Reopening of Vocational section

Vocational training section of our school reopened on 1st May after summer vacation. The summer vacation was for two weeks. We have shifted our "Rakhi - rehab - unit" to Nagpur from 1st May. This is shifted to our Nagpur office premises. This rehab unit involves more number of volunteers at every stage right from designing to marketing. We were finding it difficult for volunteers to go to Butibori. There are many volunteers who can give only 3-4 hours day and preferably in second half. Most of the volunteers for this work are senior house wife's who can give time in second half of of the day. Thus shifting this unit to Nagpur office should be beneficial. We already have our social worker attached to Nagpur office, thus, her time can also be put to more use.

The change was off course resisted by all concerned including mothers of these mentally challenged girls, the participants of this unit. Change in any system is not accepted so readily, this is obvious. From any angle, this is beneficial for the mentally challenged students, parents and the practical execution of this rehab unit.

This change will certainly reduce load on our buses and we can admit few more mentally challenged children for next academic session. This in turn should help us in reducing the wait list for admission.

Rakhi rehab unit is not only financially independent but is commercially successful also. This rehab unit is showing consistent profitability since last more than 8 years. Parents are more than satisfied and take keen interest in the activity. I always feel, if parents can be more involved specially in rehab activity, then we are sure of rehabilitating more than 70 % mentally challenged persons. But for various reasons this does not happen and off course you can not blame the parents. Because, at SSS we do realize that every parson as a parent of mentally challenged has his own limitations. But the reality is you can not totally depend on paid staff as far as rehab activity is concerned. It is observed that, most of the institutes working for rehab activity for mentally challenged really work for giving job to normal persons. Thus it becomes rehabilitation of normal people rather than mentally challenged.

Building extension- progress

The construction activity of new building is in last stage. Finishing is taking more time than it should really take. In fact there are no obvious reasons. But contractor shows his helplessness because labour is not available. However, we will be engaging classes in this new premises also from the first day of new session i.e. 13th June. It looks like, by that time we will finish the whole thing. Civil work of elevator is finished, but now M/s Johnson people say the equipment is not ready. And they are not committing any time schedule as well. Let us see when it is installed. The Star Circlip rehab unit is shifted in the new room of the extension part.

Waiting list for admission

I have not heard about any special school having waiting list for getting admission. But we at Sandnya do have waiting list since last more than 4 years. And every month it is going up and up.

The latest figure for wait list has crossed 60. The current capacity is of 82. I have no answer when a wait list parent inquires that when will his ward gets admission? I have no clue. There are many factors which are preventing us from clearing the wait list. The first and the fore most is of course the transport. We have two buses of our own and they are over crowded, in this we can not accommodate even one additional person. So first thing we need is at least two more buses. And this should cost us some were Rs.21.00 lacks. Than we need to have physical space to have additional classes. The third is to have additional special educators. Than support staff and class IV staff as well. The list is long for ' to have'. But essentially it starts from having two additional buses. We are trying but can not say when it will materialize.

Navin Deshpande, Secretary, SSS

e-mail: navindesh@gmail.com

Parent meeting

On Saturday, 26th March 2011 we had last parent meeting of this academic year ending on 30th April. This meeting was held in Bhagini Mandal premises at Sitabuldi. Since Sandnya does not have a big enough hall at Nagpur office, we have to find some place for holding this parent meeting. We did book a small hall of Bhagini Mandal officially and paid Rs.500/- also. The meeting was scheduled at 2:30 pm. When we reached to the venue at 1:30 pm, we were told by the office bearers of Bhagini Mandal that the hall is being given to some other party and that party is having there programme in the hall. At the last moment it was not possible to change the venue. So we settled in the ground under the big tree in the same campus.

We had a record attendance of parents this time. There were 89 parents of 63 students,a big number indeed. The meeting was conducted by our Principal, Mr.Alok Dwivedi. After well coming the parents for the meeting, he opened with general instructions for parents like, cleanliness of student, nail cutting, clean uniform, regular and proper bath of students before sending them to school. He insisted the importance of all these things. He informed the gathering that the average students attendence for this year was also very good. He specially appreciated the attendance of school section. He informed parents about the progress report distribution schedule for each class. He further informed about the summer vacation schedule also for different sections. He told the parents of Starcirclip Rehab unit that members of this unit will not have summer vacation since it is peace work job.

Principal distributed the readdmission form to parents and asked them to submit these forms duly filled in before 25th April in Nagpur office. He informed parents that anybody missing this dead line will be considered as not interested in taking readmission and the vacancy so created will be filled in from the wait list candidates. The current waiting number is 60 now for admission in our Sandnya.

Extension of building-progress

The total built up area under construction is about 2700 sq.ft. Construction activity is of course progressing at a satisfactory pace considering our financial constraints. There are 6 class rooms under construction, where in 3 class rooms have attached toilet. We have gents/ladies public conveniences also in this new extended block. This will be specially use full for the visitors also. There are lot of regular visitors to 'Sandnya Srushti' campus in usually in big groups. Two rooms are totally finished and only electrical fittings are to done which will be done soon. The remaining four class rooms will be ready in about months time. It seems we will be in a position to use the whole block from next academic session i.e. 15 June. We are currently running short of funds to the tune of about Rs.6-7 lacks. and we are sure "HE" will arrange as usual.

Elevator tower is also at the finishing stage only plastering is left which will be complete in a fort nights time.

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