By Subhashini Prabhaker | Project Leader
Pathways, one of the leading schools in Gurgaon, newly initiated coursework designed named, PROJECT EMPATHY. The Design Technology department of the school has set up a unique “collaborative project based learning Support team" with the purpose of expanding the learning opportunities for their students outside stereotyped school curriculum. As part of this initiative, the team linked up with Samadhan to provide an opportunity for the students to visit Samadhan’s Dakshinpuri Centre. The goal was to allow these students who are all from financially well to do families, to learn how families who are from a low socio economic community live and to meet and learn from our students with various types of disabilities and their mothers and the teachers. They were then to identify ways in which they could provide help. Whether it was a personal relationship or indirect support in the form of educational toys, furniture and learning aids was up to the students to decide.
A group of 6 students of Grade 11 visited Samadhan, Dakshinpuri Centre, under the leadership of the project's coordinator, Ms. Kanika Sharma on 29th April 2016. It was important for these students to understand the mission and vision of the organization and the services that are provided here based on the identified needs of the target community. Since all these students came from an entirely different social background it as an eye opener for them. This introduction session on Samadhan was conducted by the project leader Ms. Subhashini and the Director of the organization, Ms. Pramila Balasundaram. Dr. Bhatia, pediatrician at Samadhan, gave a detailed presentation on the various types of intellectual disability, which was very interactive and informative for the students. After the sessions, the most important and interesting part of the visit for the students was interacting with our children and their mothers in The Early Intervention Unit and Special Education Unit. It was a very heart touching and emotional experience for them to know about children like themselves who were yet so different from them. They got the opportunity to see and learn about the different therapies and rehabilitation services through interacting with our teachers.
The motive behind the project and the exposure visit is that, these students will be inspired to use their learning to design various learning aids, furniture and other products that could help improve the quality of life of children with various mental health issues like Down's syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, and Autism of our Dakshinpuri Centre. This exposure visit was a great learning for them and would help them in achieving the final goal of the project. They would be visiting our centre again in the next quarter and probably would get some designs and models of learning aids ready by then. We, at Samadhan will look forward to this
Report on the exposure visit by one of the students : Anant Jain Raghavan, XI, Pathways School, Gurgaon
On 29 April, 2016, we visited Samadhan, a NGO which works for betterment of children with intellectual challenges. The visit opened my eyes to a world and life different from mine. It was undoubtedly a life fraught with challenges and I met children aged three to five, who were undergoing physiotherapy. I came back especially with memories of two children. A five year old girl who had met with a mishap when she was merely 10 days old and had fallen off a motorbike. The resultant injury on the frontal lobe of her brain had left the right side of her body paralyzed. I was happy to see the child having considerably recovered through physiotherapy. The other child was suffering from cerebral palsy but she had not shown substantial improvement. I was delighted to see these children being taught essential life lessons and skills through which they could turn their weakness to strengths and lead normal lives. I even befriended a child who through his amiable personality endeared himself to one and all. The experience was not only enriching but also highly moving. I saw a world and life about which I was totally oblivious. I learnt that struggle is the keynote of existence and one should not be daunted by challenges.
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