Help special needs children get access to care and support by Sri Arunodayam

With Covid 19 becoming a regular part of life, caring for children with special needs has become more challenging. In the past year alone, Sri Arunodayam has allocated a large budget to cover the daily cost of cleaning lotions and equipment, anti-bacterial soaps, hand washes, and detergents. Keeping the children scrupulously clean is only a part of the overall care that constitutes this program. Care includes mental, psychological, and emotional care, including physical care through safe shelter, clothing, age-appropriate education, and rehabilitation therapies such as physiotherapy, speech therapy, and vocational training.

Caring for children with special needs is never easy. Each child has his/her unique requirements and therefore we cannot apply the “one size fits all” approach in terms of helping them develop. Whether it be diet, clothing, education, physiotherapy, or any other rehabilitative therapy, each child receives and responds uniquely. Programs are customized to fit the child and not the other way around, as for normal children. They change and grow at different levels. Age is no indicator of developmental milestones they are able to achieve. A 10-year-old might have the mind and ability of a 3-year-old!

Abandoned when she was a toddler, the public found Anu and admitted her to the Children’s Hospital, Egmore. After being treated for around four days, Anu was handed over to ChildLine and then to us through the Child Welfare Committee. Diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy and profound intellectual disability, Anu was immediately started on a nutritious diet together with physiotherapy as she was unable to move on her own. From a bedridden state, we watched Anu make steady progress as the years rolled by. She is 13 today, and a good diet with exercise has helped her become mobile. We see that she’s beginning to get along with everyone and enjoying herself. Anu started speaking a few words like “amma” and “appa,” and her vocabulary has improved tremendously over the past year. Investing in early childhood nutrition, care, and age-appropriate rehabilitation therapies is a surefire strategy for a child’s overall growth, especially one with intellectual disabilities. The returns are incredibly high, and this is our experience with Anu and other children like her in our care.

Siva was found wandering around Rajaji Nagar, Kolathur, Chennai. A Good Samaritan handed him over to the V4 Rajamangalam Police Station and that’s how he made it to our home via a CWC order in July 2012 when he was just 12 years old. Siva is intellectually disabled, hyperactive, and extremely anxious by nature. He needs constant assurance that everything is going to be alright. This is the sad plight of many abandoned children who have been betrayed by the people they have implicitly trusted. Siva also had many behavioural issues and psychiatric problems for which he was under psychiatric treatment. With healthy validation from his caregivers, he developed a better sense of self and now has a new and improved outlook on life, making him less anxious and agitated. Siva developed Tuberculosis around 6 months ago and is being treated at the Otteri TB Hospital. His infection was quite severe and he had a very poor appetite, often refusing to eat his food.  He became very weak and lost a lot of weight whereupon he almost entered the final stage of the illness.  The doctors suggested continuous injections for a 3-month period which extended to 6 months. It’s only after this intensive treatment that he’s made a remarkable turnaround. His appetite has returned and he has gained weight by an additional 10 kgs in the past month. He is still under treatment but on the road to a complete recovery. 

Siva is an excellent artist. He draws and paints portraits. He’s really good at it and has won several prizes, including a prize in last year's JAVATE competition. Siva is capable of becoming a portrait artist par excellence and of leading a life with great purpose!

Happy and hopeful kids amidst the difficult rehabilitation journey

Our little ones never fail to amaze us! Around 15 schools and over 60 children participated at the JAVATE 2020 event held on February 1, 2020 at Lady Andal Higher Secondary School, Harrington Road, Chennai. Eighteen of our children participated in the Art competition and group dance events, winning several prizes. Sheela won 3rd prize for beginner level in the art competition, and Vishal and Siva won 3rd prize at junior and senior levels respectively. Our children bagged three prizes for the group dance category with the boys winning the 1st prize and girls winning the 3rd prize at junior level, and the bigger girls winning the 2nd prize at senior level. We are incredibly proud of the way they put heart and soul into everything they do, managing to steal hearts wherever they go! God bless and keep you, dear children, as you continue to set an example for us all.

Program Update

The children receive physiotherapy, special education, and counselling (as and when required). Some are on medication for epileptic fits and seizures. Almost all receive general vitamin supplements. Most children are still dependent on caregivers for ADL activities. Specialist Doctors such as orthopaedics, paediatricians and general physicians attend to the children periodically. Our in-house Clinical Psychologist has just completed IQ assessments for all children, and is working together with the special educators, physiotherapists and caregivers on a holistic health program for the children.

Other Program updates are : On January 26th our children’s products through Prayatna were displayed at Kinder Nest, KK Nagar. The products were also on display at the Hindu Spiritual Fair, Guru Nanak College, Velachery from January 29th to February 4th. On January 30th, members from SPASTN came over to screen our children for signs of hearing and vision loss.We are happy that SPASTN will be conducting regular camps at our home.Around ten of our youngsters participated in the 18th International Childhood Cancer Day rally organized by Chennai Volunteers on March 17th at Besant Nagar Beach between 7.30 am and 9.30 am. We were joined by other NGO organizations in the awareness campaign.

Story from the field

Sai Lakshmi is now 8 yrs old. When Sai was discovered, the District Collector ordered that she be sent to the Cradle Baby center at Villupuram. After a while the Child Welfare Committee (Vellore) passed her on to us as she is intellectually challenged. Sai lives with Cerebral Palsy (CP) – a condition marked by impaired muscle coordination (spastic paralysis) and other disabilities, typically caused by damage to the brain which could have been caused by brain injury or abnormal brain development before, during, or immediately after birth. CP affected Sai’s muscle control, coordination and tone, reflex, posture and balance. It had seriously impacted her fine and gross motor skills to the extent that she was confined to bed in the early stages of her development. Sai could not speak, interact or do anything on her own. She virtually lived in a world of her own where none could penetrate. To compound her situation, Sai has genu recurvatum (a deformity in the knee joint, so that the knee bends backwards), and she suffers bouts of fits. Quite a dismal prognosis for any child but Sai is a winner! She is slowly and steadily transforming herself as she works with her teachers, caregivers and physiotherapist at becoming as normal as she possibly can be. Sai has shown remarkable improvement in the past 6 months and has become quite the talker! She is able to eat on her own, dress up, sway to music, solve complex jigsaw puzzles for her age, and socialize so well. Recently, on February 2019, Sai Lakshmi won the 2nd prize in a ‘passing the ball’ competition at our Annual Sports Meet.

Program Update

Thank you dear donors for your generosity.

We, Sri Arunodayam, have put your contribution to good use in providing services to around 115 children in our care.
(1) Care & Support: care-giving (safe shelter, food, clothing), medicines/medical interventions;
(2) Special Education: education for children according to their abilities - Pre -Primary Level 1, Primary, Vocational, Early intervention and Custodial care;
(3) Therapy and rehabilitation: physiotherapy and the use of muscle stimulation equipment to help in blocking and managing pain while reducing swelling and inflammation;
(4) Occupational therapy: helping children achieve independence in all areas of life. Activities to improve cognitive, physical, and motor skills and enhance self-esteem;
(5) Vocational training: providing training for youngsters in skills to sustain a trade;
(6) Crisis intervention: assisting in rescues, helpline response, legal procedures, medical evaluation & follow-up, procedures with Child Welfare Committees (CWC), police, and other bodies, admissions and referrals.

Story from the field

Akshaya is a sweet 15 year old; a soft-spoken, well-mannered girl, always smiling and radiating a joyful spirit. She seems like a girl who must have had a happy childhood albeit some learning difficulties, but Akshaya's story is actually very traumatic.

She was abandoned when she was a month old, at a home in Madurai. Apparently, her parents were too poor to afford her treatment. She was ADL (Activities of Daily Living) dependent then. Akshaya came to us when she was 7 years old as she is moderately intellectually disabled with cerebral palsy, and a speech disorder. Despite working on her speech, Akshaya still finds it difficult to speak coherently but somehow manages to get her message across.

Akshaya was put through a rehabilitation program that involved a nutritious diet, medical treatment, physiotherapy, early intervention special education and occupational therapy. We are grooming her in vocational activities and she weaves colourful wire baskets and attends tailoring classes. Now independent in ADL, she takes care of the children by feeding, washing and grooming them so meticulously that she is indispensable to our care givers!

Akshaya far surpasses her role as caregiver (which she assumed entirely on her own!). We believe she will make a wonderful Vocational Trainer someday. From a life of total dependence 7 years ago to one of complete independence today, Akshaya has more than proven that she has an indestructible spirit.