DOOR TO DOOR VISITS

Early Intervention is extremely important, the earlier a child with disabilities starts his therapy or education the better he will respond to its benefits. India does not have a routine screening program for young children, the result of which is that many children with potentially treatable disorders are not identified and many more with disabilities do not benefit from therapy which could significantly reduce their handicaps.

Aware of this fact, the Latika Roy Foundation Awareness Campaign started the Door to Door Visits. Conducted in the first week of every month these visits try to identify and spread awareness about the benefits of Early Intervention at areas near the Satellite EIC.

The children are identified and after their basic identification, their parents are encouraged to bring them for assessment at the Satellite EIC. The child is assessed by the therapist at the centre and if needed a program is designed for the child. In case the parents or the child can not come to the centre for therapy they are encouraged to join the Home Management Program.

The Home Management Program is a week long program where the parents are trained by the foundation’s therapist, doctors and special educator on how to help their child at home. We will be conducting a Home Management Program in July, 2009. Details of which will soon be available on the blog and our website http://www.latikaroy.org/ so keep yourself posted!

Through these visits we have recently identified 15 children out of which 8 were below 6 years of age. The Door to door visits have proved to be an important step because we managed to help and educate parents about their children’s special needs and how they can help their child lead a complete life.

More updates on the program will be available soon!

SAKSHI GOES TO WORK!

“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new” -Alan Cohen Sometimes we tend to underestimate the capabilities of others. Or rather, we tend to over-estimate ourselves by believing that we can judge if someone can fit in or not. However there are moments and there are people who surprise us, prove us wrong to an embarrassing extent.

Doubts filled the minds of well wishers and critics alike.
‘She is not ready for it’, said one, ‘She will not be able to survive’, said another. However, to our pride, Sakshi proved all the critics wrong!

One of the first students at Karuna Vihar, she showed great potential from the very beginning. Guided and trained by seasoned professionals, Sakshi bloomed into a fine young adult ready to take on the world. Having trained in the safe world of Latika Roy Foundation, where everyone knows her and understands her, it was time for training in the “real world”, which is not so tolerant. After a lot of contemplation, we zeroed in on Welham Girls to be her training ground. This was followed by numerous discussions and delays, and finally with the generous support and cooperation of Welham, an inroad was created for Sakshi.

Now she is undergoing her training as a helper in ‘Bulbul house’ at Welham Girls’ School under the guidance of Ms Xavier (the matron). At the dormitory, she has won the hearts of one and all. Right from the first day, she worked with full confidence and finesse, impressing everyone with her sincerity and commitment to work. She is very observant, paying keen attention to the staff whenever they are explaining her something. She is proactive too, everyone seems more than pleased to instruct her. It has been just six days since she has been working there and she has charmed everyone! This is evident from the statements of the staff when she goes back after a holiday. “We really missed you dear”, said one, while the other didi cuddled her with affection. Under their supervision, she will continue her training in the coming months.

Our little Sakshi has grown, in every sense of the word and is making us all proud. Though there is still a long way to go, a new beginning has been made, and we are all very hopeful that she might be able to convert her temporary status at Welhams into a permanent one and this will certainly have a lasting impact on numerous lives and society as a whole. Filled with sanguine expectations, we look forward to a bright future for our other trainees as well.

As it is truly said,” From small beginnings come great things”

Visitors at LRF

Atithi Devo Bhava, an Indian philosophy which in essence means that our guests are like gods and should be treated with love and respect. We at Latika Roy Foundation follow this ideology religiously to be completely honest we love having visitors as each one of them leaves us enriched with their experiences, their success stories, their knowledge and their desire to make a difference. And the children at the Foundation particulary love guests as they get to meet new people and get their photographs clicked. Trust me we have some of India’s top models waiting to be discovered.This month too we played host to a varied group of visitors. A very special group that visited us quite recently was the group from Akanksha. Akanksha is a Mumbai based NGO that works primarily in the field of education, providing both formal and informal education to less privileged children.The group was inquisitive, sensitive and very intelligent. It was their first visit to Dehradun and they unanimously agreed that the environment here is wonderful. They loved the lush greenery and the climate which even in the month of May they said was better than Mumbai’s!The group headed by Lopa and Shefali visited the Early Intervention Centre, the Training Centre, the Karuna Vihar School and the College for Vocational Training. The children had great fun playing with our students at the Early Intervention Centre and one could see them generally having a great time.One of the students from Akanksha mentioned that they had all been around children with special needs at some point of time in their lives. They always made it a point to be polite and kind to the children but they had always considered them different from themselves but by coming here she realized that special children are not very different from other children, they just communicate differently. It was heartening to hear this analysis from a 14 year old girl, because this is a point that we as an organization have been trying to tell people. The children at Latika Roy Foundation or any other foundation working in the same field are not different from others, their dreams, hopes and needs are similar to others. They deserve the same respect, opportunities, education and love that everyone else deserves.

The team’s last stop was at the College of Vocational Training where they were served a scrumptious meal cooked for them by the trainees at the Centre. Post lunch the group hung around at the centre looking at the products made by our trainees, talking to the students and teachers. In fact it felt like no one wanted to leave!

When Lauren, one of our volunteers came for her class the students and teachers from Akanksha had a wonderful time painting with our trainees! We would like to thank the students and teachers of Akanksha for taking out time and visiting us. We had a wonderful time and will cherish the cards of appreciation that you left behind.

How It All Started

What is Dehradun Disability Forum? How did it start? Who are the members?

These are probably some of the questions that are currently on your mind. Well, to begin with Dehradun Disability Forum is a combined effort of several Dehradun based NGOs that are working for and with people with disabilities. It is our effort to create a common group that can answer, discuss, spread awareness and cater to the needs of people with disabilities. Through this we intend to create a united stand that is working together not against each other.

Now for the next question, how did the Dehradun Disability Forum start?
On Thursday, 13 March, 2009, the First All NGO Meet, an initiative of the Latika Roy Foundation was held at the Latika Roy Foundation Training Centre. This Meet laid the foundation of a beautiful dream, a dream of a united stand for the disable in Dehradun. The agenda of the meeting was to bring together all the NGO’s working for the disabled in Dehradun under one concrete forum where we could share our achievements, discuss issues, solve problems and make a difference. We all agreed that the government may or may not respond to individual concerns but a collective voice was far difficult to ignore. The commitment made in the First Meet showcased itself in the second All NGO Meet held at the Latika Roy Foundation Training Center on Friday, 17 April, 2009.

At the Second Meet we decided to tackle our next obvious question, how do we create this united identity, one which can spread awareness to a large group, one which is easily accessible and one which is in sync with today’s generation? The answer of which led us to discuss the importance of the World Wide Web! A common online identity would help the members in spreading awareness, have discussions with experts and supporters, get feedback and even get funds for various projects. The current rage on the internet is blogging and the members agreed to start with a blog that would provide all the information about the member NGOs training programs, activities and even employment opportunities for the people with disabilities.
This is how DEHRADUN DISABILITY FORUM came into being.

The members of this forum are NGOs that have been working in the field of disabilities for several years.
A list of the members is given below-
Latika Roy Foundation
Bajaj Institute of Learning for the Deaf
Anugrah Program
Inspiration Centre
NGOENGA School for Tibetan Handicapped Children
NIOH
Raphael Ryder Cheshire International Centre
SHARP Memorial

We will keep providing our supporters and well wishers news updates from all the member organizations and hope that this forum helps to bridge any gap that may be there. Comments and suggestions are highly appreciated!