Bonding for a better future
NGO
With out grant-in-aid from any statutory body, a parents group here is working for the benefit of specially-abled, writes Yasar Arafath
Stephen Hawking, the famous physicist who has written ‘A brief history of time’ suffers from cerebral palsy and the problem began when he was studying at the University of Oxford. But now he is the Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge.
Here, there are some students who have affected cerebral palsy, a physical condition involving permanent tightening of the muscles caused by damage to the brain, striving for a bright future by training in the vocational training centres of Swasahaya Samuchchaya.
Swasahaya Samuchchaya, claiming as the first parents association in Mysore working for all the disabilities operating on philanthropic donations, undertakes a special social service of rehabilitation by running a pre-school and a pre-vocational centre for specially abled and the cerebral palsy affected children.
The specially abled children under 14 years, here, are in action doing yoga early in the morning, bathe themselves, cook daily food, write their own addresses, pack candles, act in drama, dance in public programmes and manage all basic needs themselves.
Swasahaya Samuchchaya, started in 1987 by the parents of Specially Abled (SA) and cerebral palsy (CP) affected children, runs rehabilitation centres in ‘Chetana’, a pre-school, and ‘Kaushala’, a pre-vocational centre, despite of grant in aid from any of the statutory bodies.
In ‘Chethana’ well trained teachers teach all the basic education that a specially abled child should know about including toilet training, eating skills, dressing skills, personal hygiene, psycho therapy, speech therapy for the children from two to twelve years who are coming from different parts of the city.
Totally, 22 children who had been trained in ‘Kaushala’, are now working in various industries and institutes with normal persons like All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Vinyas Electronic Assembling Centre and Sharada Printing Press.
The rehabilitation centre, working as an agency for employment of special children, conducts monthly meeting with parents for update on children’s progress both at home and school. Summer camps and sports meet are also held annually for SA and CP children along with parents and siblings. It has got a well stocked library too. Swasahaya Samuchchaya has won Rita Peshwaria national award for the Best Parents Association.
Both institutes provide coaching for maintenance of punctuality, ability to follow instructions acceptance of responsibility, memory at work, harmonious relation with parents and co-workers, use of equipment, quality at work and maintenance of self discipline.
Speaking to Deccan Herald, Manjula Prabhakar, one of the founding members and School Correspondent, said the mental process of the children studying here is below the accepted normal due to arrested or incomplete development and limited in their ability to learn so that we train them well to manage, at least, their own things. Citing an example, Manjula said : “ My daughter had been taught here before some years. She developed his abilities from the training programmes and now she can teach in pre-school.”
K V Panduranga Setty, president, K Sananth Kumar, vice president and A S Prabhakar, treasurer are the persons behind the activities in Swasahaya Samuchchaya.
