Snapshots of our Journey

Keeping Hope Alive (Video)

What is SDM?

We have mentioned the United Nations Pilot Project and Supported Decision Making (SDM) a lot lately.

Here's more information, as promised!

Follow the link:
http://parivaarnfpa.org/uncrpd.php
Your comments are valuable.

Kindly let us know what you think!

Awards and Honours

Saswati Singh
President, Inspiration
Director, Inspiration Centre

The Director received the 13th RED & WHITE BRAVERY AWARD in the category of "an act of SOCIAL COURAGE". Seen here with other awardees.

The Director received "BEST PARENT OF A PERSON WITH DISABILITY" Award of 2007, of the NATIONAL TRUST. Seen here with the Minister for Social Justice & Empowermant, the Hon'ble Smt. MEIRA KUMAR, CHAIRPERSON OF NATIONAL TRUST.

World Autism Awareness Day Rally

World Autism Awareness Day Rally

The U.N. General Assembly had declared the 2nd of April each year as the World Autism Awareness day, on the 18th of Dec’07. It is now common knowledge that autism- a developmental disorder- has taken on epidemic proportions, due to environmental & other triggers, and cannot be ignored by the government & society at large. It is the second most prevalent serious developmental disorder in the world, according to the Centre for Disease Control & Prevention, USA. So all concerned, in all parts of the world have taken on the duty of spreading awareness about this condition, by holding rallies & meetings in their own states & cities, on this day. Early identification & early intervention are the only ways to control this as there is no cure for this condition, till date.
This year the Ministry of Social Welfare took on the responsibility to hold this rally together with Inspiration, a non-profit organization which has been hosting this rally for the last 4 years. INSPIRATION has been focusing on this condition from the very beginning, hence this rally, so that more is known about the condition, which could help in tackling this at an early stage. It was assisted by the Institute of Educational Leadership, Nimbuwala. The Rally was flagged off by the Hon’ble Minister for Social Welfare, Uttarakhand, Sri Matbar Singh Kandari. The Hon’ble State Minister for Social Welfare, Sri Khazan Das was the Special Guest for the occasion. The programme was presided over by The Hon’ble MLA for Rajpur, Sri Ganesh Joshi. There was a short cultural programme by students of IEL, Nimbuwala & Inspiration.
About 300 students from several special schools & regular students from various institutes in Dehra Dun & Roorkee participated in the rally, as volunteers. The special Schools are : Raphael International Centre, Cheshire Home, Bajaj Institute of Learning, Sharp Memorial , & the newly formed Ehsaas Foundation and Matri Chaya. The institutes to participate were IEL, Institute for Technology & Management, Hermes College, Roorkee, SGRR PG College, Pestle weed to name a few. The enthusiasm of the college students was really worth mentioning, which showed the sensitivity for the cause has increased over the years due to such efforts. The rally started from Gandhi Park, moved towards the Clock Tower, turned in towards Darshanlal Chowk, round the Gandhi Park, along the parade ground & came out onto Ashley Hall, and ended back in Gandhi Park. Material on Autism and its symptoms, as also the possible preventive measures, and interventions was disseminated. (The photos follow soon!)
At another function orgabnised for the event Mrs. Singh spoke about the problems of the persons with Autism, their management & various therapies used.

Awareness Programme in Haldwani

On 19 December 2009 a Parent Training-cum-Awareness programme sponsored by Christofer Blinden Mission, was held in Haldwani. Pre-programmes were held over a period of 6 months before this to identify families with special needs children/adults. The programme was held in the Forest Training Institute in Haldwani. The officers of the Institutetook keen interest in the programme and created a lot of interest among the people. Extensively coverd by all local newspapers, the programme was attended by 50 participants - parents and Anganwari workers. It was inaugurated by Mr. Sanjeev Arya, a dynamic and young leader of the Mandi Samiti. Mrs. Pushpa Arya, a well-known social worker chaired the event. Mrs. Singh spoke on the importance of parents getting together to work for the training and rehabilitation of the intellectually disabled in this part of the country as there are practically no services in the hills. The well-known paediatrician Dr Ajay Panday who was the Guest Speaker spoke about the importanceof identifying the symptoms of intellectual disabilities early. Some snapshots follow!

World Disability Day 2009

On 3 December 2009 we celebrated the World Disability Day in Delhi by organizing a Free Parents' Training Programme. The chief guest was the local MLA Shri O.P. Babbar, a well-known philanthropist and social worker. The programme was attended by about 50 parents and special educators / social workers. Mrs. Singh spoke about the Supported Decision Making Pilot Project of the United Nations that she is conducting in Dehra Dun. It is a one year project being jointly conducted by Inclusion International, PARIVAAR- National Confederation of Parents' Associations and is supported by the NAtional Trust. Mrs Singh is the Coordinator of the Project which has selected 15 families to see how the Supported Network could be developed over a year. We will be back with more information on Supported Decision Making. For now we have the pictures of the Parents' Training Programme organized on World Disability Day.

Activities of 2008

PHOTO : The Awareness programme at Scholar's Home, attended by Students of the Senior School. The Film "A .for Autism..." was also shown.
An Awareness program was held at the Institute of Educational Leadership, in Nimbuwala, Dehra Dun. It was well attended by the 1st & 2nd year students of Mass Communications, Faculty & the Director, Mr Manish Mumgai, was also present. The film “A for Autism… M for Mouse was screened & questions were asked after the presentation. The students & Director were very motivated & promised further help to the cause. This was followed by the Rally held on the 2nd of April,’08.

WORLD AUTISM AWARENESS DAY’ ‘08

It was the 2nd of April, 08. Gandhi Park in the heart of Dehra Dun, was all colourfully decorated, and the song “Taree Zameen Pe” was playing, for all the stars of this day’s show- the special children of some of the special schools of Dehra Dun, and the young men & children with Autism from Inspiration Centre. Yes, it was the WORLD AUTISM AWARENESS DAY! The U.N. General Assembly has declared the 2nd of April each year as the World Autism Awareness day, on the 18th of Dec’07. It is now common knowledge, that autism has taken on epidemic proportions, due to environmental & other triggers, and cannot be ignored by the government & society at large. So all concerned, in all parts of the world had taken on the duty of spreading awareness by holding rallies & meetings in their own states & cities, on this day. As INSPIRATION has been focusing on this condition from the very beginning, we had decided to invite all special & regular schools & institutes to join in this Awareness Rally, on the 2nd of April, at Gandhi Park, at 9am, so that more is known about the condition, which could help in tackling this at an early stage.

PHOTO : The rally was attended by students & staff of the Institute for Educational Leadership, as well as students & and parents of special children.

PHOTO : View of the rally with the Clock Tower at the background
The Disability Commissioner, Mrs. Snehlata Agarwal, flagged off the Rally, along with Dr. A.K.Srivastava, The Principal, DAV Intercollege. The Director of Institute for Educational Leadership, Mr Manish Mumgai was present with all the staff members & students to show their solidarity for the cause of the Autistic Children. Students & staff of special schools, The Ngoenga Tibetan Special School, & Bajaj Institute of Learning were well represented by the staff & students. The rally started at 10 am from the Gandhi Park & along Rajpur Road, through Parade ground, Ashley Hall & back to Gandhi Park. During the walk, lot of information was given about autism, in Hindi & English. The students sang songs, and it was a big surprise to all, that the students with autism, were able to participate in the March, without any trouble, well aided by their buddies from the Institute of Educational Leadership The Rally was led by The President & the Vice-President of Inspiration, which is now a Parents’ Association. A short Cultural Program was put up, and refreshments were distributed to all present. All the major local dailies covered the program in their respective papers. The Disability Commissioner, also the Additional Commissioner of Social Welfare Department, has promised to extend full support for the cause of Autism Awareness in the State of Uttarakhand.

SUMMER CAMP ‘08

A SUMMER CAMP was held at the Inspiration Centre in Dehra Dun, where students came from Delhi, Allahabad, Nainital & Haldwani. Four children –age ranging from 4-13 years benefited from The INSPIRED MOTHER’S TRAINING, where they came to stay from 15 days /1 month for round the clock training. The mothers went back happy & empowered to cope with the life skills & behaviour problems of the children.

AUTISM/IT WORKSHOP’08

An ‘Autism-IT Workshop’ was organized by Inspiration and The Anil Karanjai Memorial Trust. The inauguration took place at the Institute for Educational Leadership, Nimbuwala (Kaulagarh), Dehra Dun, on Monday, 9th June, 2008. The Chief Guests were The Director of IEL, Mr. Manish Mamgain, and the Guest of Honour was the Principal of the DAV Intercollege, Dr A.K.Srivastava. The workshop was held from 9th -14th June, at the IEL.The participants were autistic children from Delhi & Dehra Dun. It was conducted by Mr. Richard Banbury, Director, RAB Info, Dehra Dun, in collaboration with Dr. Arun Mehta, the well known computer scientist from New Delhi. This workshop was a part of the Summer Camp being organized by Inspiration, for the whole of June’08. PHOTO : Students at the workshop in the Institute for Educational Leadership

This is a follow on to the path-breaking experimental workshop, held in May, 2006 under the auspices of the Information Technology Development Agency, Dehra Dun. As a result of it, we all gained many insights into the ways that IT may help the autistic to communicate, as well as into the difficulties they face in working with computers. These insights were applied at the present workshop. It may be recalled that Arun Mehta has considerable experience in IT and disabilities. He entered this field when he was commissioned to upgrade the voice synthesizer of the world renowned physicist, Professor Stephen Hawking. He has since worked extensively with visually impaired students and children with cerebral palsy. Moreover, since the 2006 workshop, he has been developing software for children with cerebral palsy and autism. This software was tried out at the present workshop.

AWARENESS GENERATION IN INSTITUTES IN DEHRA DUN & NAINITAL

As a regular part of training ,Inspiration has had the three –pronged approach—Training of ParentsTraining of teachers/students in schoolsTraining of society, in general .The Director has now started targeting the renowned residential schools in Nainital. She was given the offer to do sensitization programmes in 4 schools there, Longview Public School, St. Mary’s Convent, The Holy Angels, St John’s School PHOTO : The Director answers queries of the parents at St. John's School in Nainital.

She also did a sensitization programme with the Teachers of Army School, Birpur, Dehra Dun. She spoke to teachers groups & students separately, on 22nd / 23rd of July’08. In one school she was invited to speak to parents also. All these schools found the talk highly beneficial, and have asked to have more such programs in future. She will be showing the film ‘A.. For Autism, M… for Mouse in the next phase of programmes. She was invited by the District Magistrate to train the grass root level workers of the ICDS scheme of the Govt. PHOTO : The Anganwari workers of the ICDS in Haldwani being trained by Director.

This will be followed by a free Training Programme for parents in Nainital , supported by the Chairperson of the Municipality, at the end of September ’08.