Zoya’s grandmother Asha gently cradles her face and speaks softly to calm her, though she knows Zoya cannot answer. Zoya is 15 years old, but she has never uttered a word. Her hands hang limply from her wrists, a legacy from that night in 1984 when her father Farukh, himself only 15 at the time, panicked and ran blindly from Asha’s side into a darkness filled with deadly gas.

On the day Farukh died, Zoya was three years old but still could not speak or walk. For years, Asha and her husband Mansoor cared for Zoya: washing her, dressing her, helping her to the bathroom. It was not until Zoya was 6 that they learned of the Chingari Rehabilitation Centre, founded by two Bhopali women, both gas survivors themselves. Chingari is a health clinic that provides free medical care to children from gas-affected families. With the help of Chingari’s physiotherapists and special educators, Zoya has begun to walk, and can now comprehend and communicate her needs through signs. 

• £6 a month funds a special education class for a child in a daily life skill
• £9 a month pays for speech therapy for a child unable to speak
• £15 a month covers the costs of a damaged child’s physiotherapy
• £115 funds a community health worker for two weeks  
• £300 buys a set of doctor’s medical examination tools for six doctors in one year
• £600 pays for Chingari’s electricity for six months
• £1,450 employs a child’s physiotherapist for four months 
• £6000 will pay for a doctor's salary for a year
• £13,000 can run the centre supporting 250 children and their respective treatment for a month 
• £156,000 will run the centre for a year

You can set up a monthly DD or donate at www.bhopal.org or here.

Zakat and Sadaqah are applicable.

Thank you.

The images show Zoya and her grandmother, Ayushi with her mother, Alfez with her cousin Falek, and Nida