Recreation for 200 Special Needs Children in India

We have been providing recreational activities as a service to our children for almost 6 years now, and we are happy to say that we have consistently pushed for having a wider range of options for the children. We want them to explore as many things as possible, experience it all first hand and assert their own choice.

While in the past we provided creative arts and dance classes, we currently provide regular classes (Twice a month) for Music, Drama & Sports.

Our children have always loved these activities and contrary to all popular beliefs, they love sports the most! Here is a story of a sweet young girl, completely wheelchair-bound, but how she loves sports! It does not matter whether she plays it "correctly", or whether she has to be propped up by 2 people. She just loves being on the ground! Our Founder-Director, Mrs Vaishali Pai, says - 

"The child (name withheld for privacy) came to us at the age of 5 years. She had just gotten her diagnosis of Rett Syndrome. As per our process, we ensured they saw a pediatric neurologist, epileptologist etc. Because of these tests, they got a much better understanding of what Rett Syndrome was. Her anti-epileptics straightened out, which gave a lot of relief to both parents and child, even though it is a sad truth that in her condition, seizures cannot be controlled completely. At one point, she had also started developing scoliosis. Thankfully, through the use of kinesiotaping and of corsets, we managed to stop her physical scoliosis.

The one thing that stands out about this child is that, in spite of having all these physiological problems, she is an extremely happy child.  She loves participating in all programs of Tamahar, and the one program that she loves best probably, is the recreational activities or sports. This is one child who loves to participate in all kinds of sports program and the mother and child have not skipped even a single sports program day till date, be it during the summer camp or one of the weekend recreational activities.

I have a distinct picture of her from one of the days we had our weekend sports programs. In Rett Syndrome, the patient cannot hold anything in hands. This child is completely physically dependent, is not able to stand up by herself. Nonetheless, she simply does not crib about being made to stand for half an hour, while we arranged everything around her.  We had cricket as the main activity that day. There she stood, all padded up and propped up with splinting. She was padded up not for cricket, but just to be able to stand up straight. Her mother stood behind her, supporting her and helped her hold the cricket bat in her hand. The ball was gently trundled towards her, because it cannot be thrown.

There was pure excitement, sheer thrill on her face, when she saw that ball coming towards her and she put all her strength into trying to swing the bat. She swung the bat with her mother’s help, and when the bat and ball made contact, she was nothing short of exhilarated!

There is a direct correlation between her interest in participating in a variety of activities and her interest in participating in physiotherapy/therapy.  The way she is developing as far as her physical milestones are concerned, as far as her gross motor development is concerned, recreational activities have had a tremendous impact on her progress!”

We hope, that with your continued support, we will be able to help more and more children find joy and reclaim their childhood!