Kurnool: The baby of a rape victim is now a golden girl: a champion swimmer. Pooja — christened so by former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam — is making waves on the national swimming scene. A gold winner in 200-metre freestyle in the eight-state southwest zonal swimming championship in 2018, Pooja will now represent Andhra Pradesh in the under-17 competition in New Delhi.
Rescued by the Raja Foundation in Mylava-ram, Kadapa, 11 years ago, she exhibited an awesome growth of talent despite the absence of parental care. “Eleven years ago, a deaf and dumb you-ng woman was raped on a roadside and made pregnant,” said Raja Reddy. “Sitting under a tree one afternoon in Railway Koduru, she gave birth to a beautiful girl in a pool of blood without nursing care or midwife’s assistance.”
The foundation brought both mother and baby to the Daddy Home on September 5, 2007. “She was hardly 5 hours old when she arrived, full of blood scars,” Raja Reddy said. “Even her umbilical cord was not cut properly.”
Raja Reddy wrote to former President Kalam, requesting him to name the newborn. Kalam, as a symbol of religious unity, named her Pooja Eeman (faith/trust in God).
In Pooja’s name the foundation started a school in Abdul Kalam Nagar, Chowduru, Kadapa, back in 2008. Raja Reddy said Pooja was active from the beginning. She is intelligent and has good sensory perception. She is a gold medallist in the under-14 swimming competitions in south India. She left for Delhi on Wednesday for the national under-17s swimming championship, representing AP.
