"Who shall dare let his incapacity for hope or goodness cast a shadow upon the courage of those who bear their burdens as if they were privileges?" - Helen Keller
A worthy question indeed. In this edition of Xpressions we are proud to showcase two sterling projects that have changed the lives of children braving developmental challenges with courage and enthusiasm. While Chiguru an inclusive pre school run by Shrishti special academy provides an enriched curriculum that helps children prepare and adjust better for regular school, Jan Madhyam aims to address the needs of disabled and disadvantaged young women in creative and innovative ways. Vibha thanks its patrons for making both these initiatives a reality. As ever we eagerly await your feedback on Xpressions.

A Vibha Project Visit Report

Visit to Shristi, 29th June 2006

Two Vibha volunteers on vacation in India visited Shristi Special Academy in Bangalore. Vibha has been funding Chiguru, the inclusive pre-school run by Shristi since August 2005. They are due for renewal of funding this year. The intention of the visit was to see Chiguru (a new program) and go over their spending for 2005-2006 and their budget for 2006-2007.

Everyone at Shristi was very enthusiastic when we called to inform them that we were in Bangalore and interested in visiting Shristi. They called us a couple of times to confirm the day and time and even insisted on picking us up. We were picked up in the morning around 10 AM by Rosie and Rudresh. The jeep that picked us up had been donated to Shristi by “Heart and Hand for the Handicapped, USA”. Rosie, like everyone at Shristi has multiple responsibilities. Other than handling their administration and accounting, she is also corporate liaison, organizes fund-raising events and mobilizes their patron community for specific needs such as surgery for a disabled child etc. Rudresh, doubles up as the head of the vocational training program, other than being the driver of the jeep.

Rosie, being aware of Bangalore traffic, came prepared to use the long commute to update us on the happenings at Shristi. She came with many photo albums covering events from their 10th anniversary celebration to their sports day. We talked to her about her role at Shristi and their accounting methods. She emphasized that she is very particular about “transparency and clarity” with their accounts. She briefly outlined her accounting procedures to tell us how she ensures that funding from various sources stay dedicated to the program for which it is slated. One observation she had was that corporations usually made donations towards capital expenses like equipment and buildings, but as a policy did not support recurring expenses. They usually went out to organizations like Vibha for recurring expenses.

When we got to Shristi’s urban campus, Rosie went off to prepare for an afternoon meeting and we went to meet Sharon, who leads all the early intervention programs including Chiguru. The urban “campus” is a rented house with partitions and modifications to make up classrooms and offices. Since it was getting close to lunch time, we decided to visit the classrooms before sitting down to talk.

The first classroom we visited was the early intervention classroom. Here, children were in a circle singing songs. All the children in this classroom are mentally challenged in some way. They all looked very happy and enthusiastic. As soon as they saw the camera pointed at them they wanted to sing “Happy Birthday”. They called their teachers “Sharon aunty” and “Manjula aunty”. One of them scrambled onto Sharon’s lap and sat there the entire time we were there.

Ajay, who needed extensive surgery on both his legs, was in this classroom. Shristi fund-raised from their patron community to help pay for Ajay’s surgery and they were thrilled that he was now able to walk unaided for short distances.

The small room next door was being used by a teacher to teach two children basic cognitive skills. Children from the classrooms visit her once a day to get individual attention. We also witnessed a physical therapist working with a child suffering some level of brain damage and a speech therapist who was finishing up her morning sessions.

The next classroom we visited was the primary classroom. This is the classroom to which the children from the early intervention classroom graduate once they have acquired a certain skill level. Here, the children briefly interrupted their morning work to say hello to us. They were very eager to come forward and ask us our names and introduced themselves. One of the boys sang a song enumerating body parts and their function -successfully demonstrating his good memory and good humor! By then it was lunch time and the youngest kids filed into the dining area and took their seats for lunch served by the school.

We asked her what they did by way of community outreach. She replied that other than parent education seminars, they try to reach out to pediatricians and primary health care centers to train them to identify developmental disorders early.

By then it was past noon and we wanted to catch the children of Chiguru before their dismissal time (between 1.30 pm and 2.00 pm). Chiguru is located on Shristi’s rural campus. We decided to use the commute time again for further discussion and headed to Shristi’s rural campus near Chennanahalli, about 20 km. out of town. This time we were accompanied by Sharon and Rudresh. The autism unit and the vocational training unit are also housed here.

On the way Sharon elaborated on the curriculum for various programs. She answered our queries like:
- What do children do when they graduate from Chiguru? Their choices are the local government school or an English medium convent school.
- What are the benefits of inclusive education for typical children? The enriched curriculum helps them prepare and adjust better for regular school. Also teaches them valuable health and hygiene practices and self-care skills.
- How do they identify children for Chiguru and how do they manage to keep the program at 30-40 children when there were probably many more children of preschool age in the surrounding areas? She replied that they had a harder time convincing the parents about the benefits of early childhood education and getting the children to attend school, rather than keeping them out. They typically identified children during immunization drives in the villages and through the primary health physician in the village.

Chiguru:
Chiguru is currently housed on Shristi’s rural campus in a portion of a large dining area. The space is demarcated from the rest of the dining area by cupboards and partition walls. A new building donated by Timken industries is being built on campus, and once that is ready, Chiguru will be located there along with the autism unit. All the equipment in use by this program was purchased using Vibha funds. This includes the computer, the audio-visual equipment, the cupboards, the chairs and tables, the puzzles, building blocks and education aids. There are currently 30 children from the surrounding villages enrolled in Chiguru. The strength has fallen from 36 as stated in the annual report since some of the children have moved on to the primary school and the vacancies have not been filled yet. The capacity of the program is 50 children.

Two teachers were guiding the children through the various activities. All the children seemed well adjusted to school and engrossed in their work. Among them five have been identified to have developmental problems and stay back for a while after the other children leave for extra training. Just before leaving, the children participated in a group activity where they sang songs.

Plan your Visit

Contact projects@vibha.org if you would like to visit a project and see for yourself the difference you make in a childs life.

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Project Profile

Jan Madhyam
Ayanagar, New Delhi

Jan Madhyam – Genesis: The idea of Jan Madhyam was born on the lawns of Jamia Milia Islamia University, New Delhi. In 1980 Jolly Rohatagi an artist and Ranjana Pandey a puppeteer, were collaborating on a multi-media program for pre-schoolers. The theme was Learning is Fun. The variety of tasks and stimuli highlighted each child’s needs and capacities, making apparent areas where the child performed well or poorly. It was but a natural progression to think of applying the same technique to children with special needs. Over the next few years, Jolly and Ranjana, now joined by Gayatri, a dancer, developed a series of programs for children with special needs. On the way, new issues came to the fore – the lack of services, negative attitudes in the community, the limited resources of poor and rural communities and the changing needs of the growing girl child. Today, over two decades later, Jan Madhyam continues to grow, to be pioneers, addressing the needs of disabled and disadvantaged young women in creative and innovative ways.

Jan Madhyam – Projects Managed (A sample)
EORTTEC (Equal Opportunity Rural Technical Training and Education Centre)

This Vocational Training Centre at Ayanagar trains girls inclusively, able and those with special needs from the community for vocational skills like cooking, stitching, clay work, and paper work. The centre is recognized as their own which is reflected through their cooperation and participation in the day to day programs. This shift in perception is reflected by the fact that there is a long waiting list for admissions. The only place in the village where girls can play and enjoy the outdoors is Janmadhyam centers garden. It is utilized both for recreational activities like playing badminton and providing training to grow vegetables organically or recycle garbage to make compost. This is one of the primary projects supported by Vibha, with six tranches of funding spread over 2 years from 2003 onwards. The project has also been approved for 2006 -2007 funding support as well.

Srijan: Self Advocacy
Under this program, trained students of Jan Madhyam conduct workshops in various regular and special schools. The main activities are making of wall murals, paper bag making, puppetry, film shows etc. The purpose of this work is primarily to showcase the abilities of disabled people.

PADOS (Neighborhood Network Program)
This program aims towards reaching the social disadvantaged. It started with neighborhood children running aimlessly in the lanes of Zamrudpur village. It is an enrichment program wherein they are introduced to various art activities, poetry, and learn basic computer skills in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere.

VISTAAR
Extension of JanMadhyam’s CBR Education Project for Poor Children in Govt and Poor Schools. Targeted at MCD and other primary schools in 9 villages around Ayanagar. Main motive is “Education for All” – Help build a proper media based curriculum in schools so that all able and disabled children can learn together. Population consists mainly of Gujjar, Brahmins and Jaats and migrants.

Jan Madhyam: Performance Highlights (2003–2006)

• EORTTEC has performed exceptionally well with around 220+ children in various activities in Ayanagar
• Chattarpur satellite centre started in June 2003 (20 children); 6 of them sent back to mainstream after training, 4 dropouts, rest continuing.
• Started Ghitorni centre in 2004 (around 5 children)
• Number of referrals increased to 40 from 28 (including from places outside New Delhi)
• Worked with NGO’s like Deepalaya, WHY to reach around 180 economically deprived and 37 disabled children
• Had 12 katha-peti shows every year (to generate community awareness) – around 10 children identified in 2003 alone
• Around 20 In-house teacher training session in 1 year (other than training school teachers)
• Reached to around 1500-2000 children in mainstream school through Srijan
  

It is progress like this that spurs us on in our efforts to create opportunities and hope for children. If you would like more information on Jan Madhyam please contact us at projects@vibha.org.

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