Improve Lives of 90 Special Needs Boys in India

The Institute for Mentally handicapped children (IMHC) currently houses 85 boys with special needs who have been abandoned by their families or lost and brought to the Institute. Working with the boys in a State run Home is bound to be challenging with everyday bringing us new issues, experiences and situations. Thank you so much for supporting our work at the Institute and believing in the work we do for these amazing boys.

Some of the main highlights and challenges are:

• Health & Hygiene - 20 severe and profoundly challenged boys are given a bath and brushed every morning by the assistant carers. Grooming with nail care has been going on every week to ensure all boys have clean cut nails. A new government doctor has been appointed to ensure good health of the boys on a regular basis. Due to weather changes a few boys have been down with fever and common colds.
• Therapy & Activities - The boys have been doing paper art and slowly increasing the difficulty level with their fine motor skills. They have also started making Christmas decorations to bring in some Christmas cheer at the Institute. They are making snowflakes, candy canes and Christmas trees. The boys who are profoundly challenged are given toys and engaged throughout the day in play school by the assistant carers. Yoga for 10 boys is being done every day in the morning before breakfast. The boys have learnt 10 asanas and end with meditation.
• Physiotherapy – 10 boys have been undergoing physiotherapy every day for 20 minutes each. A majority of the boys have improved balance and gait through vigorous physiotherapy.
• Volunteering at the Institute – The volunteers have been doing curriculum with the boys on a 1:3 ratio. Some of the boys were reassessed and progress was noted. A few new skill based activities for fine motor skills were designed.
• Events at the Institute – A Christmas carnival is being planned for the boys in December. The boys will have rides, popcorn, cotton candy, Christmas carols and Santa with Christmas gifts!

Story of the month:

A lot of our boys are sent to the Men’s Complex once they are 21 years. One boy who was sent recently was Naveen. Naveen was a part of the special needs classes that were conducted every day by the teachers hired by U&I. He was a great learner and always had a smile on his face. He is a soft spoken boy so the teachers had to train their ears to hear him in class. One of Naveen’s favourite things to do was sing nursery rhymes. He was the happiest and most active during these sessions.

After Naveen got shifted to the Men’s complex, the teachers did not get to see him for nearly a month. One day, the teachers decided to visit the complex and meet with all the boys. When they entered the room where the boys were seated, Naveen quickly got up, ran up to the teachers and started doing the actions for the rhyme “chubby cheeks”! The teachers were both surprised and extremely happy to see that he still remembered his rhymes and was excited about them as well.

It was truly an inspiring moment for our teachers. Teaching the boys the same rhymes, numbers and alphabets every day requires a lot of patience. On most days, they are unsure if what they teach is actually being grasped by all the boys. On such days, they now remember Naveen and know that even a small rhyme is a happy memory in the lives of our boys. It is truly humbling to know we are the reason the boys smile with fond memories of days they have spent with us in learning.

Plans for the next few months include starting basic speech therapy for a few boys by the special needs teachers, buying new equipment for physiotherapy and hiring more assistant carers.

We are continuously striving to make the lives of the boys a little bit better every day. On the challenging days we take a moment to remember and witness the smile on their faces and that is always enough reason to continue to make a difference in every way we can!

Dear Partner and Friend

The Institute for Mentally handicapped children (IMHC) currently houses 85 boys with special needs who have been abandoned by their families or lost and brought to the Institute. Working with the boys in a State run Home is as rewarding as it is challenging and everyday brings us new issues, experiences and reasons to celebrate. Thank you so much for supporting our work at the Institute and believing in the work we do among these wonderful children.

Here are some of the main highlights and challenges:

• Health & Hygiene – Many of the boys are now trained and independent in their activities of daily living. 17 severely and profoundly challenged boys have their teeth brushed and are are given a bath every morning by the assistant carers at the home. We have been facing an issue with lack of sufficient water over the past few months and that has made bathing in the mornings for all the boys a little difficult but we ensure that all the boys are bathed once a day. Health issues have been minimal. A few boys suffering from epilepsy, had a few attacks in the past few months and are now under medication.
• Therapy & Activities – In the various vocational therapy activities conducted over the past few months, the boys have learnt to make baskets, flowers and pen-stands out of paper. They also learnt to paint aesthetically using a combination of colours. U&I has also hired 2 Special Needs Teachers who use play and activities to teach the boys shapes, colours, identification of everyday objects and even manners! 
• Physiotherapy – 3 out of the 10 boys undergoing physiotherapy have shown improvement in gross motor abilities in the past few months. They are now able to grip big objects better and for a longer duration of time.
• Volunteering at the Institute – New volunteers have been recruited to interact and engage with the boys every Sunday for the next 9 months. These volunteers have been assigned to the different groups of boys and will engage with the boys through various activities and games. Every Sunday interaction ends with a lively session of dance and serving off snacks for the boys. 
• Independence Day and Friendship day celebrations – Independence day was celebrated by the boys with much enthusiasm; a few of of them learnt some dance moves to patriotic songs and they performed for the others. They also made friendship bands with woollen thread and tied them on each other's wrists on Friendship day.

BIG BIRTHDAY BASH 2014

The biggest and happiest event at the Home is the Big Birthday Bash. It is that day of the year that we host a carnival to celebrate the lives of these 85 special boys. This year we celebrated it on the 8^th of Aug and had nearly 50 volunteers come to enjoy the day with the boys.

The place was decorated and the kids with their volunteers were ready to party. The carnival included everything from merry-go-rounds, bouncing castles and a (mini) giant wheel, to horse rides and a magic show! It was great to watch the volunteers help the kids get on and off the rides and also accompany them on some. The boys got their faces painted and ate as much pop corn and cotton candy that they could get their hands on, but not before making sure the volunteers with them ate well too! Once the excitement with the rides died down, the boys cut 5 birthday cakes while the volunteers sang for them. After lunch, the magician brought out his bag of tricks and the boys were amazed by all the colours and magic around them! No good party ends without dancing and it was a whole lot of fun watching them move and groove with their volunteers. We ended the days by giving each boy a gift bag, which had in it, colourful toys bought by our friends and partners at Tymtix, a Bangalore-based software company.

Balloons, cotton candy, popcorn, face-painting, carnival rides, and an atmosphere of excitement! The Big Birthday Bash 2014 had it all! Thank you for helping us give the boys at the Special Needs Home a day to remember all year long!