Journey of a social worker

New Life

Second year:

As the second year began, we were excited that now we will be working in different organizations that we visited last year after a month of our theory.

We were all placed in batches and excited to start our field work.

In every organization that I visited in the second year we had to work in the organization for one month. Each month in each organization, first was the easiest one Lebenshelf (self-help) a special school for mentally challenged children when I said easy one, I didn't mean that the life of the mentally challenged was easy or to work with them was easy but I meant the acceptance in the society about a special school for mentally retarded is much easier when compared to a hospital for mental care or GREVALTES......a leprosy care home. In the school I thought it would be easy for me because I saw that the teachers were very easily mingling with children but actually it was not correct. To communicate with a special child needs years of experience and more energy, more focus, more will power, and all the more commitment. That was the day I think I felt to salute all parents of special children. I understood how difficult it is for them to teach a special child a normal task with a special skill. It is easy to say he's mentally challenged or is mentally retarded but the life of a mentally challenged person and the family is very difficult. The life of a family member of a mentally challenged person is not easy. To teach minimum things to the child they have to divide the activity into parts, and ex. To teach a child to take a mug of water from bucket takes two weeks of time this is so simple it's it just takes not less than a minute to take water in a mug from the bucket but for a special child activity it takes two weeks to teach a child imagine how long it will take for parent to teach a child to take bath.

I learned many things I learned to smile I learn to keep my smile original I learned that I could win the hearts of children and I practiced it with devotion.

I lived smiling, I lived for every day that I went to the special school. there were children from 6 years to 30 years attending the special school. In different classes they were taught with various methods like activity based, music therapy, dance therapy, drama therapy and so on. when we hear about these therapies it is very easy but actually when it comes to practice it is very difficult. it was then I understood why in field work we are asked to go to these organization because it teaches you to be, to be patient. To understand the difficulties of a person. Each day of that one month was a new learning.

It was a new experience I don't know what I contributed to the school but the school contributed a lot to transform my personality.

On the last day of my visit to the school I didn't know how to react I didn't know what to do. I felt something like I'm leaving a part of my myself in the school but then the poem of Robert frost always reminds me ...

"The woods are lovely dark and deep and I have miles to go before I sleep and miles to go before, I sleep ...