As we still get over our Mother’s Day celebrations, here’s a real-life hero who has transformed over 450 lives by devoting herself to orphaned and abandoned children. 45-year-old Jasveer Kaur never married, but is a mother of over 450 children whom she shelters at the SGB Children’s Home – an orphanage that she had launched in 2003. Jasveer’s warm-heartedness can effortlessly touch anyone.
Jasveer hails from Pakhowal village and she has always wanted to devote her life to the society.
Working on her mission of social service over the past 22 years, Jasveer says, “As soon as I finished my nursing course in 1996, I got in touch with Swami Ganga Nand Bhuriwale International Foundation at Talwandi Khurd where I got a platform to open this orphanage. Initially, there was some inhibition in my family as they thought the society wouldn’t accept a single woman running such an institution but I was firm about my decision. Once I started, there was no looking back. Eventually, even they started supporting me.”
SGS Children’s Home currently houses 49 children. Jasveer has successfully found homes and families for 350 children while 50 others were adopted by families in countries such as the USA, France, UK, Spain, Italy and Canada.
“Over the years, there has been a steep rise in adoption. Ever since adoption was made legal in India, the trend has further gone up. Our institution is a recognized Indian placement agency under the Ministry of Women and Child Development and we promote legal adoption as it is the most transparent way. Foreigners register themselves with Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) and once the legal procedure is completed, they can see pictures of three kids to choose from and within 48 hours they have to reserve the child,” explains Jasveer who herself has adopted three girl children legally.
“One of them is 16-year-old and the other two are 11 and 15-year-old. Even at SGS, my focus is to get these abandoned children their real homes. I don’t want to attract donations or sympathy from people by showing a huge number of children at our institution. Whenever a child gets a home, it is the ultimate satisfaction for me.”
From bushes to roads, hospitals to carcass dumps, parks and garbage dumps, Jasveer has found abandoned children at several odd places. She narrates, “Yesterday someone left a newborn baby at Amritsar’s Red Cross Centre. A few days ago a stranger noticed a 15-day-old baby abandoned in some bushes at Lalto Kalan village in Ludhiana and informed the police who rescued the baby and brought it to us.”
By now, people immediately rush such abandoned babies to Jasveer whenever they find one. Once they are brought to this Bal Ghar, Jasveer makes sure that they get are provided with all the required facilities.
In providing these children the love and care that they deserve, Jasveer is constantly supported by SGS Children’s Home’s secretary Kuldeep Singh who has been with her ever since this institution was launched. “Kuldeep and I are available all the time for the children at SGS. We have around 22 volunteers who work with us,” informs Jasveer.
Until sometime back, SGS Children’s Home didn’t have a facility for handicapped children but with America’s Sahitya Foundation, Jasveer has also managed to get a separate wing for physically-challenged children.
She says, “It will be ready in another two-three months. Even the wheelchairs will arrive by the time the wing is ready. The washrooms will have automatic doors so that they don’t have any problem.”
Ask Jasveer about the hurdles that she has faced in her journey so far, this mother doesn’t have anything to share. The selfless woman adds, “The journey has been blissful. I kept meeting positive and helpful people throughout. There is nothing to crib about. If your approach is positive, you’ll meet positivity around.”
Motherhood and being a mother, she says, is not easy. “Ma sounds like an easy word, but it is quite difficult to become one. These children bring that emotion in me. Had these children not accepted me, do you think I would have got the strength to keep going?”
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