A historic day for Sandnya

Our three students in M/s Star Circlip & Engineering Com.

It was a historic day for Sandnya Sanwardhan Sanstha. And the day is Monday,the 26th July 2010. Yes, yesterday was really a special day for us. Three of our vocational training students went to M/s Star Circlip, Butibori on job. They were under training for last about three months. On Monday, they worked in the factory for full time i.e. from 10.15 am to 4.00 pm. Our bus dropped them in the morning before coming to school and then collected them at 4 pm came back to our campus, took all other students and then left for Nagpur. One of our assistant teacher was also there through out. This lady assistant teacher will continue to go for at least one or two months. She will be withdrawn gradually.

The first day was very smooth and went with out any problem. All three, worked properly as trained. Had reasonably good out put, which will go up gradually. To our satisfaction, these students adjusted themselves to this new environment very well and did not show in resentment. A very encouraging fact. Once they achieve the minimum level of out put they will be given wages as per the norm of the factory. I am eagerly awaiting that day when they will get there first payment in the factory. I have been visualizing this day since last seventeen years that is the day we started working for this noble cause of mental disability.

M/s Star Circlip management has promised to give work to at least five more. We are in the process of training additional students.

By: Navin Deshpande, Secretary,SSS

email: navindesh@gmail.com

web site: www.sandnya.org

Parent Meeting-July'10

Parents in the meeting.

One of the important component while working with mentally challenged is parent involvement. To encourage and motivate parents we need to have frequent interactions with parents and amongst parents also. And one of the means is parent meeting. We at Sandnya have always accorded importance to parent meetings. It takes lot of effort and and persuasion on the part of school management to ensure good parent attendance for these parent meetings. It is because of these consistent efforts that normally we have reasonably good number in these meetings. We did have the first parent meeting of this year on 24th July'10. This meeting was held in Madhav Nagar community hall which we get for a nominal charge. The number of parent was at 45, but considering both parents attending and or with other close relatives, this number was 90 in total. I feel this is a reasonably good number. The agenda of the meeting included, introduction of new parents and they were 5. This meeting was fully conducted by our Principal, Mr.Alok Dwivedi and considering his age and experience he did fairly well. Of course he has to improve a lot, but the good thing is he is improving and trying to learn also. I am sure in couple of years he will have a good hold over these meetings. The second point on the agenda was general instruction for parents which of course was from Principal. After this two parents were given chance to speak on any point they wished to convey. One of them was Mr. Kubawala, his two sons are mentally challenged and are in our school. Kubawalas is the courageous couple and manage there sons with lot of love, affection and involvement in them. He talked about how they manage two sons. Though he could not speak much , it being his first time to speak, but I am sure his talk though short will help motivating few other parents.

The other parent was Mr.Shrivastav, his 12 year old daughter is mentally challenged and autistic. He talked about parents helping school management in various initiatives. He also referred about parents moving there residences in Butibori near the school campus. He said this can be done in small group and in a phased manner.

After this I was asked to talk on recent activities of our organization. I did mention about open employment of three of our students in the company called Star Circlip based at Butibori. I also informed about the Agarbatti re packing unit which we have started about three months back. I said the success of this re packing unit will depend on our selling capacity and I appealed parents to share this responsibility. Though some of the parents are already supporting but many have not yet started on this. I know it will take some time to catch up the momentum.

Mr. Alok then briefed the parents on the summer camp we held for our selected students in the month of May,10 and he did this through power point presentation. This is a new initiative we took this time for the parent meeting. Firstly, being audio visual, interest of parents in the meeting was good and secondly, we could show them the activities of summer camp and the effort level and involvement of our staff and management. Alok did this fairly well. In the last, our Chairman, Dr.RM Uttarwar spoke for five minutes. The meeting was called of with coffee break.

By: Navin Deshpande, Secretary, SSS

email: navindesh@gmail.com

website: www.sandnya.org

Soham Bobhate--- a rare case

We have a student called Soham Bobhate. He must be about eight years. Unfortunately Soham has a rare disease. It is termed as Lennox - Gastaut Syndrome [LGS]. It is difficult to treat form of childhood-onset epilepsy that most often appears between the second and sixth year of life, and is characterized by frequent seizures and different seizure types; it is often accompanied by mental retardation, psychological and behavioral problems.

Daily multiple seizures are typical in LGS. It is said that most of these seizures are nonconvulsive type, which is characterized by dizziness, apathy and unresponsiveness. The seizures can cause sudden falling and/ or loss of balance. The tonic type of seizures will mostly occur during night and in sleep.

In addition to daily multiple seizures of various types, children with LGS frequently have arrested or slowed psychomotor development and behavioral disorders.

Because of this LGS it is very difficult to manage Soham. Our teachers and co workers often feel that Soham does things or does not do a thing as per his mood and wish. But having gone through the medical information related to LGS, now I understand the case much better. How can we plan his syllabus? What should we do with him? Basically he is mentally challenged and thus morally we are bound to give him services. The incidence of LGS is low, as far as we are concerned, it is the first case. We were requesting his physician to reduce the dose of epileptic medication so that his drowsiness can be reduced. But now I understand, weather we reduce the medication or not, his nonconvulsive seizures will keep him drowsy and he will continue to even fall down and lose body balance anytime. We can not help that. Now I am thinking, what would be the ideal plan of action for Soham? let me give myself some time to think and than come back to the problem.

By: Navin Deshpande, Secretary, SSS

email: navindesh@gmail.com

website: www.sandnya.org

School building constructon

We had to change the building contractor second time. After terminating services of Mr.Ubale, the first contractor, we had designated another one. Unfortunately, the second one also was of the same type of Mr.Ubale. Our architect appointed a third contractor through Mr.Dongarwar, a structural engineer and one who has agreed to supervise the work in absence of our architect. We had a thorough discussion with Mr.Dongarwar regarding quality of work, time schedule and charges as well. Mr.Dongarwar promised on behalf of the contractor that work will be at reasonably good pace and there shall be no scope for complaint regarding quality as well. It is about one week that this new man has started work and the pace looks o. k. Let us see if he maintains the same pace.

I am finding it difficult to accommodate the classes, since this building work is delayed. In fact the planning was to finish at least two class rooms before this new session was to begin. But unfortunately, Mr.Ubale did not realize the importance of this cause of mentally challenged and there management. We took due care of briefing Mr.Ubale regarding the significance of completing the job in due time. But probably the fault lies in our national work culture. We have no regard for time and quality.

By: Navin Deshpande,Secretary, SSS

email: navindesh@gmail.com

website; www.sandnya.org

Gender bias

I was sitting with one of my volunteer colleague and we were discussing about our student future after their parents demise. We have already resolved to look after our students if they become orphan. We are already doing this for male student. My colleague said, we must take care of female students also and convey to these parents that they should not bother themselves with the thought that what will happen to their daughter after them. I said, we do not have a lady care taker for this purpose the way we have Bapu Kulkarni. My friend said we should try to arrange one. I said we are already on the look. He said if we do not do this than its like having gender bias. Of course we are certainly not bias with gender. The other day Mr.Shrivastav, father of our student, Aditi, also said that SSS should have arrangement for orphan girl students. I am seriously working on this and trying to find out a workable solution for this. Let me see how fast we can implement this.

We realize that elderly girl student of SSS mostly have mother parents only and that too mothers are 70 plus in age. And obviously they are bothered about the future of their daughter after them. Finding a reliable solution for this problem is not easy as it might appear.
In this case it is not the money we are worried about, but it is the reliable residential volunteer which is most important. We would like to have some elderly lady who will stay in the Sandnya Srushti campus and she should have genuine concern for the cause. We will prefer a single mother parent and her daughter is in our school. This is more ideal for us. The idea of having mother parent is that she can genuinely understand the problem of mentally challenged girl student. At the same time, mother parent can also guard against the sexual abuse also. The motherly watch in the campus will be of great importance as far as female resident students are concerned. Safety is the primary concern of SSS. Second comes prevention of abuse in any form and of course the third is food and general welfare. We feel in this respect, mother parent is most suitable for this responsibility.

By: Navin Deshpande, Secretary, SSS

email: navindesh@gmail.com

website; www.sandnya.org

Parents concern for other mentally challenged

Yesterday our mentally challenged student Aditi Shrivastav's father came to me in my Nagpur office. He was inquiring about the health status of Mrs.Lonkar who is Prasad's mother and she is critically ill. Mr. Shrivastav was asking me if he can be of some help or can other parents together be of some use, specially if funds are required for medical treatment or hospitalization. I told him that, we can not help since medical profession has lost the hope. Doctors have said that nothing can be done and her condition will continue to deteriorate and that is why she is being sent back to home. He was concerned about her son Prasad who is mentally challenged and our student.

I am happy and pleased that parents show concern for other parents of mentally challenged children. Not only that, offering to help is a good and positive sign. I have always believed that, if we in India want to provide good infrastructure and quality services for mentally challenged than parents must come forward and take initiative. Not only that, they must come out of selfish motives and attitude as well. thinking about your own child and your convenience in managing your child can not help in long run.

By: Navin deshpande,Secretary,SSS

email; navindesh@gmail.com

website:www.sandnya.org

Sandnya & Rakhi

Festival of 'rakhi' and Sandnya Sanwardhan Sanstha have a very close relationship. We of course do celebrate "Rakhi" in our Sandnya Srushti campus. But it is not because of this we have close ties with this festival which is social in nature. We have a "Rakhi Rehab Unit" since more than 12 years. This rehab unit has five girl member students and the unit is financially independent. They make rakhi through out the year and than it is being sold for about 2 to 3 weeks earlier to the festival date. What makes it more special is that the lot is sold through schools and colleges by way of arranging stalls in these institutions. During these stall dates we organize awareness meetings also. Thus one who is buying Rakhi also comes to know about mentally challenged and there problems as well. They further realize that mental disability does not mean work disability. Therefore a positive massage is also spread in the society and at the same time these mentally disabled get working opportunity and they earn also.

By: Navin Deshpande, Secretary, SSS

email: navindesh@gmail.com

Prasad Lonkar

Prasad Lonkar is our student and is in vocational section. He is a nice boy, very quite, can speak and understand language. He follows command meticulously. His S.Q. is also good. The main problem with Prasad is cognition. Since he lacks cognition he can not make decisions. This is the main difference in a so called normal person and mentally challenged person. Since last about one month Prasad's mother is ill. She is in fact seriously ill and doctors have given up, and they have sent her home saying that they can not help any more. She is a single parent since she lost her husband about six years back.

Prasad has a elder brother. He has just finished his post graduation in commerce. He has just started working and not still earning. So what happens after her demise? As far as we are concerned as a institute, we will have to bring him in our Sandnya Srushti campus and arrange for his lodging and boarding.

SSS does not believe in hostels for mentally challenged and we feel home is the best place for the mentally challenged person. But we do realize that in certain situations hostels are required. So we have resolved, that, any of our students if becomes orphan, than in such cases we take the responsibility of him in total. This is irrespective of weather parents have made any provision or not in respect of financial arrangement. There fore Prasad will face no hardship after his mother's demise.

By; Navin Deshpande, Secretary, SSS

email: navindesh@gmail.com

Waiting list going up------

In a week there are at least 2-3 fresh cases for assessment for admission in our special school. It is not possible to give admission to any more mentally challenged child in our school. Already the wait list number has reached 55. I do not know when can we clear this wait list. If I have to clear this wait list, I must have third bus immediately. I need Rs.10.00 lacks for this, which we do not have. Secondly, we need to have the building under construction to be completed at faster pace which again depends on receiving additional donations for this purpose. And thirdly and most importantly, we must get additional special educators. Getting special educators is a real problem since there is an acute shortage because of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, a government of India`s scheme. Even if we ignore the quality of these special educators, which you do not get nowadays, it is difficult to find one. We try to convince parents for home based training programme but most of them do not agree for that. They are willing to wait till they get admission. But we are not in a position to tell them when can we clear the wait list. It seems parents have started realizing that our's is the best special school as far as mentally challenged are concerned. We feel guilty that we can not full fill there expectation by giving admission. I am sure, Almighty God knows when to full fill our needs and in turn when to meet the desire of wait list parents.

By: Navin Deshpande, Secretary, SSS

e-mail: navindesh@gmail.com

website: www.sandnya.org

IIt Home visit

In the last week of June`10 165 students of IIT Home with their staff visited Sandnya Srushti campus. They reached at 10.00 am and left at 4.00 pm. They participated in the prayer also and were quite moved by the formate of the prayer. After this they were divided in group of 25 for the guided tour of our campus. Each group was led by one of our staff member who was explaining the whole activity. They were requested not to ask doubts during the tour, and spare that for the briefing session to be followed. This tour took about one hour and thirty minutes since they were taken to about 19 points. After this they took there lunch which they were carrying with them. At about 1.00 pm they assembled in in the meeting hall on first floor. Here secretary Navin Deshpande briefed them on the problem of mentally challenged and their parents. The talk included right from causes of mental disability to the rehabilitation of mentally challenged. The meeting was conducted with the help of power point presentation. Following this Director of IIT Home Ms.Nisha Kothari addressed her students and appealed that, they should not be selfish and should think about less fortunate people also. She further said, you can not have more pleasure in possessing things rather than giving to others. One must cultivate the habit of giving as early as possible. She advised them that they can start donating right away from there pocket money which she said was quite a amount nowadays.

Ms. Nisha Kothari is bringing her students to Sandnya Sanwardhan Sanshta since last more then 12 years. Her consistency in this regard is quite commendable and praise worthy. She tells me that it is very important for these brilliant students to get oriented socially and thus she makes it a point every year to bring each batch to Sandnya Srushti. Further, whatever fine IIT Home collects through out the year from these students is being matched by her own contribution and then donated to Sandnya. This year this amount was Rs.92000/-. She does this thing with the knowledge of her students and thus has moral right to appeal these young blood for their contribution in this noble cause.

We at Sandnya have to make special arrangements and have to plan the whole thing eight days in advance and in lot of details.

By: Navin Deshpande, Secretary, SSS

e-mail- navindesh@gmail.com

web site: www.sandnya.org