LITTLE THINGS

CHENNAI BASED JANE KATARIA SPEAKS TO MONIKA KRETZDORN ON HOW SHE'S TAKING SMALL STEPS TO HELP OTHERS GO A LONG WAY

- JANE KATARIA

I saw happy kids hanging on somebody like bunch of grapes or maybe like little monkeys on a palm tree laughing and caressing and talking constantly. When I reached closer I saw a very modest simple lady dressed in cotton salwar kameez surrounded and playing with the girls.

JK: (Jane Kataria) Hi Monika, so these are your children and this is how they show love and affection?

MK: (Monika Kretzdorn) Yes Jane, they are orphans and they truly appreciate someone who genuinely takes interest in their little lives and who plays with them. Children are children after all.

JK: They seem so attached to you...

MK: Yes, we are like one family now. It is my third visit here to Chennai to this orphanage Good Life center. My first visit was in 2015, that time I had been already working in Munich, Germany for one and a half years as a physiotherapist in a hospital. I attended one fundraising event and was truly touched by what I saw. Orphans in India, some of them were disabled children and all of them required help and assistance. I just graduated college in 2013 and didn't have any saving to contribute financially but I decided I would spend my time and share my knowledge to contribute to their needs. I volunteered as a physiotherapist for the physically challenged children and was all set to go for the first time to India

JK: So your travel, stay, basic needs are taken care of?

MK: As I said I volunteered. I requested a leave from my hospital job in Munich but was not granted a leave since three months were too long for a vacation. So I quit the job, bought my air ticket and arrived here in Chennai.

JK: Really? Weren't you scared that once you come back the vacancy might be filled and you would be staying without a job?