ChildRaise Newsletter October 2018 to December 2018

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ChildRaise Trust is committed to Disability Issues &
Empowerment of Children & Adults with Special Needs.

Cerebral Palsy Day & Learning Disability Awareness Month

National Cerebral Palsy Day is celebrated on October 3rd and World Cerebral Palsy Day is on 6th October. The entire October month is dedicated to Learning Disability Awareness. Daan Utsav - The Joy of Giving Week is celebrated in the 1st week of October. We combined all these three events and had a programme.

We had invited Manisha Bhurke of MBA Foundation who is a person with Cerebral Palsy and is a wheelchair user. She shared what is CP, how her life is affected by CP & how she overcame the difficulties, challenges faced by the condition. To create awareness about Learning Disability (LD), we had invited Tanya Pradhan of Mindspace. Tanya & her team have created a tool to screen kids with developmental delays, autism & learning disability in kids and how to detect them in classrooms. This tool will be very useful for teachers. Therefore, we had invited few teachers to interact with Mindspace team. Many a time, the teachers in regular school are not aware as to how to spot these kids. The team briefed them about using this interactive tool which uses the digital game technique. For the "Daan Utsav" people were urged to donate to us and also to different charities, NGOs which can mainly sustain or rely on donations for their sustainability.

Music Workshop

We had organised a Free Demo Music workshop for kids with special needs and others on November 3rd 2018 by Manasi Kelkar Tambe of Swarmaanas. Diwali vacations had just started so we had kept it open for all kids and parents making it inclusive. What we liked about Manasi is that she says "Not everyone is a born singer but we at Swarmaanas give them the right to sing. We encourage them just to be happy and confident enough to perform at least in their inner circle." Manasi also believes that everybody can sing and on the workshop day it was proved.

Life Line Express - Epilepsy Clinic

Kasba is a small town in Purnia district of Bihar state in India. This time the Lifeline Express Epilepsy Clinic was at Kasba Railway Station, where Lifeline Express Hospital Train was stationed for over a month. ChildRaise Founder & Trustee- Kavita Shanbhag volunteered as an Epilepsy Educator along with Vidhya Hemmady on the epilepsy Clinic from 23rd to 25th November 2018 assisting eminent neurologists Dr. Mamta Bhushan Singh, Dr. Roop Gursahani and Dr. Victor Patterson. This clinic was a special one as epilepsy clinic project completed 10 years on the Life Line Express. Epilepsy is a neurological disorder but there is a lot of stigma attached to it. Therefore, people do not acknowledge it and do not seek treatment or discontinue it after sometime. It is more so in rural and remote areas. It is very important to educate & spread awareness about epilepsy that with regular intake of anti epilepsy medicines, this condition can be controlled. The person with epilepsy can lead a very productive life. Life Line Express ( Hospital on Train ) reaches in remote areas where there is no expert medical help and we were able to treat many patients and educate them about epilepsy. Volunteering for the epilepsy clinic in the month of November was extra special because 17th November is observed as National Epilepsy Day in India.

International Day of People with Disabilities

December 3rd is celebrated as International Day of People with Disabilities (IDPD). When we travel down the memory lane, we realise that all our projects have been started on this day. In 2001, www. childraise .com , our maiden project was launched. In 2004, our first edition of Resource Guide "Journey to Empowerment" a road map for children with special needs was published. In 2010, we started DISHA-Disability Information Services Helpline & Assistance. As this helpline is for People with Disabilities (PWDs), we chose the phone number which will represent IDPD. Dec 3rd i.e 1203 thus our DISHA number is 1800-22-1203.

In 2017, we announced the publication of our third edition of Resource guide, ''Journey to Empowerment'' for Children with Special needs with latest laws, updated phone numbers and lot of other useful information. The release ceremony was held in Jan 2018.

This year, though we did not announce any new project but on the IDPD, we partnered with Blossom Disability Foundation with whom we have facilitated a sports centre for kids with special needs in Matunga , Mumbai. They had organised a programme to felicitate their teachers, patrons & those who have helped them in their journey. We were happy to be part of their journey and receive their appreciation memento.

 

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