Help a differently abled person walk independently by Amar Seva Sangam

Initially when the covid hit we were not able to open our orthotics center for the public. So, we were doing repair work or making new devices for the inmates who are staying on our campus. Later on, slowly we started opening our orthotics center for the public and we had set up a Quarantine area where they could wait and get their assistive devices ready. It was a bit of a different experience but we are happy that we were able to help differently-abled. There were no major events that happened due to lockdowns. But we are able to create a safe environment where every beneficiary can come and get their repair work or new devices done. With this program for the time period of January to June – 2021, we are able to cover beneficiaries from various places namely Ayikudy, Kambli, Kilangadu, Sambavar Vadakarai, Tirunelveli, Vasudevanallur, Surandai, Tenkasi, Puliyangudi & Balamarthandapuram Villages & cities in Tenkasi District, Tamil Nadu. Within the given time period, a total of 143 children & adults were impacted by this program. All the beneficiaries who got benefited from this program come from families who are financially weak. This covid pandemic had made it worse. They were having trouble buying groceries, vegetables, medical kits, etc. They were all working for daily wages and it became very hard for them to work on a daily basis. With the support from Give India they are very grateful and happy that they are able to get new assistive devices or they are able to get their devices repaired.

Due to this covid-19 pandemic, it was really challenging to get raw material for the manufacturing of various adaptive and assistive devices. Even if we got raw materials, prices were really high and also transportation cost as well. Once we have got material you have to current time those materials from 15 to 30 days depending upon the type of material and from where they have got shipped. This led to a huge delay in meeting the deadlines. We even had to close our orthotics section for a month. That gave us time to plan our strategies and how to provide service without any delay. To avoid delays we have started using our in-stock raw materials while the new stock was getting quarantined. We even shut up a small quarantine area so that the beneficiaries can wait and get their repairs done immediately. For the coming 6 months, you are targeting more people to help them get new assistive devices like wheelchairs, splints, calipers, etc., and also do repair works for as many people as possible.

Impact story: Ms. Maheswari aged 4 years D/o.Mr.Subramani residing at Surandai. She is affected with Cerebral Palsy. Her father works for daily wages as coolie and her mother is a homemaker. She is dependent on all Activities of Daily Living and because of persistent primitive reflexes, she has postural deviation while sitting in a chair. The child is being given with postural device (CP Chair) and bilateral AFO, after being assessed in Amar Seva Sangam. Considering her family's economic condition ASSA offered the appliance free of cost. At present, she is able to do her activities independently with a little bit of support from her parents. She and her family join Amar Seva Sangam in rendering our thanks to you wholeheartedly.

Number of benefitted – 21

A total of 15 manufactured and 6 repaired with Give India Program from May -2020 to Dec-2020
During this pandemic many differently abled students who are studying at our inclusion school, spinal cord injured patients and disability youth training students were not able to go home. Most of them belong to the families with low-income source. Many service users within the radius of 4 kilometers from Ayikudy, reached out to us for help regarding their adaptive devices and we were able to help them by doing manufacturing and repair works. All our beneficiaries felt very happy for our help during this pandemic.

Areas Covered – In and around Ayikudy village (Around 4 Kms radius)

Covid-19 related updates- Lock down period started on 24.03.2020 to till May -2020. During this period, we had closed our orthotic section. In this situation some differently abled inmates and students could not go to their native towns. They all stayed at our PAC center and hostel for boys & girls inside Amar Seva Sangam campus. They faced difficulties in getting their appliances repair and corrections. Orthotic section reopened during June -2020 and out of 5 total staff 2 of our staff were engaged for duty (50% of the staff only were called for). Taking all precautionary measures like wearing Face Mask, Face Shield and hand gloves, we were able to rectify students’ appliances repair and corrections. Few of our service users came from outside and we received their appliances and got them repaired, while they were waiting outside. In first week of August - 2020, in Tenkasi district the number of covid-19 cases raised high and we again closed our work shop till Sep-2020. Slowly the pandemic situation came down in Tenkasi district and we reopened our orthotic section and resumed our operations from Oct-2020 and continuing the same till date.

Gowsalya Devi : unfolding the journey

The program at ASS is running successfully because of donors like you, we thank you all immensely. As a progress update of the overall program, we share with you the story of Gowsalya.
Gowsalya Devi is 15 years old & is affected with Cerebral Palsy. Her father works as a Cooli worker. Mother is a home maker. She is very active & good in her studies. She loves being amidst her friends & loves watching their activities. She is able to move only with the support of assisting devices. Hence Knee Ankle Foot Orthotic (Bilateral) manufacturing work was done at our Orthotic Centre. Now she is more independent & happy that she is able to participate in some of the activities with her friends. She & her parents render their thanks to the donor wholeheartedly.

Care and support being provided

Program Update

Our Sangam has its own Orthotics Centre inside the Sangam Campus, for manufacturing and repairing the supportive devices (aids and appliances) like Artificial Limbs, all types of Calipers, Splints, etc. For the differently abled persons for all kinds of disabilities. These appliances are manufactured as per the measurement as prescribed by the Rehabilitation Team of Amar Seva Sangam. This centre not only manufactures, but also do repairing and servicing the supportive aids. We have a good team of qualified staff in our Orthotic Centre. Very suitable and appropriate raw materials are used for the manufacturing. The services are offered to the inmates of the Sangam like, home children, Disabled Youth Trainee students, Spinal cord injured persons and public who come from various places for the appliances need.

Orthotic Centre
Orthotics extension building was inaugurated during January, 2019. Orthotic Section was established in 1995. Initially it was started in a small building as assembling and repairing unit. The requirement for appliances and repairs increased over the time as our services extended in nearby villages & institution based rehabilitation. As we grew, our machinery, equipment and tools also increased. We have machineries like drilling machine, grinding machine, buffing machine, cubicon machine. We also assemble & repair different types of wheelchairs for differently able. We also make various adaptations for differently able personal with the help & ideas of foreign Physiotherapist and Occupational therapist. Due to small space we faced difficulties in delivering appliances on time to service users. For some time we even tried out-sourcing work to various workshops but that caused more delay in delivering appliances on time. After the inauguration, the building is very helpful to accommodate different types of equipments & tools.
Also, we have bought new Hot Air Oven machine which helps to make AFO moulds. We are also using this place for assembling and repair of wheelchairs. Now we are able to operate more independently without outsourcing and even delivering appliances, adaptations, wheelchairs, etc. on time.

Story from the field

Esakkimuthu is studying 7th standard in Siva Saraswathi Vidyalaya. His father works for daily wages. His mother works as a Beedi roller. Esakkimuthu has Congenital Anomaly. He is oldest among three children. He has very good helping nature and loves playing games. Esakkimuthu is very talented actor. He got best child actor award for his acting in a short film called “Kanavay Kalayathey”. His ambition is to become an actor. Esakkimuthu was given Axillary crutches, manufactured at Orthotic Centre of Amar Seva Sangam. Now he is more independent and very happy about in.

Program Update

Sangam has its own Orthotics Centre inside the Amar Seva Sangam Campus. We manufacture and repaire the supportive devices (aids and appliances) like Artificial Limbs, all types of Calipers, Splints, etc. for the differently abled persons for all kinds of physical disabilities. These appliances are manufactured as per the measurement prescribed by the Rehabilitation Team of Amar Seva Sangam. This centre not only manufactures, but also does repairing and servicing of the supportive aids.

We have a good team of qualified staff in our Orthotic Centre. Very suitable and appropriate raw materials are used for the manufacturing. The services are offered to the inmates of the Sangam includigng the integrated school children who live in the home within campus, Disabled Youth Trainee students, Spinal cord injured persons and public who come from various places for the services.

Story from the field

Muthumariappan is a 39years old male hailing from Sankarankovil. He was affected by polio when he was a child. It affected his walking abilities.
He came to know about Amar Seva Sangam at the World Disabled Day celebrations. It was organized at Sankarankovil. He was seeking help to get assistive devices. He approached our Orthotics Centre to help him walk independently.

After he received the support from the centre, he is now running a Coffee Shop independently. He can prepare tea, coffee, and other beverages, and service his customers without anyone's help. This could not have been possible for him without the assistance he received from the Orthotics center. He is very hopeful to develop his Coffee Shop to a hotel.