Larsen & Tourbo Sponsors Physiotherapy Equipment & Assistive Devices  

Patient satisfaction is an important and commonly used indicator for measuring the quality of services pertaining to healthcare and rehabilitation.

Physiotherapy holds high significance in retaining the functional capabilities for people with amputations, polio, stroke patients as well as children with neurological issues and associated developmental delays. Having a well-equipped physiotherapy unit with state of art equipment and machinery augments the quality and pace of service delivery.

Ms Mitali Naika and Ms Elizabeth from L & T visited MI on 12th May, 2016 to inaugurate the various equipment sponsored through L & T’s CSR initiatives. They were given an orientation how these equipment will be benefitting the service users. During their visit, they had a chance to interact with the service users from the Yarabnagar community project of MI. Several assistive devices as per the need of service users has been sponsored and personally handed over.

Ms Mitali and Ms Elizabeth encouraged the service users for the regular use of assistive devices and to continue to pursue education and have a good quality of life. 

Northern Trust Visits Mobility India

Northern Trust, a Chicago based bank founded in 1889, has been operational in the domains of wealth and asset management and asset servicing. Their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts and initiatives are aligned with their guiding principles of service, expertise and integrity. Some of the focus areas of their CSR efforts are towards volunteerism, philanthropy, sound business practices, ethics and environment conservation.

Northern Trust team comprising of 4 members visited on 8th June, 2016 to understand and get a glimpse of the various activities carried out at Mobility India. They were provided with a facility tour & orientation on the in-house and out-house activities. A discussion was being held regarding how Northern Trust can extend their efforts to join with Mobility India for the inclusion and empowerment of people with disabilities and can address the ever growing need.

Their feedback was “It was a great experience and interesting to know various aspects MI is working on. Thanks for having us!”.  

Strengthening the P & O Services in the underserved Regions of Afghanistan

Afghanistan has been in a near constant state of conflict and war since the late 1970s. Out of an estimated population of 16 million Afghans, there are at least 4 million who are refugees in neighbouring countries and 6 million internally displaced, vulnerable persons, primarily women, children and the elderly. They have equally compelling demands for basic assistance for their fundamental survival needs—food, clothing, shelter and medical attention.

Under these difficult circumstances, disabilities resulting from war or conflict, or endemic poverty, are extremely common. While there is a surging need of appropriate rehabilitation services, the existing facilities and services are inadequate to serve the existing and projected needs. Lack of available infrastructure, facilities, and adequately trained rehabilitation personnel compounds the underserved needs.

MI in collaboration with Handicap International (HI) and Swedish Committee Association (SCA) launched a training program for the teachers (ToT) for the 7 participants from Afghanistan. The training scheduled from 18th May to 14th June, 2016 aimed at strengthening the P & O services as well as capacity building of the participants as trainers for effective implementation and dissemination of the knowledge. The course outline was designed and delivered with effective theoretical aspects, group activities and practice delivery by the participants. 

A valedictory ceremony celebrating the journey and successful knowledge gain of the participants was conducted on 14th June, 2016 which was presided by Ms Romola Joseph, Board Member, MI, Ms Albina Shankar, Director, MI and Ms Ritu Ghosh, Deputy Director-Training, MI. Participants shared their experience of the initial challenges, gradual adaptations and successful completion of the training and asserted the positive implementation of the learnings at their respective workplaces. 

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Graduation Day Celebrations of 10^th Batch of Orthopaedic Technologist

Graduation takes on special significance in our academic culture as the one transition where we honour the exciting and challenging process of ‘letting go’, more appropriately letting them go with the roots of strong education and experience and also the wings to take further on their journey.

MI celebrated the special journey of each graduate of the 10^th Batch of Orthopaedic Technologist, on 28^th June, 2016. The event was presided by Ms Saija Lukkarinen from International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), as an evaluator and encourager for the graduates. This is the second batch of graduates from MI receiving the ISPO CAT || Certificates, which holds special significance.

The event commenced with the welcome talk by Ms Ritu Ghosh, Deputy Director-Training, MI. She inspired the students to keep on the track of life-long learning, while putting the skills and experiences they acquired to practice.

The feedbacks, experience sharing of their incredible and unique journey of the graduates were often blended with smiles and tears. Graduates shared their experiences of linguistic barriers, overcoming them gradually as well as their academic and technical knowledge gain with the sheer support from the trainers.

Ms Hema attained the first position in the scoreboard with her outstanding performance in the theoretical and practical learning. 7 graduates received the ISPO CAT || Certificates for their academic performances.

Ms Saija congratulating the graduates expressed “The profession you have chosen is very fascinating. The learning every day you all will have, with each service user will be the real learnings you will cherish and treasure for your life time”.

Ms Albina Shankar, Director, MI encouraged the gathering with “In MI you all have opportunities to work with people with different kinds of disabilities and from different setups. Do your best for the people and the return will exceed your expectations”.

The celebrates concluded with Mr Soikat Ghosh Moulic, Assistant Director-Technical, MI thanking all the students and staff, especially Ms Saija from ICRC and stating “Education is just the tool, the people you are going to serve are the best teachers”. 

 Child Rights Protection Training at Mobility India

According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), Child Rights are defined as the minimum entitlements/freedoms that should be afforded to all persons below the age of 18 regardless of race, colour, gender, language, religion, opinions, origins, wealth, birth status or ability. Child Rights are broadly classified into 4 categories; ‘Right to Survival’, ‘Right to Protection’, ‘Right to Participation’ and ‘Right to Development’.

According to 2011 Census, children below 18 years comprises of around 40% of the total population in India. Of these 73% of children are from the rural areas, while the services are often urban-based. Though there are policies, schemes, laws outlined at local, state, national and international levels, still children are exposed to various issues, violations of their rights. In such scenarios, Child Rights Protection holds utmost significance.

Child Rights Protection is a matter of principle, rather than a matter of choice if the millennium and sustainable development goals of the nations to be realized to the fullest. It is highly essential to break the cycle of poverty, exploitation and underdevelopment. There is a huge need of awareness creation among the public on the entitlements of children.

MI hosted a training on ‘Child Rights Protection’ on 2^nd July, 2016 aimed at introducing the child rights protection to the new staff as well as upgrading the knowledge of existing staff on the recent happenings. The knowledge of Child Rights Protection is highly relevant and obligatory for all the MI staff, as the activities and services are meant for children and those with disabilities.

The resource person for the training was Mr Vasudeva Sharma, who currently serves as the Executive Director, Child Rights Trust, State Convener for Karnataka Child Rights Observatory and Board Member for Child Line Foundation.

The sessions were quite informative and made the staff aware about their roles and responsibilities towards protecting the rights and entitlements of children. 

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Expansion of Rehabilitation Services to the North-Karnataka, supported by CBM

MI initiated the plan of escalating its rehabilitation services to the Northern Districts of Karnataka, in partnership with organisations working with people with disabilities. This initiative of MI was well appreciated by CBM and the support for carrying out the initiative was supported by CBM.

As a part of the initiative, exploratory visits made to Bidar and Devanagari Districts. The scenario of disability and rehabilitation is found to be quite challenging due to lack of organisations working for people with disabilities, inadequate trained personnel and the existing services is unable to meet the rehabilitation needs of the community.

Deepalaya established in 2006, is an organisation is working for people with disabilities in the 30 villages of Bidar District covering 4 to 5 Panchayats. Their activities include education for children with disabilities, functioning of SHGs as well as conducting vocational trainings for the youth and disabled people. According to the observations during the exploratory visit, 4000 people and children are in need of rehabilitation services in Bidar. To cater to the need an effective and structured rehabilitation service provision was proposed by MI in partnership with Deepalaya.

Awareness programs on various kinds of disability and its management were conducted at Bidar and Devanagari for the staff, community members, SHG members and ASHA workers. An assessment and fitment camp was held at Bidar during June, 2016, 48 people were provided with the 85 assistive devices as per their need. 

Sports Meet for Children with Physical Disabilities: Fostering Inclusion and Well-Being 

Disability is both a cause and consequence of poverty and this relationship is even acute in developing nations. 98% of children with disabilities from the developing nations does not get access to education. Persons with disabilities still face stigma, discriminatory attitudes, disempowerment and social and economic marginalisation. The cost of this exclusion is enormous in terms of lost opportunities and poor quality of life for individuals and their families.

The universal popularity of Sport, its physical, social and economic development benefits makes it an ideal tool for reducing the stigma associated with disability. Sport changes community’s perceptions of persons with disabilities by focusing attention on their abilities. 

MI hosted an ‘Interschool Athletic Meet for Children with Physical Disabilities’ on 23^rd June, 2016 at Kittur Rani Chenamma Stadium, Bangalore.  The program was conducted in collaboration with the TCS Digital Enterprise Unit as part of their Para Vista initiative to promote Para Sports at Grassroot level for PwDs. Karnataka Welfare Association Board and Samarthanam Trust actively supported towards making the program a grand success.

78 Children with Disabilities from the community projects of MI exhibited their talents in the Shot Put, Javelin Throw and 100 Meter Race arranged as a part of the event. The children were sportive and active throughout the event and seeing the children enjoying to the fullest made the parents very happy.

Addressing the gathering Ms Albina Shankar, Director, MI mentioned “There are no winners or losers. Everyone who participated despite of their disability is a winner”.

Mr Vineet Tripathi, Delivery Centre Head of Digital Enterprise Unit of TCS Bangalore expressed his happiness on successful conduct of this event. He reiterated his commitment to continue supporting such events.

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