MORE ALIKE, LESS DIFFERENT
“It’s not our disabilities, it’s our abilities that count.” -Chris Burke, Down syndrome advocate. Last summer, on my trip to West Bengal, India, I volunteered at a school for differently-abled children. At first, all I wanted was proof of work that I would be able to submit here, at my school. But my experience there helped me more than those submitting the paperwork ever would. It gave me a new perspective on life itself, for which I am very grateful to the children there. It all started at my Middle School, where NJHS (The National Junior Honor Society) gave me the assignment for the volunteer hours to be completed over the summer. My grandparents found the Bidhan Chandra Pratibandhi Karmakendra, ABLING THE DISABLED, (named after Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, former Honorable Chief Minister of West Bengal and inaugurated by Mother Teresa), as a suitable special needs school for me to finish the assignment by working there. I, at the moment, was unaffected much by that dec...