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The increase in the range and
quantum of the activities undertaken by Adarsh Charitable Trust
during the last 10 years was, in the opinion of the management
of adarsh, memorable enough to be celebrated in a manner
befitting the occasion. In spite of all the struggles and
tireless efforts, which are normally associated with any growing
organization in its infancy, we are legitimately proud of the
growth measured by any parametres. Adarsh, a public Charitable
Trust was registered in April 1998 with the aim of “helping
physically handicapped and mentally retarded persons”. In
pursuance of this objective, a special school under the same
name was opened for children with Cerebral Palsy only, keeping
in view the limited resources and facilities then available. We
continued with catering to children with CP only, till June 2003
when a new section for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
was added.
Around us, we found that the number of children with Autism and
related problems was considerable but institutions to cater to
their requirements were practically nonexistent. . Unlike other
special schools, we did not concentrate only a special school.
Considering the extent of the problem, and the vast amount of
wrong notions about it, we decided that spreading awareness
about the various aspects of the problem, namely,
a) its magnitude and nature,
b) that the severity of the challenges which children face can
be considerably reduced , if identified early and attended to
scientifically
c) that rehabilitation has to be comprehensive involving medical
professionals, therapists, educators and the members of the
immediate families.
was an equally important responsibility of ours.
Accordingly, we tried to spread the message to different parts
of Kerala, through our Community Based Rehabilitation projects
by extending technical help in setting up 14 special schools
from South-Trivandrum to Palakkad, in 7 districts of the state.
Together these 14 schools train over 300 children today.
Setting up a Risk Baby Unit for detecting the potential
disabilities in the neonatal period itself and providing
adequate remedial therapies and Child Developmental Evaluation
Centre at Vyttila in Ernakulam city. These were some of the few
remarkable achievements that happened during the last decade and
speaks volumes for the honest, dedicated and diligent efforts of
the staff members of adarsh. The measure of the success of the
training and therapy given at adarsh is the fact that over 35
students to pursue their studies in mainstream schools after
leaving Adarsh.
The celebrations started on 20th April 2008 with “sangamam” , a
get together of students, present and past, their parents and
staff of Adarsh Charitable Trust. Over 550 members attended the
programme. Chottanikkara Panchayat Vice president, Shri.John
inaugurated the function and Shri.K.Neelakantan, chaired the
meeting. Shri Gibin John, Ward member of the Panchayat offered
felicitations. The day was celebrated with a lot of cultural and
games events participated in by parents and staff members of
adarsh.
Exhibition
[photo
gallery]
The second day i.e. 21st instant, witnessed the commencement of
an exhibition of advanced and adaptive Physio-occupational
therapy equipments and orthosis. The exhibition was intended
mainly to showcase products and assistive devices for persons
with all kinds of disabilities. Our experience has been that
many new developments and products are not known in this part of
the country and therefore, the advances in this field remain
beyond the scope of the needy in this area. It is to paper over
this lacuna that the exhibition had been thought of. Many
manufacturers of orthopedic, visual, ENT, and physical therapy
and occupational therapy equipments participated in the
exhibition. We expect to create a network of doctors&
therapists, users and manufacturers, so that the latest
equipments available anywhere become available to the needy
persons in our state. Maybe, further research may also emanate
from such a network.
The theme was innovative and , perhaps, a maiden venture in this
field, we requested some eminent figures in the medical field to
associate with the function. Dr.NSD Raju, a famous
Ophthalmologist also the president of Indian Medical
Association, Ernakulam Chapter inaugurated the function, in the
presence of Dr.Sachidananda Kamath, Pediatrician and Chairman of
Indian Academy of Pediatrics and Shri.K.Neelakantan Chairman,
Adarsh.
Advanced spinal braces, orthosis, splints, prosthesis were the
main attraction of the exhibition in addition to motorized wheel
chairs, advanced physio and occupational therapy devices.
Braille type writer, watches etc. were quite impressive from the
layman’s as well as the professional’s perspective. The
exhibition continued till 25th instant at Adarsh and on 26th at
Vinayaka Kalyana Mandapam.
Cultural program
[photo
gallery]
On 22nd April, a cultural programme , “Dhwani”, with
competitions for children with Cerebral Palsy and Autism was
conducted with our children participating with enthusiasm. We
had a neutral judge for the competition. Before the competition
started a small function was organized. with Smt.Susheela
Kuriachan, Chairperson, All Kerala Special Teachers Association,
inaugurating the function and , Shri.T.K.Prasad, President
Udayamperoor Panchayat presiding. The presence of Ms.Karthika,
Cine Malayalam Actress, who distributed prizes for the winners,
added glitter to the function.
On the 23rd of April, it was open house for all the children and
parents of academic sections. When the performance for the whole
year, the difficulties faced, the teachers’ assessment etc were
discussed.g
“Kayikam”- sports and games competition was on 24th April. The
exciting part of the event was that children from 3 other
special schools, 2 in Ernakulam Dt and 1 in Kottayam Dt
participated in all items. The programme was inaugurated by
Smt.Alice George, Chottanikkara Panchayat President and Shri.
Devassy, President Maradu Panchayat presided. Shri.Rajan,
Chairman, Welfare Committee of Chottanikkra panchayat was also
there to felicitate.
Annual day
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gallery]
The main function of the week was on 25th of April 2008 at
Vinayaka Kalyana Mandapam, when Dr.K.S.Radhakrishnan, Vice
Chancellor, Sree Shankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady
lighted the lamp. It was a day for recollection of the efforts
of the Adarsh collective behind its growth. pm. The hall , which
could accommodate 800-1000 people was nearly full. Children and
parents and a lot of philanthropists, who are the real strength
of Adarsh were all there in large numbers. A souvenir ,the 5th
brought out by Adarsh in the last 10 years, was released. A
special feature of this souvenir was the inclusion of a larger,
number of articles by a number of parents, and teachers which
gave a personal touch . 4 staff (3 teachers and the Head of the
CBR unit) were honoured by conferring the “Adarsh Visishta Seva
Puraskar” in recognition of the excellence of their service in
their respective fields. Shri.K.Neelakantan, who presided over
the function outlined the difficulties faced in the field of
rehabilitation of children with challenges, namely i. failure to
realize the magnitude of the problem of disability in children,
its incidence and spread and. the consequent need for more
rehabilitation centres , well spread out ii. a widespread
feeling of resignation that nothing much can be done to get over
problem.
iii. lack of awareness that the problem can be and has to
be tackled as early as possible after a scientific assessment of
the nature and extent of the problem.
iv. rehabilitation process itself not being
comprehensive, not involving all aspects like medical, therapy
and educational sectors. The function was attended , among
others, by Shri. K. Babu MLA, , Shri.M.J.Jacob MLA,
Shri.C.K.Menon, Director, NORKA , Kerala Govt and Patron of
Adarsh , Smt.Usha Kiran, Deputy Director of Education (QIP,Trivandrum)
and Shri. G.Venugopal, famous play back singer .
Muscial Event [photo
gallery]
A Mega Musical programme “Thaliritta Kinakkal” was the
culmination of the celebrations. This was conceived mainly as a
fund raising programme. It was inaugurated by Smt.Srilekha IPS
on 26th April at 6.30 pm. Shri G. Venugopal, a famous playback
singer led the programme and was assisted by 3 others, Ms.
Gayatri Asokan, Dr. Fahad Mohammad and Ms. Gayathri Varma. A
student of Adarsh, Sarath , who has a powerful and melodious
voice rendered a popular film song which was highly appreciated.
The music teacher of Adarsh Shri. Arun also sang , which was
also praised by the audience.
When the programme of a week long celebration was
conceived, the following were the aims:
i. reward suitably the excellent service rendered by the
staff of Adarsh, which has been the main reason for the growth
of Adarsh. Apart from the awarding of Visishta Seva Puraskar to
4 staff, all staff were given an increase in pay to the extent
of 30% to 40%. In addition, a group insurance scheme has been
introduced for all staff.
ii. spread awareness among the public about various
aspects of disability in children and to motivate setting up
rehabilitation measures. The different programmes on various
dates saw the participation of almost all the children , present
and past, and their parents and undoubtedly all the teachers. A
large number of people from different walks of life
participating made sure that the message we wanted to propagate
will get spread.
iii. raise enough funds to enable Adarsh to set up a
reasonable corpus fund to allow Adarsh to proceed ahead with its
projects without being hindered by lack of funds.
Though the final accounts are yet to be tallied, the total net
collection is expected to be be over Rs. 25 lakhs. In
retrospect, we feel that we have been able to achieve the
objectives, initially envisaged, in varying degrees through the
different programmes organized in this one week.
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