In the Twenty Fifth year there were many highs for The Centre. The first being that we got an Award for being the Best Centre in the State declared on 3rd December, 14. The citation was received by our President, Dr. Sunil Taneja from the hands of the Chief Minister, AkhileshYadav of UP . The second was that one of our students Abhyansh Shukla was selected for the Special Olympics to be held in the summer in Los Angeles, USA. As well as two more students cleared the Class X exams.
During the year as part of our Silver Jubilee Celebrations there were camps, workshops and trainings for our staff. One of us is made a Zonal Member of the Rehabilitation Council of India(RCI). The centre is the NGO member of the Local Level Committee of the National Trust(NT). Both RCI and NT are premier institutions working for the Disability Sector at the National Level.
The school section has 150 students and the physiotherapy section has around 250 children, including outreach programs. Children come from Fathepur, Kannauj and other neighbouring districts. Despite the Government policy of inclusion in normal schools, we still get those who cannot cope in there.
Number New Admissions during the year: 145
Physiotherapy Section BalBhawan 68
Kidwainagar 17
Swaroopnagar 25
School Section 35
This brings us to the present strength
Physiotherapy BalBhawan 83
Kidwai Nagar 43
Swaroop Nagar 42
School Section 164
Total 332
In the 25th year a conscious decision was made to improve the services of the Centre. This was done by adding staff and equipment to the Physiotherapy Section and moving to a more open space. A vestibular Swing, Ball Pool and Trampoline were added. This section was reorganised with cubicles for the different areas of work.
Botox Therapy- Screening camps were organised for children who would benefit from the treatment. Only after it was sure to be beneficial then Botox Therapy was used. At the Botox Camp held in August 14 children were screened and 7 children were given treatment.
At the Botox camp held on 13th November, 6 children were assessed and 4 Botox treatments given sponsored by Rotary Club (W).
Early Intervention and Infant stimulation program is part of the physiotherapy section. This helps children at a very early age to achieve their developmental goals right from the start.
Outreach Centres – For children living in parts of Kanpur that are away from the Centre at Bal Bhawan there are two centres presently running in Kidwainagar and Swaroop nagar. Both centres are serving also those children who come from neighbouring districts.
Parent Counselling is an important part of our services to all parents who come to the centre. Our counsellors help the parents to cope with the immediate problems and also those arising from non-accepting family members. Medical Camps are held at least twice a year. Additionally eye camps are also conducted. Referral services are alsoavailable to those who need them.
Speech Therapy is available for children who have articulation and speech and communication problems. Music Therapy is useful for the improvement of the children. It helps many in expressing themselves and improving on speech.
Home Management is the first step where children learn to sit in a classroom setting. The 15 children here receive training along with their parents. Activities of daily living are of prime importance here. Eating, Drinking are areas in which parents are trained to teach their children.
Pre School : When the children are ready to sit independently, then they come into this section. Along with the prerequisites to learning they start on the reading, writing and counting. When they are around ten years old they are assessed for formal schooling or functional learning and then divided accordingly. There are 32 children in this class with 4 teachers.
Open School where the children are learning a regular school syllabus according to the National Open School System. There are three levels here A (Grade III), B (Grade V) and C (Grade VIII). When they complete this class then they are registered with NIOS for Class X and later for Class XII exams. Two more students cleared the Class X exams. There are 26 children in this class. Assessments are done twice a year for the school section.
Vocational Training : Students who cannot go for formal schooling are prepared for skills for vocational activities. Along side they learn reading time, money, weights and measures and shopping. There are 43 children in this section. The ones who are properly trained in these activities are sent to the Sheltered Workshop where they get a small stipend for their work. There are 21 children in this section.
Activities of the Sheltered Workshop (i) Block Printing (ii) Diya Making (iii) Rakhi Making (iv) Gift Bags of Handmade paper (v) Bags of non-woven fabric in different sizes with block printing Sports and Special Olympics is a very important part of our curriculum.
Special Training Unit for children with Attention Deficit Disorders and Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder as well with children with Autistic traits has been started during this year. Even though it was a long felt need and children with these deficits were not admitted due to lack of space. A classroom was allotted to this section and a Occupational Therapist employed to train the students here. A speech therapist was also subsequently taken on as many of the students have little or no speech as an associated problem.
Trainees from different institutions come for their training experience at our centre. 4 students did work time at the centre. There were 4 other students from schools who volunteered time as part of their community service to the centre. It is nice having the young generation interacting with our children.
We are actively involved in all their programmes and schemes:
1. Niramaya an insurance scheme for disabled children. The parent pays 500/- per annum to get a cover of 1 lakh overexpenses incurred for the child Physiotherapy, education, medicines, hospitalisation, etc. 102 wards have enrolled from our school.
Legal Guardianship: Students over 18 years need a Legal Guardian and the National Trust has made provisions for it. We haveregistered 53 young adults.
We attend all the meetings at the State and National level.
We are the NGO member of the Local Level Committee and work at the district level of Kanpur. There was a two day meeting in Lucknow on 12 and 13 March and one of our staff represented the centre. There was a meeting in April on review of present schemes of the NT and two of our members attended the meeting. It was held on 19th September, 14 at Chetna, Lucknow
Staff Training :Local Level Committee Meetings were held 4 times a year at the district level
In order to improve our services one of the important aspects is to upgrade skills of our staff which we do through in service training.
Workshops:3 of our members attended a workshop in Lucknow on “Perspective of Inclusion at State Level” on 6th August, 14 3 Staff went for Access Project training in Bangalore conducted by Motivation India. It was a good exposure for all and an improvement in the wheelchair program. One was a Managers Training Course and two were for Physiotherapists Achievements & Upgradation Trampoline
Upgrading Skills and Equipment:
Ball Pool
Vestibular Swing
Sewing Machine
Dona Making Machine
Goonjan software to help in digitalizing our data
Staff :This year saw changes in the Staff. Mr K D Bajpai who had been very ill had to reluctantly demit office, to be replaced by Mr. Sanjay Trivedi who joined in January. Mr B.K. Bhadra who had served the Centre for many years was finding it difficult to manage with his ill health and so decided to leave in the month of May. Ms Sneha Gandhi MPT came as a replacement. Ms SmritiTriparthi left in January. We owe our special thanks to our parents who trust us with training their children. Their confidence in us has made us improve our rehabilitation program tremendously.
Celebrations are an important part of the fun Time in the Centre. Festivals both religious and National festivals are celebrated. Some celebrate their children's birthday along with the children at the centre. There are those who sponsor outings for our children to McDonalds or movies or to the Pooja Pandal. Two groups of children were taken for picnics. Music and Dance are important aspects of these celebrations. This helps in all round development of our children in the school.
Sales :
7th October Arpita Club Mela (Kanha Galaxy)
8th October Dhuan
15th October Royal Cliff Round Table
21st and 22nd SBI Sales
School Visits: Virendar Swaroop School visit in October
14th October Pravachan in Bal Bhawan
13/12/14 Sale at Allen House Public School
19th December Virendra Swaroop Public School
2 7th December sale at VSPS
4thapril Pink Champagne in Taj Lucknow
We are grateful to all those who help us by sponsoring our students and children. There are those who come to visit our centre and bring with them lots of love and blessings and in return they experience the inexplicable joy and happiness that radiate from our children with their smiles. Many of our friends keep returning every year to share this joy. This year we celebrated our Silver Jubilee on a grand scale.
