Our regular activities continue on campus. A total of 55 assessments and 43 admissions have been done in the past six months. There are 108 students in the residential centres and another 44 attend the school every day. The Early Intervention and School Readiness Centre is bustling with an average of 50 children in the age range of 1-8 years, receiving a variety of services.
Some of our students have been visiting a regular private school once a week where they take part in the art and craft activities. This has been a good effort at inclusion.
It is almost mandatory now for parents of children in the day school to help out in a class for one week in the term. This is turning out to be a good learning experience for them to see what their children do in school and also how some of the strategies can be implemented at home.
The Therapeutic Centre conducted an intensive residential training program for two families who had children on the autism spectrum. The program runs for a week and the family is given board and lodging at Raphael.
A session on ‘Thinking Beyond Labels’ was conducted for parents. In-service training on ‘Early Childhood Care & Education’ is currently being conducted for all our teachers.
25 students joined the two-year Diploma in Special Education program that commenced in August.
The Outreach Team covered three districts of Uttarakhand; Champawat, Pauri and Chamoli in the past six months in which 361 families were counselled, and 97 children were identified. The families were given home-based activities to implement.
The two district support centres are working well. The resource teacher visits homes in a cluster, 2-3 times a week, and the parents are very happy with the inputs and the progress.
With our new Medical Director with us, there is an increase in the number of outpatients visiting the hospital. At any given time there are 10 to 12 TB in-patients.
Shiv Sadan has been given a facelift for which we are grateful to GiveIndia for their very effective fundraising campaign for this project. Bheem and Sarla are new members in Shiv Sadan, having relocated from other leprosy colonies.
Priyo Lall CEO Raphael