THE MAKING OF BABA AMTE ... contd
In 1967, Anandwan was able to raise enough funds by the sale of their products to set up a college in Warora. To these were added a college of agriculture, a primary school for the hearing and speech impaired and an orphanage. The journey from medical cure to empowerment had resulted in the scorned and rejected giving back to the social mainstream many times more than what they had ever asked for.
The journey had, however, taken a heavy toll on its first soldier. In 1964 Baba Amte was told by his doctors that the agonizing pain in his back was the result of a progressive degeneration of the spine which they diagnosed as severe cervical spondylosis. After spending a few years on medication, his friends collected enough money to send him to Wimbledon (UK) for a major operation of the spine in 1971.
