Darul Sukun
Darul Sukun (Urdu: دارالسکون ) in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan is a home for physically and mentally challenged children and adults who are then taken to Darul Sukun either due to poverty,insufficient facilities for combatting their challenges or poverty ,etc. . With three (initially four, but one had to be shut down due to financial constrains in 2011) 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 a local 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]
By June 2011 the institution had lost all its foreign donors and had to depend on the Zakāt in the wake of expected price rises after a disappointing national budget. It had to close one of its four branches two years ago and shift its 26 residents to its main center because of financial challenges.[6]Meera (actress) recently visited mentally handicapped children organization named “Darul Sukun” in Karachi to encourage handicapped kids.[7]
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