Overcoming Adversities through Resilience and Support

As the Motivation India and Margadarshi team, navigate through the silent alleys of Kamagra located in Chamrajnagar district of Karnataka on the day of our field visit, we reached Yogesh’s house in the midst of lush greenery. As we entered, we were greeted by bright smiles from Yogesh and Maheshwari, his wife. Today, Maheshwari helps him with getting on with his work on the weaving machine and showed utmost resilience throughout the entire ordeal, Yogesh proudly shared this while the hot afternoon sun was beating down on us in the verandah.

Yogesh used to be the sole earner for his family of 6, one day while working he started facing some pain in his lower back which he initially disregarded but later went to doctors when it persisted. He was put on multiple medications, yet the pain didn’t subside, Yogesh went on with the medication without knowing it would lead to something so life-altering due to the misdiagnosis. One day while in the bathroom Yogesh fainted and as he regained consciousness, he couldn’t feel any sensations in his legs. This came as a big shock to Yogesh and his family seeing his lower body being completely paralyzed for no known reason.

A professional team from Margadarshi immediately intervened and linked him through appropriate medical assistance and supported him with appropriate mobility assistive devices. Situations like this often put the families and caregivers under serious psychological and financial stress. The daily life of the wheelchair users and their caregivers gets tremendously affected since managing time balancing work while caring for the patients often clashes.
As Motivation India assessed Yogesh’s condition, sitting without support and making him independently do his day-to-day work were the first things to achieve. Motivation India together with Margadarshi provided him therapies at home setup, this helped him sit and move independently on his wheelchair. We also provided the caregivers with training in appropriate care techniques and psychosocial support so they could get back to work. He also supported a weaving machine by Margadarshi to make mats and sell them to the merchants. This not only helped the family sustain their livelihoods but also regain confidence. More than the material aspect of support, Yogesh seemed grateful for the fact both Margadarshi and Motivation India team provided him support to overcome intangible challenges in life.


“Though initially we were really lost with this situation, getting access to the livelihood tools and the wheelchair helped us getting back to our day-to-day life and earn a livelihood as well,” Maheshwari said with a bright smile on her face as she showed us some of the mats they had manufactured lately.


As we started back to Bengaluru post meeting them their smiles and the story were definitely etched in each of our brains.