Social worker PA Zeenath sees her work as a calling, one thing she has to do. It is a calling that she has answered, with empathy and compassion, maybe born out of her unfulfilled dream of changing into a nurse. For the previous 20-odd years she has been doing her bit as a caregiver for HIV sufferers, these struggling from cancer and anyone else who would possibly want her service.
Zeenath is part of the Snehatheeram Charitable Trust, Aluva, a assist and care centre for these dwelling with HIV AIDS; it additionally provides institutionalised home-based care for the terminally ailing. However, relatively than confining herself to service through Snehatheeram, she does her bit independently as properly. She is wanted for her dwelling visits to accumulate hair from donors for wigs for cancer survivors.
It all began as half of her volunteering with cancer sufferers on the Ernakulam General Hospital (GH) round eight years in the past. “Getting the disease is traumatic enough, but losing hair is the worst. It hits women really hard, some women would talk about how their grandchildren would be terrified of them. They would constantly look at the mirror to see how they looked. I was not able to get that out of my mind.”
That is when she heard of a hair donation drive (Keshadanam) by the Amala Institute of Medical Sciences, Thrissur, and the Hair Bank. She additionally learnt that the Hair Bank supplied free wigs for the underprivileged. A wig, she realised, would go a great distance in constructing confidence and making cancer sufferers and survivors be ok with themselves.
Learning how to make wigs
Zeenath, 41, obtained in contact with the authorities to be taught extra about how to get the wigs. That is when she learnt about keshadanam (hair donation) and made it one of her missions. Not solely does she organise hair donation camps but in addition creates consciousness about it throughout home visits, colleges, faculties and even at features in spiritual locations. “At a church function at Vyttila, 100-odd people donated their hair. My hand hurt so much that day!” says a cheerful Zeenath.
She will get calls each couple of days from individuals who need to donate hair. Much as she would really like to reply instantly, “my schedule makes it difficult. Also I take the hair once every three months, when they call for donations at the Hair Bank. So it makes sense to go closer to that date.” She provides her providers free of cost.
Zeenath will get calls each couple of days by individuals eager on donating their hair
| Photo Credit:
RK Nithin
Of the 4,500-odd individuals she has collected these ‘donations’ from, she says, most are males. One individual she harvested hair from had grown it for 5 years so as to donate it.
Zeenath informs me that there are extra individuals who donate their hair than we’d know. “Recently a few women cops got in touch with me to harvest their hair, then there are NRIs who donate hair while on vacation. Then there are children of cancer survivors. People feel very proud after they donate hair, you should see their happiness!” She will get hair donors at Snehatheeram, some include minimize hair to donate, whereas for others she harvests. “I get calls from across Kerala, with queries about hair donation.”
Hair donation specs
The hair, she says, has to be no less than 30 centimetres or 12 inches lengthy, shampooed and dry; hair shouldn’t be colored both. After she harvests the hair, she offers the donors a correct haircut in order that their hair doesn’t look messy. “A beautician’s course I took comes in handy. I give them (donors) a cut that evens out the hair and does not look like a haphazard job. Some people hand over hair they have cut themselves — either wet or unwashed. That is when it gets messy. I, then, have to wash and dry the hair, which sometimes smells.”
Hanging hair to dry, on a clothesline at dwelling, startles her sons. “They constantly tell me that all that hair hanging looks ghoulish!” Zeenath says laughing. She lives in Aluva along with her two sons and their households.
Although she has by no means weighed the amount of hair she has taken to the Hair Bank, she says, “Every three months I have hair harvested from at least 110-120-odd people.” She will get the wigs free from Amala Hospital. Zeenath is attempting to be taught wig-making in order that it might make it simpler to get wigs for cancer survivors with out a lot of a wait.
“Being shorn of hair can be especially tough for some people. The wait gets to some of them, so I think if I learn to make them then they will not have to wait too long.” The wigs she will get are for ladies for “men can manage with a cap or a scarf unlike women.”
For the sake of confidence
Are there specs on the type of wig? “The cancer survivors specify the kind of wig they want. Some women want their ‘hair’ to be like you see in the movies or on television — long, straight silky kind of hair. Some of them joke that even though their natural hair may not have been all that, they can at least hope for a wig that is pretty,” says Zeenath, laughing.
Zeenath does extra: she drives an ambulance, arranges blood donations, sponsorships to conduct marriages of ladies from underprivileged backgrounds, conducts cleaning soap and chocolate making courses aside from volunteering. When requested what drives her, she says, “I have been volunteering since I was 18. My childhood was tough, I have faced several hardships and challenges. For that reason, I think, I empathise more with people who are suffering and I want to do my bit trying to ease that.”
Those considering donating hair can contact Zeenath at 9497226433
