Help Educate 500 Deafblind Children in India

Harsan (Chinna), a five-year-old boy from Andhra Pradesh, belongs to an economically backward family. His father is a daily wage worker, and his mother is a housewife. Despite their financial struggles, Harsan finds solace in watching TV and listening to songs at high volume. In 2019, a special educator identified him and conducted functional and clinical assessments. Following this, he was enrolled in our Sparsh programme in Andhra Pradesh.

It was then discovered that Harsan has congenital deafblindness with low vision and partial hearing loss. Our project team provides him with home-based services due to the distance of his home from the center. We hope he will be able to overcome these challenges and thrive. It's moments like these that remind us how important it is to provide support to economically backward families who may not have access to the resources they need to give their children a fair shot at life.

Now, as we look back on where Harsan started before joining our programme, our heart overflows with gratitude and admiration for the progress he has made. It's hard to believe that this smiling, confident young child was once so moody and uncooperative with people he didn't know. He depended on his mother for all his Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and had no means of communication due to his lack of speech. It was a challenging start for Harsan. Our dedicated team worked tirelessly to help him overcome these obstacles and achieve his potential. Today, he is enrolled in school and interacts with people with ease. Seeing him flourish makes all our efforts worth it.

The power of intervention by a dedicated team cannot be overstated. When it comes to aiding in the areas of socialization, ADL training, speech therapy, finger spelling, and sign language training, this team has proven to be an invaluable asset to those in need. For individuals struggling with socialization, this team offers guidance and support to help them build meaningful connections with others. For those who require ADL training, they provide personalized instruction and encouragement, helping people regain their independence and confidence. Their expertise in speech therapy has helped countless individuals overcome communication barriers, while their finger spelling and sign language training has opened new worlds of understanding for deafblind individuals.

Post intervention, he has become much more cooperative and enjoys spending time with people. It's heart-warming to see him talking in 1–2-word sentences like "mom", "dad", "food" and "spoon". His expressive communication has improved tremendously. He is now mostly independent in his ADL and can even do things like brushing, grooming, and toileting by himself. He has also started doing Telugu Sign Language and finger spelling in English from "A" to "I". His special educator is teaching him small words in Telugu sign language as well. With all these improvements, it's no wonder he was enrolled in Bavitha Centre-a Sarva Siksha Initiative for Elementary School Education for people with disabilities. We are excited to see how much more he will learn and grow with this opportunity. Helping Harsan communicate and become independent has been one of the most rewarding experiences of our lives.

Harsan’s mother says, “Chinna couldn’t do any activity at home but now he is doing his ADLs on his own and is also showing interest in other household chores. I’m happy with his progress”.

The support received from donors through GlobalGiving has helped Sense India to provide the required resources and training to so many children with deafblindness and multiple disabilities like Harsan to enable them to access education and bringing them closer to their dreams.

We thank GlobalGiving providing such a platform to fulfil the mission of the Non-Profit Organisations like Sense India.

• The_Journey_of_Endurance_and_Success.pdf (PDF)
  

Mittal or fondly called Honey is the apple of her family’s eyes. 21 years old Mittal lives with her parents and elder sister at her home in Surendranagar district. Her father is a small businessman and her mother is a homemaker. Her sister became a physiotherapist for her and gives her therapy at home. Mittal likes to hang out with her and listen to music. She has fear of hanging things, therefore doesn’t like curtains.

Mittal has blindness with cerebral palsy. She also suffers from epilepsy and is wheelchair-bound. According to her parents, Mittal slipped from the doctor’s hand when she was just 3 days old. The incident damaged her brain resulting in multiple disabilities. She joined in 2008 when her parents came to know about the Programme through one of the physiotherapists at a centre she was going for her treatment.

Before joining the programme, Mittal was confined to her home, mostly her bed. She was very shy and did not talk to anyone. She would cry to get her family’s attention when she was hungry and would even wet the bed. After her enrolment in the Centre, she has been showing continuous improvement. In the last six months, the project team has focussed on her cognitive skills, menstrual hygiene communication and fine and gross motor skills.  With the training, she can now welcome the guests who come to her home, tries to socialise with new people and express her needs to her family.

Her parents have become more confident in interacting with her. She can identify her family by their voices. Mittal can also identify the objects near her and makes sound gestures for her needs like water, food, and toilet.

For the coming months, the educator will work with Mittal so that she can understand when the teacher says yes and be able to hold potato, tomato and comb. Also, in the longer run,  the educator will work with her to be able to fill vegetables in the bags.

Mittal’s mother is quite active and comes regularly to the Centre for the meetings. She and the rest of the family are very supportive of Mittal and want her to be independent in her life.

Her mother expressed her satisfaction and gratitude for her teachers. “Mittal is very happy with her teachers and follows all their instructions. We would like her to be always happy this way.”

The support received from donors through GlobalGiving has helped Sense India to provide the required resources and training to so many children with deafblindness and multiple disabilities like Sirsha to enable them to access education and bringing them closer to their dreams.

We thank GlobalGiving providing such a platform to fulfil the mission of the Non-Profit Organisations like Sense India.

• Power_of_Care_GG_Report_Dec_2022.pdf (PDF)