Sitting cross-legged in the dust and the dirt of a small, isolated village in rural India, a woman is surrounded by a group of mothers, each holding a baby. She encourages the women to make eye contact with their children. She tells them to speak to their children, to sing to them. She instructs them to gently massage their little ones on their hands and feet and bellies. She reminds them to nurture. She has travelled long distances to teach these women the necessities of caregiving. Every day these mothers cope with the grinding poverty that suppresses normal maternal instincts. So often, the basic principles of motherhood are lost in such harsh environments. The conditions in which they live, the lack of hygiene and clean, drinkable water, the malnutrition, and the absence of education, can prevent the very survival of children. But this woman comes. She transforms them. She teaches that making eye contact, speaking, touching, and nurturing are crucial to the development and health of every child. She empowers mothers to learn how to care for their babies. Where proper sanitation is lacking, as it almost always is, she instructs them to boil feeding bottles, cover food from flies, bathe children more often and with soap, and to keep themselves cleaner. She teaches these mothers how to take pride in mothering, and in themselves. She is Sujatha Balaje, and, because of her, in the dust and dirt of a small village in India, mothers learn to love and babies are able to live.
Eighty-five kilometers away from the nearest city in the Theni District of South India is the distant village of Moorthynayakanpatti. Its occupants do not own cars, and only a few buses travel anywhere near it. When travel is required, one must walk one kilometer to the main road, where a bus will pass at an unspecified time during the day. Hopefully. The isolation of Moorthynayakanpatti makes it no small feat for Sujatha to reach this village to teach thirty-two mothers how to nurture and best care for their infants. Her work has become well-known throughout this distant region, despite news traveling exclusively by word of mouth among its people.
In Moorthynayakanpatti, women lack formal education and become mothers at a very young age. Though these women lack the opportunity for education, they are eager to learn, and Sujatha’s arrival is exciting. She begins by explaining how important the early years of childhood development are for a lifetime of health, relationships, and learning. The women quickly embrace the concepts and begin to make eye contact with their children more often, hold their babies more gently, sing to them, and play with them. The mothers enjoy Sujatha’s trainings because she makes the lessons and teachings simple and applicable to their lifestyle. She encourages them to use the resources they already have—their songs, their games, their stories, and their love. These mothers are soon able to build stronger bonds with their children and to better nurture their well-being.
