Disability Rights India Project #40879

Support excluded kids with disabilities in India

by Karuna Trust

Support excluded kids with disabilities in India

Project Report | Dec 8, 2020
Helping Ensure No Child is Left Behind

By erika narkiewicz | Digital Fundraiser

Mina, Project Manager for Bhalabosa 'Loving Home' writes about the challenges and successes of the past few months for families and children with disabilities in West Bengal:

"During the last 6 months which has been shaped by the pandemic including periods of lockdown, we had to restrategize ourselves to help the children recover from the regression they suffered during the worst periods of lockdown. Our aim was to make services available to children and their families in a more flexible way and to help parents who have limited time due to having to work more. We have split our work into different, shorter sessions to give families more options.

Children are now able to receive therapy for longer periods. They are understanding the therapy procedures with more attention to details. They are being given worksheets which they shall have to complete at home. The worksheets have questionnaires which reflect the way they work and the quality of care and attention parents are giving them or neglect they are facing. This is enabling us to make faster progress with children who have regressed when we detect it.

The capacity for our day-care was for 38 children but a huge inflow of children has brought up the numbers to 72 nearly double the capacity. At present, there are 60 children who are regularly coming to the project. Another 12 children are on diagnosis, assessment, and trial. These children come once a week from far-off places. Apart from the 60 children, we would want to provide services to the other children too because they are economically challenged, which prevents them from buying such services elsewhere as it is expensive.

All this work and more has helped build bridges of confidence with us. We were the first to reach relief to these households. Questionnaires were used to address anxiety issues. Parents were relieved to talk about and share their worries.

Reaching out to their children with love and giving importance to their needs through discussions satisfied them. Our team built a bridge of understanding with the parents of disabled children."

Thank you for your support of the essential work for some of the most marginalised children in rural West Bengal.

Kind regards,

Erika Narkiewicz

www.karuna.org

A child receives essential physiotherapy

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Aug 13, 2020
Care for children with disabilities during crisis

By Erika Narkiewicz | Digital Fundraiser

Home visits for care assessments

Bhalobasa- 'Loving Home' closed its doors during the coronavirus lockdown in West Bengal, but the team continued to support the families that usually form the community.

Mina, who leads the Project, shares how the past three months have been for them and the adaptations they have made, to ensure children continue to thrive as much as possible during this challenging time.

Emergency Food Distribution

In May, we visited children in their homes. While visiting the homes of those children who could not turn up to collect the food to provide the food items, we had the opportunity to witness their condition. The children who needed it were provided with medicines and therapy. We also talked to the parents at length about their children's’ fragile health and gave valuable advice to help support the parents during this intense family time. Therefore the food distribution provided an additional value in helping us assess the condition of the children and take necessary measures of support for those who needed it.

With the aid of Karuna, we distributed parcels consisting of 1kg puffed rice, 1kgs sugar, 1 kg flattened rice,1 kg.chhatu (flour made of barely), 1 packet biscuit, 1 kg suji (semolina) and one 1 soap to each of 58 families of our children.

A physiotherapist, project manager and one of the special educators go to the houses of those children who are unable to come to daycare. They provide the therapies to these children in their houses, as mentioned above. Two home visits for each child are done per week to support the children and their families. They are being given physiotherapy and other therapies due to the fragile health condition. Many of the children and their families were facing starvation and their health was severely affected, but thanks to our food distribution and home visits they are surviving these terrible challenges.

Home Visits and Re-Opening the Daycare Centre with Limited Capacity

Additional home visits were conducted from 2nd June as most of the children could not attend our daycare centre, Bhalobasa. Even now there are no trains running and buses are also very irregular. However, we were determined to open the centre in whatever way we could as soon as possible. Now, the centre is being run every day from morning till afternoon. Daycare is open for those children who are able to come to the daycare centre and they are getting therapy.

Staff and children wear protective equipment and every precaution is taken. For parents and children coming back to the Bhalobasha centre brings some joy in their lives.

Thank you for supporting some of the most marginalised and vulnerable children in this community. Your support ensures these children don't get left behind in times of crisis and that their families are supported to meet their needs; even more so in these particular times of struggle.

Essential physiotherapy continues

Food distribution to families of Bhalobasa

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Apr 17, 2020
Support for disabled children during COVID-19

By Erika Narkiewicz | Digital Fundraiser

During this challenging time, all the communities that we serve in India and Nepal are affected by the circumstances surrounding the coronavirus. We are in touch with our partners on the ground and are responding to regular updates.

For the families in West Bengal receiving support for their children with disabilities, as in the rest of India, they are under lockdown restrictions. There are food shortages because markets are closed, no running water in many villages and clean drinking water shortages. Daily wage earners and small scaler farmers are desperate as they are unable to work. Nevertheless, our partners are conducting a campaign over the phone through their leaders so that they can make the community aware of the coronavirus and take precautions.

The families mostly live in remote rural areas. There is a lot of additional pressure on them at present because almost all of the parents are casual agricultural labourers, which means they cannot work while the lockdown is in process. It also means that they have no savings or financial safety net. This, along with the rapidly rising food prices means that many families cannot even afford food and basic necessities. In an environment where families are living up to 6 or 7 people in one room, and hundreds of people often share one source of water, it is also pretty much impossible for people to self isolate.

While our work usually focuses on education, gender equality and diginified livelihoods, we are focusing on the immediate needs of marginalised communities and on basic survival necessecities. Because of this we are supporting the distribution of emergency food parcels and hygiene kits to all of the families, so that at least they can sustain themselves and keep up good hygiene practices as far as possible. The staff of the project are also keeping in touch with the families to prevent feelings of isolation. With the support networks that the project provides, the situation is still desperate, but the project provides support so that these families will hopefully be able to weather the storm of this crisis.

Thank you for your continued support at this time and we hope that you and those close to you are well.

With warm wishes and gratitude,

Erika Narkiewicz

karuna.org

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