IndiaPost.com - Her mission: Joy of handicapped

India Post News Service

Jacqueline aka "Jackie" is a pardesi who is more desi than me and many of us here. Someone who has been staying with Indian families since she first stepped on the Sub-continent, she knows the dynamics of Indian culture very well. She says, "I find India very interesting".

Sitting in a fairly chilly November afternoon in a park outside her snug office, we started off with her life's trajectory. All but 22 back in 1978; when she came from a suburb near London. She was a nurse, who worked for leprosy afflicted in Andhra Pradesh, south of India.

She slowly got engaged into the rehabilitation of these people and that's how her association with MESH (Maximising Enjoyment to Serve the Handicapped). Her switch from nursing to rehabilitation work and now using trade as a path for it, all display her love for leading a life that's sans any nationality, religious or cultural baggage. She believes in being safely distant from one and all.

From being the "foreign" for others associated with her work back in the leprosy colony, to becoming their mentor to sustain a good living, Jackie has come a long way. The first breakthrough for her was 1994 National Leprosy Control Programme wherein a new treatment for leprosy was introduced in the country and the lives of millions afflicted and affected took a sharp turn. She moved to Delhi after she was offered an executive post in MESH.

Delhi-based MESH helps traditional crafts artisans with disabilities to a better life. Started in 1960s in Delhi by a group of North American expatriate wives, MESH provides opportunities for disabled people and their dependents, especially those affected by leprosy, to be rehabilitated in order to become self-sufficient.

"The fact is that there are a huge number of people in India affected by leprosy who don't need treatment anymore but whose lives have been turned completely upside down by the disease," says Jackie , MESH's executive secretary for the past 15 years. "It is necessary to find ways of helping them." MESH's founders focused their initial efforts on a leprosy colony north of Delhi, where they encouraged men to weave and to raise poultry.

Today, MESH buys and sells handicrafts and poultry from some 45 autonomous groups of disabled and leprosy-affected persons all over the country. All products are purchased at prices suppliers set. MESH then adds transport costs and a 15 percent service charge to come up with its selling price.

Nearly 80 percent of MESH's handicraft business is export, with products shipped to wholesalers in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Canada, US and Australia. A live example of the extraordinary work by MESH and Jackie is Rohit, their star salesman at their comfy little shop in Delhi. You enter the shop and it's a feast for the eyes. Colors galore and handicrafts that take your breath away.

From paper lamps to wraparound skirts, from soap holders to paintings and jewellery, you find all this and more. On my first visit only, I had a feeling of awe and appreciation for all the labor that was gone into making this stuff available to buyers. When asked about Rohit, Jackie says, "He has been a huge support to the shop".

The only son of a shop owner, Rohit refused to work for his father. Instead he joined MESH where he wanted to explore the possibilities available for him. And he has come out with flying colors. If one has to believe Jackie has customers coming up to her and asking for Rohit to assist them instead of herself.

Single by choice, Jackie is finding life very exciting in India and at MESH and in turn is changing the perspective of society for leprosy stricken. She is an example for all to learn from. Someone who has managed to learn Telugu and bit of Hindi because she cannot interact in isolation from those affected in her experiment called "life".