Sujit Kumar
In late 2002, members of The Rotary Club of Suva, including Elizabeth
Clayton, gathered at the Samabula Old Peoples’ Home to present
dining tables as a donation to the home. It was on that day that
the Rotarians discovered Sujit Kumar, “the chicken boy”, who had
been tied up in a back room at the home. Until the age of eight,
Sujit was raised in a chicken coop, which made him feral-like and
wild. After his parents died (his father was murdered and his
mother committed suicide), the authorities placed him in the old
persons’ home - where he was isolated and confined for a further 22
years, anchored to a wall with strips of bed linen because he was
considered wild and unmanageable.
Sujit tied
to his
bed
Sujit fed on his mattress - Jan
2003
The Superintendent of the home at the time he was
admitted in 1979, said: “He would mostly hop around like a chicken,
peck at his food on the ground, perch, and make noises like the
calling of a chicken, he would prefer to roost on the floor to go
to sleep rather than sleep in a bed.” Soon after his discovery, the
Rotary Club of Suva undertook the initiative to care for and
rehabilitate Sujit, who commenced therapy in July 2003. Although he
still cannot speak, Sujit is now learning basic human behaviour.
Today, Sujit has been integrated into Happy Home where he lives
with other at-risk boys who have learned to care for him as a
brother. We continue to rehabilitate Sujit into the
environment.
Happy
Home
A caring and loving home was needed for Sujit Kumar to live in
permanently where he could be with other boys, and when in
mid-2005, a member of the court system, Rotarian Peter Boshier,
approached the Rotary Club in Suva who then approached the
Department of Social Welfare & Poverty Alleviation concluding
with them that that several little welfare boys at-risk, who were
currently at an institution for young offenders, should be moved
from this reform facility, as this did not conform to the
Convention of the Rights of a Child, which the Fiji Government was
a signatory to. While the preference to move boys from established
co-ed children’s orphanage institutions when they reach the ages of
8-12 is justifiable to separate them from the girls, moving them to
a reform facility to live with under-aged offenders only
exacerbates problems for these at-risk children.
These predicaments gave rise to the concept of Happy Home, and a
year later, thanks to the efforts of former Minister Adi Asenaca
Caucau, the Department of Social Welfare & Poverty Alleviation,
The Rotary Club of Suva, and much support from donors and
volunteers, a beautiful old colonial home on loan from the
government, until 2011, was renovated in 2006. up to 16 boys,
including Sujit Kumar, have now lived at the Happy Home.
The Rotary Club of Suva established a Rotary Club of Suva Sujit
Foundation to develop the concept of the Happy Home and the Dept of
Social Welfare gave them the management contract for the home. The
Trustees of the Foundation raised private funds and managed the
Happy Home for three years, and then according to the policy of
Rotary International, stepped aside for a community organization,
Sujit’s Happy Home Charitable Trust to raise the private funds to
operate the Happy Home, under the government-assigned management of
the Community Education & Development Program (CEDP).
Happy Home is a name that will remain as a home for Sujit Kumar,
and through the years to come, at-risk boys from age of 8+ will be
the beneficiaries, and will be able to live at this home until they
have reached their independence.
It is significant that the Happy Home continues to survive for
Sujit, for the term of his natural life. The concept for the Happy
Home may change, as Sujit matures, and whereby youth and young men
at-risk may be included as residents to the Happy Home. Since the
tenure for the current government-owned residence expires in early
2011, and the government is planning to sell the home, the Happy
Home may well move, with all goods and chattels, to a private
premise, to ensure continuity for Sujit Kumar.
Supporter, Roberta Eldred of the Living Stones
Foundation (right) and
long-time friend, Judy Ball (centre) with Sujit Kumar |
