Economic Growth India Project #53717

Sustainable Livelihoods for Deafblind Adults

by Sense International (India)

Sustainable Livelihoods for Deafblind Adults

Project Report | Apr 10, 2023
From Imagination to Reality

By Shivkumar Sharma | Project Leader

Sukanya, an 18-year-old girl, was born into a family plagued by poverty. She was born with deafblindness, which means she has no hearing and has low vision. Despite her challenges, Sukanya is an active and quick-learner girl who enjoys going to school. She was enrolled in a government mainstream school where she was warmly received by her teachers who provided her with support. She even had a special educator who taught her basic sign language so that she could keep up with her classmates. However, due to her disability, Sukanya found it difficult to keep up with the other students and struggled to comprehend the lessons being taught. This situation is quite emotional and heart-breaking.

It's heart-wrenching to know that she had to leave school after completing 8th grade due to the financial constraints of her family. Fortunately, she was enrolled in our sparsh project in Gorakhpur, and she began receiving both home-based and centre-based services from her special educator. Despite her passion for cooking and desire to contribute to her family's financial well-being, her educator realised that she needed to catch up on her studies to continue her education.

The team working on the project, including the special educator, assessed the needs of Sukanya and started providing their services accordingly. These services include:

Vocational training - where she is learning how to make Pani-Puri with her mother's support and is also being taught about money.
Educational services - the team worked on improving her reading and comprehension skills in English and Mathematics to prepare her for admission into the 9th standard.
Communication – she was taught sing language to make her communication easier.

All of these efforts are being made with a strong emotional connection to her needs and well-being.

Following the intervention, there has been a significant improvement in her vocational training and education. She has shown remarkable progress in addition, division, and multiplication, even without any assistance. Furthermore, she can now copy English sentences with ease. Recently, Sense India provided her with the necessary funds to start her income-generating activity of selling Pani-puri (famous Indian snack). This has brought immense joy and hope for her future.

Mrs. Poonam, Sukanya’s mother says “Sukanya is learning from her special educator, and he is helping her with education as well as training her for Income Generation Activity”.

The team working on the project is committed to continuing their efforts towards her education, as she is eager to learn more and is determined to finance it herself. They plan to enrol her in a specialised school run by the government, where she can pursue her higher studies. Additionally, the project team is providing her with support to help her establish a thriving business.

This news fills us with great emotion and pride, knowing that the support received from donors through GlobalGiving is making a real difference in her life.

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

Attachments:

From_Imagination_to_Reality.pdf (PDF)

3 Attachments

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Dec 19, 2022
The Magic Mill

By Shivkumar Sharma | Project Leader

At 30 years of age, Chovaram found a new lease of life. Living in the corners of Chhattisgarh, Chovaram and his family had become used to his deafblindness. Chova as he is lovingly called, knew how to move around the house and recognise his family through touch. He spent 25 years inside the four walls of his home, he was now standing outside them earning his keep.

Chova was born in a large family, but his parents and four siblings could sense that he was different from his siblings. He couldn’t follow his mother’s voice or react to the toys put in front of him. They found out that Chovaram was blind and had profound hearing loss. After the assessment, there were many trips to the doctors and all pointed towards the same answer- nothing can be done. At the age of five, his parents enrolled him in a school. The school authorities said no as they had never seen a child like him and the teachers wouldn’t know where to start. Disheartened but determined, Chovaram’s mother started teaching him to do things in the house.

In 2015, while conducting a survey an educator crossed the threshold of Chovaram’s house and a wind of change blew in. The educator noticed that Chovaram had learned to live on his own, but the way he had learned it could not help him in situations outside of home. Chova was enrolled into the project immediately. It was a massive task to unlearn and relearn independent living, personal hygiene, communication and receive an education.

In order to make Chova financially independent, Sense International India initiated an Income Generation Activity with him. Keeping in mind his skills and the market, starting a flour mill was the best option.

The flour mill became the talk of the village. It was fascinating to see Chova operating in the space and delivering the product to his customers without any errors. Chova trained in the space with his educators to gain skills in operating the machine, socialising and recognising currency. The mill gave Chovaram the opportunity to build relationships outside of his home. His shop became a hotspot of conversations and Chovaram finally had some acceptance in society.

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.

Attachments:

Livelihood_GG_Report_Dec_2022.pdf (PDF)

4 Attachments

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Aug 16, 2022
Keeping Hopes High

By Shivkumar Sharma | Project Leader

Shikha is a 21 years old girl from Raipur, Chattisgarh. Her father works in a private job and mother is a homemaker. At the time of birth, she was only 1.6 kgs and this has led to her disability.

At the age of two, Shikha's parents discovered that she was born with hearing problems and visual difficulties. Due to her optical device, she can see to a limited extent.

Shikha studied in the regular school for her primary education but was unable to adjust after the seventh grade, as a child with special needs and without special educators, in her school. Therefore, she was forced to remain at home. In May 2017, Shikha was enrolled at one of our deafblind programmes in Chhattisgarh. She was trained after registration as per her needs and the teachers were made aware and trained to educate her as per her needs and capacity.

Shikha is a very hardworking and proud girl. She refused to take a scribe for her class 10^th exam. Though her efforts were commendable, yet she was unable to pass the exam and she became demotivated because of the results. The project team motivated her by giving pre-vocational training to help her develop the skills required to run her own small business. Post training, she was given a seed money by Sense India to start her own general store.

In 2021, with the support of the project team, she filled for 10^th exam in the Chattisgarh open school. With the support of her special educator, she focused on her studies and finally passed the exams. The parents are positive about her developments. Her mother said, “I can’t be more grateful Sense India for their contribution in our daughter’s life.”

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

Attachments:

Keeping_Hopes_High.pdf (PDF)

2 Attachments

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