Matrusangharsh- Annual Programme.

Matrusangharsh is a unregistered body of mothers of our mentally challenged students. This is working since last 3 years and they celebrate their annual function on 26 th Jan every year in our Sandnya Srushti campus. Through the year they have monthly meetings in our Nagpur office. The objective of this forum is to give mothers a platform where they can discuss not only their mentally challenged wards problem can freely discuss their own and personal problems as well. Apart from this other objective of this forum is to see that these special mothers get opportunity to relax also. Many of them have different skills and talents, but due to this unending problem of mental disability of their ward, these talents are suppressed. 2-3 trustee members of SSS guide them and encourage them to take additional responsibilities and motivate them to pursue their dormant talents. We have been observing, that, since we started this forum, mothers of our students have become quite active and they take lot of more interest in the progress and development of their mentally disabled son/daughter.

 During these annual programme also, there are few technical topics e.g. diet, legal advice, hormonal changes, puberty, menopausal syndrome etc. This time the out side faculty was Adv.Shrikant Shirpurkar a senior advocate practicing in High Court, Nagpur. He answered many queries of Matrusangharsh members regarding legal implications in family matters and more specifically in relation to their mentally challenged ward and position in law.

We fully realize that mental disability is a multi dimensional problem and is very complex as well. We can not simply ignore any of its dimensions otherwise the logical objective of true rehabilitation of mentally challenged can not be sought or achieved. One must understand that mothers health is equally important, siblings behavior and attitude should be observed, father's acceptance can not be over looked and obviously family's financial condition is also to be considered.

By: Navin Deshpande, Secretary, SSS

website: www.sandnya.org

Republic Day Celebrations at Sandnya Srushti

Every celebration in the campus of Sandnya Srushti is essentialy a learning opportunity for our mentally challenged students. Republic Day is no exception indeed. On Wednesday we celebrated this National festival with quite a fan fare. All our students were in white uniform. Mr.Bal Shende, Rtd. Principal of Anand Niketan collage, Warora was the chief guest for this function. The whole campus of Sandnya Srushti was shining and was full of enthusiasm in staff and students as well. There were parents of students and our well wishers and donors as well. The whole programme was scheduled for one and half hour. It started at 10:00 am sharp with flag hosting at the hands of the chief guest, followed by rashtra geet and zenda geet by our students. This followed with march past by our mentally disabled students and than a drill by them. Mr. Bal Shende spoke for about 15 mts and emphasized the need of general people taking more interest in such work and the organization not only for funding aid but in the process of giving these special children the due dignity in the society which they deserve. This session after thanks giving was adjourned for the tea break and was followed by next programme by "Matrusangharsh" at 12;00 noon in our first floor assembly hall.

 One of my old Friends Mr.Tejinder Singh Uggal from Patiala was also present for the programme. He reached Nagpur yesterday mid night for a marriage in his relation. I was really delighted to see him in the audience.  Normally people do not give any importance or priority to such events and put forward many useless excuses. There were few more surprises in the audience like Dr. [Mrs.] & Dr.Ramkrishanan. Dr.Ramkrishanan is my Friend from swimming pool group. He has been a donor since quite some time, but had never visited the Institute. On this occasion he honoured the invitation by coming to Sandnya Srushti.

  The disappointing part is the low attendance of our own students. Not that this was a exceptional year, but, it is a regular apathy on the part of parents that they do not give any importance to their special kid and activities related to him. In spite of sufficient reminders, this attendance of students is low. We at Sandnya have been trying to motivate and encourage parents. They do not realize that, by not allowing their ward to participate in such events, they are in fact reducing the opportunities for learning as far as these special children are concerned. We at Sandnya try to find out more number of opportunities for them, but parents fail to realize this. We have been observing, that any eventuality or adjustment or emergency in the family of these mentally challenged children, the first casualty in rescheduling family programme is the activity related to this special child who happens to be "not a self advocate". Nevertheless, our enthusiasm is never dampened by this and we continue to create more and more learning opportunities for this special class of students.

By: Navin Deshpande, Secretary, SSS

website: www.sandnya.org

Sports Day at sandnya Srushti

Sports Day- Long jump & high jump

They may not be able to to do the way normal person would do, but one thing sure, they also enjoy sports activity, many of them do understand competitiveness. This is high jump and long jump. Here they are learning the concept of start mark, number of attempts, waiting for their turn to come etc.

By: Navin Deshpande,Secretary, SSS

e-mail: navindesh@gmail.com

website: www.sandnya.org

Sports Day At Sandnya Srushti

These five children are SSS Rehab members of Starcirclip. We had a competition for them. One who puts maximum circlips in the wire thread with in 10 mts. wins the prize. In this AdityaDamale won the first prize. Surprisingly, in the routine work, Aditya is slow, but probably he understood competitiveness better than his other colleagues.

By: Navin Deshpande, Secretary, SSS

e-mail: navindesh@gmail.com

website:www.sandnya.org

Sports Day at Sandnya Srushti

Every year during winter and in the month of January we have sports days. These two days are meant to give maximum opportunity to all our mentally challenged students in Sandnya Srushti. Though most of them do not understand the concept of competition or competing with each other, however, they enjoy the whole activity in the ground. When some of them are running for the winning slot others do clap

to encourage them. Not only students, but their teachers are also very enthusiastic and try their best to encourage them for participating. In fact one of the main deficiency in most of the mentally challenged is they do not have initiative. Since the cognitive function is impaired, they lack motivation and thus competitiveness does not make any sense to them in general. However, when each one of them is given a chance to participate the whole atmosphere is very jubilant and there is lot of euphoria.

By:Navin Deshpande, Secretary, SSS

e-mail: navindesh@gmail.com

website: www.sandnya.org

Old "HUT" Type class rooms

All our donors and well wishers know that we have eco friendly hut type class rooms in our Sandnya Srushti campus. They were 6 in numbers, but two are already demolished for the permanent construction work undertaken. Now we have four huts left which we wish to dispose off as early as possible so that we can undertake construction in this part also.

These hut like structures are on steel tubular frame and packed with bamboo ply. The size is about 11'x11' and the height is about 11'. This structure is very sturdy. We wish to dispose it off "as it is where it is" basis." The approximate cost of each one is about Rs.22000/-. This ready made structure can be used as a guard room, with out spending any additional amount. One person can comfortably stay in this hut. Whoever is interested in these structures can contact secretary of SSS Navin Deshpande on T.No.2220713, 2236043 & [R] 2236533.

By: Navin Deshpande, Secretary,SSS
e-mail:http://navindesh@gmail.com/

website:http://www.sandnya.org/

status of construction of new building

We are half way through this new building works. Plastering of walls of three rooms is currently under taken along with general toilet and connecting passage from existing building.Elevator tower is also under construction along with staircase from out side the existing building. To finish the whole planned construction we need about 5-6 lacks additionally. I am sure we will receive the required amount in due time and we would finish the work. I know and realize that this is a divine work and Divinity must take care of our genuine needs so that we can serve this noble cause of mental disability in best possible way.

By: Navin Deshpande,Secretary, SSS

e-mail: navindesh@gmail.com

website: http://www.sandnya.org/

Genset commissioned

On 10th Jan'11 our genset was installed in Sandnya Srushti and made functional. With the genset installed we will not face the problem of power failure and regular shut down by the power company on every Wednesday. In fact on every Wednesday there is no power from from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm. We do have a inverter but it does not work for more than 4-5 hours. Further we can not run water pump on this inverter. So on every Wednesday we not only face power cut but there is water shortage also. Now with the installation of this genset both these problems are taken care of. Sandnya is now infra-structurally on step ahead. During summer also we can run air coolers for the class rooms.

By: Navin Deshpande, Secretary, SSS

e-mail: http://navindesh@gmail.com/

website: http://www.sandnya.org/

Awareness Meeting

Secretary of SSS,Navin Deshpande addressing the gathering & Principal of SSS briefing students
There was a group of about 50 students of DEd&BEd from DuttaMeghe College, Butibori along with four of there teachers who visited Sandnya Srushti on 7th Jan'11. They did reach at about 10:30 am at the time of our prayer. As usual, after witnessing prayer they were taken on a conducted tour of the campus by three of our staff members. They finished there tour at about 12 noon and then they assembled in the hall on first floor. Secretary, Navin Deshpande addressed the meeting for about one hour where in he explained these students about mental disability, its causes, symptoms & signs and types or categories etc. in brief. He also explained them how to identify a mentally disabled. He emphasized the need of them being aware about this problem more specifically since they are going to become teachers and mostly for primary school. They will be the first after doctor and mother who can identify them in the class room. They can not only identify, but will be in a position to support this special child in many ways. He said it is there moral responsibility not only to help such special child but guide the parents in proper way. And this is possible only when teachers themselves are aware about this complex and multi dimensional problem called as mental disability. They can convince the parents in a right earnest that it is not a disease but a condition. Thus parents should not waste precious time of the child's life by simply medical hopping and shopping. Instead they should take this special child to a special school where he can be supported properly. It is indeed very important that teachers and that too primary teachers know the fact about mentally challenged and there rehabilitation.
By: Navin Deshpande, Secretary, SSS
e-mail:http://www.sandnya.org
website: http://www.sandnya.org