Darul Sukun

Darul Sukun (Urdu: دارالسکون ) in Karachi, Pakistan is a home for children and adults that are rejected by society and their families because of a deformity or being mentally challenged. With four branches spread across the city, the one at Kashmir Road cares for almost 150 people. The home has 53 staff members including five sisters of the Franciscan Missionaries of Christ the King.^[1]

Founded in 1969 by Sister Gertrude Lemmens, the three-storied building has clean and well-lit rooms as well as recreation facilities for those who live there. A physiotherapy room, snoozer’s room, and electrotherapy rooms are some of the basic features of the centre.^[2]

On March 23, 1989 Sister Gertrude received the Sitara-i-Quaid-i-Azam award in recognition of her work at Darul Sukun and for founding other homes for the physically and mentally handicapped, the aged and homeless. President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto attended the ceremony.^[3]

Cookie Lewis spends a lot of time teaching poems and drawing at a Catholic home for physically and mentally handicapped kids. Lewis, who finished 10th grade, is one of just two patients who completed primary school. Alamin, 27, finished 12th grade and simultaneously completed nine years of fine arts studies. He does beautiful oil painting of natural scenery with his deformed hand. Mustaffa, another disabled young man, works an hour a day as a special sports instructor at the center. With this part-time job and similar work at another institute for the disabled, he earns almost 3,000 rupees monthly. The center also sends people abroad to compete in the international "Special Olympics" for the physically and mentally challenged. Jacky Master, who works in the human resources department at Lakson Tobacco Company, won one gold and four bronze medals in several swim competitions. He was born with a brain deformity.^[4]

The home is supported by the Dutch people with approximately half a million euro being collected to finance the project between 2004 and 2008.^[5]

References

1. ^ "UCANews.com 9 June 2001". http://www.ucanews.com/2001/06/09/churchrun-home-struggles-to-serve-abandoned-children. 
2. ^ "Dawn 6 August 2007". http://fidvi.wordpress.com/2007/08/06/darul-sukun-caring-for-the-forgotten/. 
3. ^ "Pakistan German, Dutch Sisters Get Pakistan National Day Awards UCANews.com April 4, 1989". http://www.ucanews.com/1989/04/04/german-dutch-sisters-get-pakistan-national-day-awards/. 
4. ^ "UCANews.com August 10, 2007". http://www.ucanews.com/2007/08/10/catholic-center-in-karachi-helps-empower-give-skills-to-disabled/?key=islamabad. 
5. ^ "Visit to Darul Sukun". http://pakistan.nlembassy.org/news_events/events_2008. 

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