A warm tribute to late Ms Ruth McKibbin

Dr Kiran: ‘Hello folks, today’s posts are dedicated to the Late Ms Ruth McKibbin who spent over 20 years bringing teams of pupils from Methodist College Belfast from out to the Kalkaji slum community every 18 months. She was dearly loved by everyone at Kalkaji: the Asha team, university students and school pupils alike. What a wonderful legacy she created at Asha over the years.

Here is the story of Shiva who was a part of the Asha Children’s Group at Kalkaji since a young age. He learnt a lot from Ruth and the Methodist teams that would spend time with him and other children during their visits. Ruth would have been so proud of his achievements.

Shiva lives in a tiny two room home with his family in Kalkaji slum. His father has been working as a daily wage laborer at construction sites for over 30 years.

During the pandemic, Shiva’s father lost all work, and then developed Covid. At first he was quarantined at home, but his condition deteriorated, and he had to get admitted to a public hospital. He was really ill, and for a time the family thought he wouldn’t make it. Fortunately he recovered after a prolonged hospital stay and finally came home.

You can imagine how hard it might have been for Shiva to focus on studying for his school leaving exams with the tremendous worry of his father’s health.

Asha stood with Shiva, providing groceries for the family regularly, and giving Shiva all the support and mentoring he needed to take his exams. He would study at the Asha Centre, a place that has been lovingly been created by the pupils of Methody.

Shiva scored an amazing 91.2%, much to our delight!

It was impossible for Shiva’s family to fund his university education.

With Asha’s full support, Shiva has secured a place in a Bachelors in Commerce Honours program at the prestigious Kirorimal College of Delhi University.

Thank you Ruth for your loving service of many years to the poor of Kalkaji. I’m sure you are smiling from above.’

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