Help Educate 500 Deafblind Children in India

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)