KOZHIKODE: Sumathiamma, a 65-year-old-woman, who has been struggling day and night for the last 20 years to raise 24 orphaned kids, is slowing losing her spirit because of the pressure to vacate the rented house as soon as possible. Ever since she registered the Nanma Charitable Trust to protect these kids, she has been living in a two-storied small rented house along with the kids at Parambil Bazar near here.
“We have been told several times by our landlord to vacate the building, so that he could give it to other people for a higher rate”, said Sumathi, popularly known among the people here as amma. “Several orphanages and NGOs have come forward to protect my kids but our bond is so strong that they do not want to leave me alone here,” she added.
At present, there are 12 boys and 12 girls of which one girl was married to a boy in the District after she graduated. Even after suffering a major stroke and facing cardiac problems, she made sure that her kids would not undergo any hardships because of her ill health and all of them were sent to nearby schools for a proper education.
“We have been living here with the money we collect from the hens, cows, goats and small scale farm that we have set up here and other than that there is no other income coming to our centre. In spite of officially registering it under a trust, we have not been receiving any help from the Government. But we still believe in a miracle, so we hope some help would come in our way,” she says.
“At the same time I will never beg or compel anyone for help. If people want to, they can offer small services,”she said. Many children who grew up in the orphanage with the love and care of Amma now hold their own in various good institutions.
