About Sankalp
“Empowering children with Disabilities”
Beginning:
In 2008, the trust started a Day Care Centre on Saturday & Sunday for mentally challenged/developmentally disabled children. Encouraged by the response and its desire to provide all-round development with compassion, care & medical treatment to such children, it opened a full-fledged centre.
Disabilities Catered:
Children being rehabilitated at SANKALP suffer from various disabilities. More than 90% of the children have multiple disabilities. Presently SANKALP has 45 children with different disabilities and 41 of them have multiple disabilities. Out of the 45 children, 13 are girls & 32 boys. All of them are mentally challenged besides 14 are suffering from Cerebral palsy, 6 with Autism Spectrum Disorder, 1 with Down’s syndrome, 1 with Prader-Willi Syndrome, 9 from ADHD, 1 from Asperger’s syndrome and 1 is almost blind and 24 also have speech impairment in varying degree.
Target Population:
Children having developmental disabilities without any discrimination based on cast, religion, political affiliation, gender, economic or social background. Most of them belong to the underprivileged class whose parents otherwise would not be able to provide a scientifically designed training & rehabilitation plan to their children. Till date nearly 150 children have received the benefit of centre’s program.
Staff:
SANKALP employs professionally qualified, competent and experienced special educators, behavioral, speech and physiotherapist for taking care of children. Currently SANKALP’s staff strength is 10.
Facilities:
SANKALP has a fully equipped Sensory Integration Room, Physiotherapy and Audiology units. All these are managed by qualified professionals. SANKALP also has a medical advisory board consisting of specialist from medicine, pediatrics, neurosurgery, orthopedics, ENT, dental, Ophthalmic, physiotherapy, clinical psychology & Food & Nutrition fields for deciding the medical needs of the children.
Activites:
SANKALP carries out following activities all free of charge for the children:
Assessment of disabilities & then Providing child specific holistic developmental program consisting of cultivating hygienic habits necessary for daily living, Cognitive behavior development, academic, co-curricular, skill, ability & social development, Pre-vocational training, Occupational therapy, Speech Therapy, Sensory Integration/Physiotherapy, Parent counseling & community based activities.
Providing stationery/training material, Uniform, Healthy mid-day meal with required nutritional supplements including vitamins, transportation, Periodic Medical checkup, homoeopathic treatment/therapies and Tri-cycle/Hearing Aids.
Collaborating with parents & the public through Public awareness program.
Approach
SANKALP follows a scientific and structured approach in training/rehabilitation to its children. Each child at SANAKLP is first assessed to ascertain the types & level of disabilities by a clinical psychologist. Professionally qualified special educators, behavior, speech & physio therapist with dietician then jointly design and implement a child specific holistic training/rehab plan based on child’s strengths, weaknesses, interests, abilities & socio economic background with specific focus on their empowerment by developing their:
- Physical skills
- Mental skills
- Social skills
- Behavioral skills
- Academic skills
- Co-curricular skills
- Pre-vocational skills
- Ability development
- Self Esteem
The plan is monitored quarterly by recording micro level improvements against target fixed in various activities & it is also analyzed periodically for its efficacy. We also associate parents and provide them guidance/counseling for actively participating in the process of development of their children.
These children need services of professionally trained and experienced educators/therapists for their training & rehabilitation and employing such professionals despite being very expensive, is undoubtedly the primary and most essential requirement of the cause we are working for and requires considerable funds. MPC Trust bears all expenses to run SANKALP. We at SANKALP do our best to ENABLE the Disabled; Translate Disability into Ability; Capability & a winning Opportunity.
Impact:
As a result of getting properly planned & appropriate child specific program through carefully crafted methodology under professional guidance, most children have demonstrated progress in cognitive, communication, behavioral, self-help, gross motor skills and socialization in varying degree as per the observations made by special educators/parents and also as measured by various screening tests. This is certainly empowering many of them towards leading significantly better life than before.
Once improvement is achieved, all those children whose level of disability & condition permit will be ready to receive vocational training in areas of their interest/skill where they could be engaged productively. This will give them an opportunity to become an earning member of the family and will result in their economic integration with the society. Besides, it will improve their self-esteem and will also make them a happier being. Even those children, who are unfit for vocational training due to limitation of disability level, will also get benefitted as their condition improves & they definitely feel much better than what they were before joining SANKALP.
The Program at SANKALP also gives an opportunity to parents of getting free time to engage in other activities since the child is away from home. Moreover, all services being free of cost, it saves the opportunity cost for providing care & meal to their child & to that extent also it gives them relief.
SANKALP also conducts & participates in Public awareness programs and events to sensitize general public and generate empathy towards such children & make them acceptable as a part of society. Once individual child/family is benefitted, it automatically brings improvement in society at large in terms of social justice and a better happiness index.
These children need services of professionally trained and experienced educators/therapists for their training & rehabilitation and employing such professionals despite being very expensive, is undoubtedly the primary and most essential requirement of the cause we are working for and requires considerable funds. MPC Trust bears all expenses to run SANKALP. Trust is being supported by corporates/institutions besides a community of well-wishers and donors without any expectations except for the satisfaction of doing a good deed.