Early Intervention for Childhood Disabilities

We are pleased to provide an update on our Early Intervention program, which has made significant progress thanks to our Enabling Inclusion® app. Through this app, we are able to screen children for delayed development at various locations, including primary health centers, village sub-centers, integrated child development schemes, pre-schools, schools, and even directly at their homes. To date, we have successfully screened 265,735 children. Our Child Rehabilitation & Development service involves conducting comprehensive assessments using our EI® app at baseline and then periodically, usually every month. We also provide Community & Parent Support through the formation of EI Parents Groups and hold small-group meetings with parents on a monthly basis and large group meetings every six months. Our program aims to improve school enrollment for children with disabilities, and we have achieved an enrollment rate of up to 85%. Over time, with proper rehabilitation, we are also seeing an increase in their inclusion in mainstream society. Our impact so far has been significant, having rendered services to 10,243 children, empowered 29,013 parents, trained 15,943 workers in the field, sensitized 207,961 people, and prescribed assistive devices to 2,359 cases. We kindly request that you update this report and consider supporting us with funding. For more information on our program, please visit our website at https://earlyintervention.amarseva.org/.

Most schools in India are not accessible for children with special needs and they face isolation and exclusion from the regular students. This leads to severe functional and psychological impact on the child and affects the personality and prospects when the child grows up. The barrier starts from the elementary to the higher levels of education in India.

Siva Saraswathi Vidyalaya, an integrated school, was started as a primary school in Ayikudy village in Tirunelveli District of Tamilnadu in June 1981 with 5 students in a thatched shed as the first effort of Sangam to give quality education at affordable cost to the physically challenged as well as other rural students. The school grew to 5 teachers and 110 students by 1990 to further progress in our integration efforts of disabled children with others to achieve equal rights for all. In 1995, we started Middle school which was upgraded to High school in 2009 and Higher Secondary in 2015. Here, in Amar Seva Sangam, we provide a complete inclusive solution for education of children with special needs.

Our inclusive and integrated school is established to include mainstream children with special needs children. We are highly successful in the process of inclusive education and most children who have gone out after finishing their schooling have been highly successful in their lives. This encourages us to cater to more and more such children in our region. Hence, frequent requirements for funding have become necessary.