Volume 2 Issue 15

Feature

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  Enabled achievers
  This year Delhi-based NGO Deepalaya is celebrating 25 years of good work. An educational organisation, set up to teach slum children, in recent years it has developed the objective of developing positive attitudes among parents and communities towards otherwise-talented physically and mentally challenged children. It believes that the way forward for such children is through mainstreaming them to improve their quality of life. Several children have already benefited from Deepalaya’s good works, and four disabled students are featured in Deepalaya’s book of 25 Child Achievers, published in July to celebrate the anniversary. We tell their stories below.

Interview

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  "We slowly built trust over a period of time"
  Under T.K. Mathew's guidance, Deepalaya established the first NGO public school for poor children and a human resource centre for capacity building. He also founded Deepalaya Gram, which rehabilitates street, working and disabled children. He talks to Anne-Marie Prayas about how his N.G.O. has developed over the past 25 years.

News

• Simple test to detect walking problem
  Researchers in New York have discovered a simple test to detect walking problems in patients suffering from peripheral arterial diseases.
• Youth work for a social cause
  A theatre group in the Capital, ANANT, is now conducting programmes and workshops for disabled children.
• Disabled children shine through
  Physically challenged children from Meerut and Chandigarh were honoured in the Capital for their achievements.
• An arena for the intellectually disabled
  Special Olympics Bharat has developed a strategy to encourage and enable India’s intellectually disabled to participate in sports.
• ‘Expressions’ to be a guiding light to disturbed kids
  Due to the increasing number of behavioural and psychological problems among children and teenagers, VIMHANS has launched a project, Expressions, to deal with these problems in their preliminary stages.
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  Deepalaya marks 25 years of serving the marginalised
  Celebrating 25 years of its existence, Deepalaya has been a steady source of support for the underprivileged and the marginalised.
• Club-foot clinic unable to cope with increasing demand
  The only club-foot clinic in North India faces a ‘patient deluge’ as patients trickle in from surrounding states.
• Budget is a farce for disabled children
  The new budget has only reinforced the government’s insensitivity to disabled children. It has absolutely nothing to offer them.
• No disappointment for disabled students in DU
  Delhi University has warmly welcomed every disabled category candidate in this year’s admission process.
• ‘Jeena’ gives disabled immigrant children a new ray of hope
  Situated in the United States, this non-governmental organisation is America’s first-ever network of parents of Indian-American mentally disabled children.