Dreams Come True

Afruja Katun

Afruja Katun lives with her parents and younger brother in Parashar village of South 24 Parganas district. Although the village is only 20 k.m. away from Thakurpukur area, but it’s still one of the resource poor villages. Afruja’s father is engaged in sewing work and earns only around Rs. 2000/- per month. Afruja is a child of 7 years of age with intellectual disability and has been identified by one of the members of Disability Rights Group (a group of persons with disabilities facilitated by SANCHAR) in April 2014. Her brother is also an autistic child. Though Afruja has been admitted in the local school in Class I, she doesn’t go to school every day. SANCHAR has just started the home-based intervention programme with Afruja to teach her to manage her self-care activities, like feeding herself, bathing, dressing etc. Along with this the parents are being trained to learn this teaching process so that they can help Afruja everyday and this learning process will be sustainable. The resource teacher from SANCHAR is also trying to develop her basic functional education skills, like identifying own name and her parents’ name, identifying her body-parts, following simple instructions etc. through using appropriate Teaching Learning Materials.   Padmanava Sen, an Electronics Engineer  by profession and now, a Principal Scientist at Broadcom Bangalore, is sponsoring a part of Afruja’s rehabilitation expenses for two years. Apart from designing circuits, Mr. Sen spends his spare time for non-profits in Education and girl empowerment. He has also been associated with non-profit  ‘Asha for Education’ for more than 8 years in coordination roles Chapter wide or organization wide including ‘Director of Projects’ in 2010-2012. He is currently associated with Asha-Wide projects team as Project Partner Coordinator. He personally believes that only focus on science and technology can not satisfy an engineer unless there is a grass-root involvement to solve social problems. We, the entire team of SANCHAR and Afruja’s family are thankful to him for his significant contribution.      

Trisha Mondal

One and half year old Trisha, a girl with Cerebral Palsy, lives in Ganesh Khariberia Village of South 24 Parganas district, West Bengal. Her father is a daily labour and earns a little. Due to Cerebral Palsy, Trisha hasn't reached the developmental milestones at the right time. Unlike other children of her age she can't sit or crawl, but lies down all day in her bed. SANCHAR has recently started a therapeutic intervention for her physical development. Her parents and family members will also be trained gradually to learn how to help Trisha through a routined rehabilitation process. SANCHAR is now trying to help Trisha to sit on her own. Her parents are very supportive and are helping in the process. Trisha was also in need of a pair of hand gaiters and leg gaiters and a special chair to be in the sitting position for a while. Tapobrata Bandyopadhyay, an electronics engineer by profession is sponsoring Trisha's rehabilitation expenses for next one year. Tapobrata works as a Design Engineer for Texas Instruments in Dallas. He is associated with non-profit ‘Asha for Education’ for more than 5 years and has served as the president of Asha's Georgia Tech chapter in the past. He believes that education is of vital importance and an effective catalyst for social and economic change. We, the entire team of SANCHAR and Trisha’s family are thankful to him for his significant contribution.    

Debraj Gayen

4 year old Debraj lives with his parents and elder sister in Barogogon Gohalia village. His father works in a local plywood company. They have got a one roomed tiled house. Debraj has hearing impairment and has recently been identified by SANCHAR. He has got a pair of hearing aids. SANCHAR is helping him in pre-school education. He also goes to Anganwadi centres. Debraj’s parents are being trained to support Debraj in his overall development including education and communication, so that their dependence on resource teacher will gradually be reduced.       Asmita Ghose, a post graduate in Social Work and a mother of a 3 year old child, is sponsoring a part of Debraj’s rehabilitation expenses for one year. Asmita has also studied Human Resource Development and is presently working in Kolkata as a Senior Administrative Officer (HR) in South Asian Forum for Environment, a non-profit civil society organization working in environment sector. We are thankful to Asmita for extending her support to us.    

 

Mousumi Khatun

14 years old Mousumi is the youngest child of her parents. They live in Moukhali village of South 24 parganas district. Both of her brothers are daily labourers, but don’t earn much. Mousumi has severe hearing impairment and has no speech. She is studying in sixth standard in the village school. Since last three years, SANCHAR is helping her in both formal and functional education at home, so that she can continue her education in the general school. Mousumi uses a pair of hearing aids. She is learning sign language, which is also helping her to be more confident in communicating with friends and family members.       Monomita Chaudhury, a third year student of English Literature in Loreto College, Kolkata is sponsoring Mousumi’s rehabilitation cost. Apart from literature, Monomita has a great interest in theatre. She is associated with a renowned theatre group in Kolkata. She also volunteers with SANCHAR in her free time. Monomita is our youngest donor till now and we would like to thank her for her support.          

Saniya Khatun

Saniya, an eight year old girl with severe Hearing and Speech Impairment lives in Chhotogagan Gohalia village of South 24 Parganas district, West Bengal. Her father is a local driver and earns a little. Saniya has recently been identified and one of our team members has started working with her. She goes to her once in a week and tries to develop her educational, functional and communication skills. Saniya has been admitted in class I in the local school, but since she can't follow the class, she doesn't want to go to the school regularly. Her parents don't care much about her education. So we are also trying to motivate her parents and are helping them to understand the importance of education for their daughter. Saniya loves to draw. Along with educational support, Saniya needs to undergo speech therapy and sign language sessions. Saniya also needs a pair of hearing aids. We are also helping Saniya's parents to get into the process to get a disability certificate.   Mitali Mukhopadhyay, a teacher of Lakshmipat Singhania Academy, Kolkata is sponsoring Saniya's rehabilitation expenses for next one year. Ms. Mukhopadhayay would love to see all the children getting meaningful education across the country. She has also been associated with an NGO for the last 6 years where she teaches few under privileged children after school hours. We, the entire team of SANCHAR and Saniya’s family are thankful to her for her significant contribution!          

Sohini Pailan

Sohini is a 13 year old girl with hearing impairment. She is also having learning difficulty. She lives with her parents in Ramnagar village of South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. Her father is a daily labour and mother is a house maker who occasionally binds bidi and tries to support her husband a little in bearing the family expenses. Sohini was born at a premature stage with very low birth weight. At the age of 5 years, she lost her hearing due to middle ear infection in both ears. She came in contact with SANCHAR in the year 2014. SANCHAR facilitated the process of her audiometry testing to confirm the degree of hearing loss and accordingly has provided her a Hearing Aid. Earlier Sohini used to go to school, but could not follow anything in the class. Her parents didn't study much, so they didn't know how to help her. Since last one and a half year, SANCHAR has been providing her home based support for helping her in coping with the school curriculum with the help of appropriate teaching learning materials. Presently she is continuing education in Class VII in a general school of her village. Despite all the financial hardships, her parents want her to be independent through acquiring knowledge and skills. The resource teacher from SANCHAR provides support to Sohini for developing her reading and writing skills. Moreover, she is also learning the concept of number, time and money. Sohini’s friends help her a lot in the class. Sohini loves to play and to spend time with them. Sohini’s mother is also being trained to manage her daughter’s difficulty. She helps in developing her communication skills and in understanding the lessons as well.   Ms. Madhucchanda Sen came forward to meet her rehabilitation expenses and to support Sohini in developing her educational and communication skills. Ms. Sen has lived and been educated in Kolkata and in England. Her areas of specialisation are Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Language, Critical Thinking and Epistemology. Presently she teaches Philosophy at Jadavpur University and earlier taught at Rabindra Bharati University for ten years. Ms. Sen is also a Trustee of Anando Trust, Kolkata, an organisation that promotes welfare of underprivileged children. We the entire team of SANCHAR and Sohini’s family are thankful for her significant contribution.        

Meherun Nisa

Meherun lives in Majher Bhasa village of South 24 Parganas district with her parents, grandmother and siblings. 10 year old Meherun is the youngest among 4 children of her parents. Two of her brothers are daily labourers and her sister is a student. Her father is an electrician and earns around Rs. 3000 per month. Meherun is a child with Down Syndrome with moderate intellectual disability. She goes to the village school and study in class V. Though she cannot follow the school curriculum. However she loves to go to school, where she finds lot of friends. She loves to play with friends both in the school and in the community. Meherun’s mother has recently got in touch with SANCHAR team. The team did an assessment and realized that there is a need to provide functional education to her as well as training to her family members to manage her disability. The resource teacher from SANCHAR is trying to develop her functional educational skills, like identifying own name, identifying her body-parts, following simple instructions, counting numbers, developing eye-hand coordination, developing concept about her surroundings, developing colour concept, size concept etc. SANCHAR is also working on developing her social and communication skills. Her participation in community celebrations and in social activities is also being ensured.   Devashish Mukhopadhyay from Bangalore is sponsoring Meherun’s rehabilitation expenses. Mr. Devashish always wanted to provided his support for girl child education and he found SANCHAR. This is his first association with any social development sector. He never thinks how big or small difference he can make, but for him making a difference is all what matters. We, the entire team of SANCHAR and Meherun’s family are thankful to him for his significant contribution.