Where there is a will is a way.

The holds true for Hitesh Walia, a 9-yr-old boy who joined the Spastics Society of Northern India (SSNI) on Nov 15' 94. Hitesh has severe athetoid cerebral palsy. This means that he has far too many involuntary movements and that he has no control over them.

When he started at SSNI, Hitesh began learning to stabilize himself while standing by holding his hands together. Along with walking, Hitesh was being taught to eat and write, both of which were proving to be very difficult. His fingers were unable to maintain their grip on the spoon or the pen.

The therapist and myself kept thinking of new ways to make it easy for Hitesh. Six months thus passed and a trip was made to his home. His parents were on the whole satisfied by Hitesh's progress and felt no need for concern except that he liked to play in mud and scribble with his foot on wet soil. They felt that this caused skin problems as his hands and feet always remained dirty. Instead of being shocked, we were all grins. We asked Hitesh to immediately show us all he could do with his feet. He could hold chalk, adjust the paper and punch number on the telephone box. We were astonished and wondered why Hitesh had never mentioned about what all he could do. Embarrassed, Hitesh told us that he felt ashamed to sit on the floor and write with his foot when everyone else used their hands. This was not very difficult to tackle as we convinced both him and his parents how unique this ability was and the fact that Hitesh was atheoid made it a WONDER especially as he learnt the art himself.

Today Hitesh can make and paint a picture, take off his socks and shoes, write numbers from 1 to 10.

His legs were Disobedient

But he willed himself to walk

His hands worked against him.