an admirable decision that proved fatal to his vision and, ultimately, forced him to quit his job as a taxi driver.

Without a job it became even more important that Muslim have a safe and healthy place to live. Thanks to Habitat, he does. It is very difficult to endure the physical and mental hardships of being homeless in Bawana; it is nearly impossible to endure them without vision. Acquiring a home returned some of the power that diabetes had taken away from Muslim. The lights in his home allow him to read and write no matter the time of day.

When Muslim was homeless he had fewer resources to manage his disease and more concerns about his family’s well being. These things together

worsened his disease and caused his blindness. If he had received a Habitat home sooner, could his vision have been saved?

Muslim’s story is one of great perseverance; it shows what his determination and the help of Habitat for Humanity have been able to accomplish. But, many fathers, mothers and children in Bawana are also suffering from diseases like diabetes. Many of these families are fighting their illness without the comfort of a home.

Muslim, Mamta, and Tanzilla have persevered despite their health concerns because they have houses. If not for the contributions of Habitat for Humanity these families would be unable to complete many of the tasks necessary for living with illness.

Unfortunately, however, many families in Bawana still live in huts. Will you donate or volunteer, so Habitat for Humanity can house more sick and disabled residents of this slum and others like it?