Here is an inspiring story of Khurshid, from the Zakhira slum community, who overcomes challenging health conditions with the support of Asha. His journey is a testament to the power of support and perseverance in fighting back against several attacks of Tuberculosis.
Khurshid is a 32-year-old man born and brought up in the Zakhira Slum as a member of a large family of ten members: his parents, himself, four younger sisters, and four younger brothers. As the family’s eldest son, he joined his father to work in a scrapyard in childhood. Hence Khurshid has no schooling experience. He continued to work and helped his father to run the large family. Khurshid became a Tuberculosis (TB) patient at the age of 20. Since then, he has had several TB attacks; the Asha Health Team at Zakhira cared for his medical needs. The Asha Community Health Volunteer accompanied him to the nearest DOT center and ensured he took the medicines on time. They also provided him with the required nutritional supplements. The regular treatment cured him of TB. Still, it brought him side effects of severe body pain, gradually making him bedridden. Khurshid went into a stage of depression as he found it difficult to cope with being dependent on others for daily living. The Asha team arranged a wheelchair to enable him to connect with the outer world, regain confidence and return to normalcy. As the treatment continued, he could start walking with the help of a walker. He is being continued with the medication.
He has reached a stage where he can walk with a walking stick. Khurshid is so happy he can come out of his bedridden stage, stand on his feet, and walk. Meanwhile, the Asha team helped his family get him a differently abled certificate and enroll him for a pension. He is grateful to the Asha Health Team at Zakhira for being with him, giving him the confidence to take courage and fight back against the condition. Many such persons like Khurshid in the slums find Asha as a source of hope and comfort to regain their energy and confidence and fight against life’s various adverse situations.
