Early intervention for special needs kids in India

The last 3 months have seen Tamahar grow rapidly. We have 8 new employees, a record hiring number AND we had 13 children graduate to the next level, another first!

In our experience, it takes about 5 years to see a significant change in a child. Because the improvement and growth is constant, and happens in micro-levels, we tend to applaud every step but not celebrate the journey so far. This realization led us to starting an annual graduation ceremony for our children. A simple, run-of-the-mill event for neurotypical children but for children enrolled in special schools, it becomes so much more meaningful. It tells them that all the days they worked hard in therapy, in classrooms, at home, at a restaurant, at the movies, at the mall, just being out and about despite everything, it all stands for something. The graduation day, named Aarohan (meaning ascent) was an exciting day for us. The children were very happy to get this colorful hat and this colorful piece of paper with their name and picture on it! 

The ceremony was followed by a talk by Siddharth Jayakumar to the parents of our children. Siddharth is a diability icon, having received the National Award for the best employee with Cerebral Palsy and today, holds a senior position at a major bank in Bengaluru. His life is a testimony of what a child with special needs can achieve with parents's support and right intervention. His story inspired our parents and gave them the hope that maybe, one day, their child could achieve all this!

Our children were not the only ones taking a leap! The organization took a conscious decision invest in hiring more resources and  improving the compensation of the existing staff. We were able to fill ALL the gaps in the organization structure - we hired 4 interventionists to cater to children, an in-house physical therapy team (a dream come true!), a medical social worker to act as the case manager for families (another goal we had been working towards!) and a dedicated fundraising manager.  

We organized live music sessions for the children wherein one of our donors, a musician, Samar Mehdi dropped by and played a set for the kids. Best part of the day was when he asked the children to step forward and try a hand at the guitar themselves! The children were beyond themselves and it was an amazing sight to see our children clapping, moving to the rhythm, singing along and very patiently learning how to strum!. Just getting an instrument into their hands lit up their faces. Encouraged by this experience, we also organized another such session by another musician, Praveen Alva at out centre, much to the delight of the kids.

While the programs are charging ahead full throttle, the core team of Tamahar has been working at creating a scientifically sound assessment and measurement framework for children with special needs across all age-groups. While there are a lot of tools and studies available for 0-5 year age group, there is a dearth of standardized assessments and measurement to gauge the exact developmental status of a child above 5 years of age. 

We continue to train other organizations in our pedagogy. In the 3 months gone by, we have assessed all children enroled in those organization and designed their intervention plans. We are also working on building the capacity of their staff to better run the programs and become better interventionists.

And coming to our biggest achievement of the quarter, Tamahar emerged as the Regional Winner in the Disability category at the 9th Annual Spirit of Humanity Awards by Americares India! We went through 3 rounds of scrutiny and jury presentations to reach this far and were among the top 4 organizations chosen from across the country! This award was our first foray onto the national platform and we are ecstatic to have received the response that we did.

Excited for what future has in store for us,

Love,

Team Tamahar 

Links:

• Article by founder-director about her 3 decades in the sector
• Official Linkedin Page