Ernakulam: Nine-year-old Shadia, a brain tumour patient, occasionally gets sundry cash from her relatives so that she can meet her medical expenses or go shopping. This week, the class 5 student from a poor family donated her little savings to the flood victims.
Shadia arrived at the Kochi office of Malayala Manorama with a small plastic container in which she had collected the cash. The girl, coming from her house in suburban Pukkattupady, wasn’t sure about the amount as she hadn’t counted the currency notes and coins. Shadia’s request was to hand over the entire money as her contribution to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund for those who suffered in the August deluge.
Donations to such a mission are not supposed to be channelled through private parties, but the girl’s earnest insistence prompted the officials at the media house to eventually open her piggy bank. Shadia had estimated the sum to be around Rs 1,000, but on counting the officials found it totalling Rs 2,046.60.
Shadia, a resident of Kunchattukara, near Edathala beyond Kakkanad in Ernakulam district, had been inspired to contribute on reading about the flood in newspapers and watching the footage on television. Clad in maroon-and-black dress and a yellow scarf over her head, the girl looked intensely at the counting of the notes, her nose and mouth covered with a blue mask.
Shadia's father Shabeer fixes marble for a living. She lost her mother Ziya very young. Shadia was only eight months old when the woman died of meningitis. Since then, her grandmother Amina has been Shadia’s guardian. Amina’s husband, Moideen, is the eldest member of the household.
An upper-primary student at St George School at Pukkattupady, Shadia finds help from her school authorities and fellow villagers. The family has already spent Rs 6 lakh on her medical needs, but they need another Rs 30,000 every month to continue treatment.
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