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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Allergan Healthcare India Sponsors Developmental Devices

Mr. R. Raghu Kumar – Managing Director and Mr. K T Rajan, Director, Operations, Infor Services, Projects & Neurosciences India & South Asia from Allergan Healthcare India visited Mobility India on 1st April, 2016 for distributing developmental devices for children with disabilities. They have sponsored various developmental devices for 25 children from the community projects of Mobility India.

Mr. Raghu Kumar mentioned “we have been impressed with the excellent and focused work that all of you here are doing. Great work!!! And wish you all success!

On his feedback Mr. Rajan mentioned “Highly pragmatic infrastructure, passionate leadership team along with dedicated staff. Glad to be associated with Mobility India. God bless the great work”.

DigiCaptions Sponsors Assistive Devices and Wheelchairs

The journey of thousand miles begins with a step taken forward. The holistic development of society at a large, begins with the empowerment of each and every individual in the community, irrespective of their functional status.

DigiCaptions, one of the corporate organization from Bangalore joined hands with Mobility India to ensure people with disabilities have access to appropriate assistive devices. The organization sponsored 75 assistive devices and wheelchairs for the people and children with disabilities from the three project areas of Mobility India. The assistive devices were delivered to the service users during fitment program organised at LR Nagar on 21st March, at GG Halli on 24th March and on 29th and 31st at Mobility India. The personnel from DigiCaptions participated in every delivery and interacted with the service users to understand how these assistive devices will play a role towards transforming their lives. 

International Women’s Day Celebration

International Women’s Day is about recognizing the achievements of women, appreciating the progress made towards equality, but most importantly, it’s about highlighting how far we still have to go to rid our society of deep-rooted inequality.

On 19th March, 2016 a celebration took place at Mobility India as a part of the National Volunteering initiative from Accenture. It was an action-packed afternoon for 53 volunteers from Accenture and staff, students and community members from Mobility India. Few participants expressed their role being a woman in their family, at work and on a larger perspective in the society.

The cultural celebrations commenced with couple of songs rendered by one of the service user from Mobility India. He was the perfect exemplary exhibiting ‘age does not deter one’s spirit and rhythm’. The fun games organized with the balloons kept the audience engaged. The objective of the celebrations was realized with all the participants enjoying the event to its fullest. The celebrations concluded with vote of thanks and gift distributions. 

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Mobility India’s Rehabilitation Services Reaching to the Rural Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh

A fitment camp was conducted from 7^th to 10^th March, 2016 at Kurnool for the people and children with disabilities. The camp was conducted in collaboration with Marinilayam Social Service Society (MNSSS), Kurnool, one of the partner organisations of MI since 2006. MNSSS is a social service and charitable society which caters to the rehabilitation need of the people and children with disabilities from the rural villages of Kurnool.

The camp has been led by the technical team and students from MI as well as the team from MNSSS. Working in the less resourced settings, geographically and linguistically different region was a huge learning for the students from MI.

One of the staff at MNSSS Sister Maria Rani mentioned “in Kurnool, the number of children with Cerebral Palsy is more, mostly due to related marriage of parents. Amputee count is also on a rise due to road accidents happening quite often”. All these contributes towards exclusion of children and people with disabilities from the mainstream society. Children end up staying at home with functional limitations and adults lose opportunity to earn and support their domestic needs.

To cater to the need, MI has been involved in provision of assistive devices on a periodic basis. Around 34 people benefitted through this camp, of them 7 children received various developmental devices such as corner seat, standing frame and special chair. Rest has received Prosthetic and Orthotic devices according to their need.

The service users were fitted with the devices, trained on its usage and their family members and care givers were also oriented. The program was successful with positive feedback from the service users. 

Health Check-Up Camp Organised at Garden reach, Kolkata on the Occasion of International Women’s Day

MIRRC through community outreach program reaches to 9 wards of urban slums of Garden reach which are thickly populated wards. Overall health conditions of the people of these slums are very pathetic due to poverty, illiteracy, ignorance and lack of services. All these conditions have led the people to have poor health, especially women and children are the most deprived ones of proper health.

On the occasion of International Women’s day (8^th March, 2016) a health check-up was organized. Dr. Sarbani Banerjee, Gynaecologist was invited for medical check-up. Total 24 women with disabilities and their caretakers benefitted from the program. Among them 3 women were suspected by doctor for cervical cancer, they are suggested to go for pathological tests. Some of the health issues predominantly found among the young girls and women were obesity, menstrual hygiene and lack post natal care. Regular consumption of anti-epileptic medicines by girls too has been leading to various health issues. Dr. Sarbani Banerjee suggested all the participants to maintain hygiene, drink plenty of water, exercise daily and to consume vegetables in order to lead a healthy life. 

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