Invisible handicap = Invisible people

Transcription

1 Invisible handicap = Invisible people Mentally disabled are about 15% of all disabled folks in India (by census data) 40 lakh mentally disabled in India Seeing, Hearing, Speech, Movement, & Mental Mentally disabled are further discriminated Society does not accept them easily Parents hide it until there is a physical manifestation Treated as stigma instead of disability Dive is further more in rural areas By extrapolation data 1 in 150 people are autistic (> 2million in India) Over 50 lakh people with Cerebral Palsy (CP) 30% of all early birth or low-weight at birth children have CP Not much recognition or knowledge about mental impairments in general public domain Inadequate awareness of abilities and services

2 Invisible handicap = Invisible people Majority of institutions working with the mentally disabled have stipulations: Refuse services to children who are not toilet trained Refuse to admit children with severe retardation or seizure disorders Don t necessarily have vocational training programs for those above 16yrs of age All this ensures children don t realize their potential and live a life of neglect Shristi Special Academy works in and around Bangalore Urban campus houses an Autism Unit Rural campus has all the rest and works in many villages in and around Channenhalli (30kms out of Bangalore) Primary stated goal: To provide individualized intervention and train children with mental disabilities to become socially as well as economically self reliant

3 Shristi: Objectives Intervention programs to train special needs children to become self-reliant Non-discriminatory Medical, Therapeutic, Educational interventions Personalized intervention to every child Individualized child-focused programs Child centric end-to-end argument Enable children with developmental delays to go to normal or integrated schools Enable others to gain employment, or be gainfully employed within Shristi s sheltered workshop Well trained Special Educators are core Hard to find, harder to sustain

4 Shristi: program overview Structured intervention programs for children with Mental retardation, Autism, ADHD, Down s syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Multiple disorders and any other intellectual impairment Rehabilitation includes Therapeutic intervention, Special education, Sensory stimulation, Physiotherapy, Language stimulation, and Occupational therapy Organized into multiple units Early Intervention, Autism, Balwadi, Pre-vocational training, Vocational training Redefined Curriculum Specially designed and honed for each child; family centric; self-care, socialization, language skills, appropriate behavior, pet therapy, etc.

5 Training Shristi: program overview Training involves skill building, special education, psychology, physiotherapy, speech therapy, upgrading skills emphasis, etc. Vocational Unit Ultimate aim of special education is employability and independent living Training in tailoring, screen printing, candle making, soap making, horticulture, etc. + workplace behavior Sheltered workshop with stipend to help transition CBR services, counseling, evaluations Parental guidance, supportive services Seminars, workshops, assisting other NGOs

6 Shristi: Asha s involvement First visited in decided on funding teachers salaries of the Autism unit Decision was made after considerable deliberation, in favor of providing a consistent support that will help the organization the most Steady support from Austin until ; SV support started in site visits in the period, some success with grants, contributed one full time volunteer (Meena), Asha has been a major donor (always in the top three) over the years

7 Shristi: Asha SV Evaluation Asha SV Evaluation Document 2009 Eval Matrix broken down by 5 meta-level tasks Training Teachers, educators, care-givers, parents, etc. Outreach Awareness, early intervention, social impact, acceptance, etc. Methodology Staff Pedagogy, documentation, innovation, communication, etc. Attrition, quality of interaction, staff-evals Vocational Unit Number of orders etc. in the workshop Children graduating into gainful employment Stipends, streams of training, increased skill, etc.

8 Shristi: Asha SV Future Engagement Original sustenance plan was to grow a Corpus Not much progress or success with that Next plan was to get more grants Not a sustainable solution only interim Current plan for Shristi is threefold: Start a SAC program (from Shristi) Asha SV will assist by diverting donors details to be worked out Start Team Shristi Start a International Volunteer Program Based on the success of the above plans, we can look into a 3 year exit window In the meantime, we continue to support the Autism Unit teachers salaries