2011-2012 renewal

• Caters to children with special needs (autism, mental retardation, speech & language issues, behavioral problems, learning disabilities)
• Project’s goal is with targeted attention and therapy, these kids can be nurtured to eventually become self-sufficient (Individual progress plans, 5-7 children per teacher,
Physio/speech/behavioral therapy)
• Supported by Asha-SV since Fall 2009
• Asha Stars project: Like any other Asha-SV project except the funds sent are only those that have been directly donated to the project)
• 80G income tax registration in India but no FCRA yet
• Asha Kanpur oversees the project (funds are sent to them, they disburse it and review funds utilization); they also try to raise funds locally

– 1 speech assistant, 1 speech therapist (visiting)
– 1 psychologist (visiting 4 days a week)
– 2 physiotherapist (visiting 5/6 days a week)
– 1 aya, 1 male helper.
• Due to increase in number of students, we now have one hired van & two autos for the transport of the children.
• 3 additional teachers providing in-house training to 19 girls at the local government destitute home for girls
– Teachers salary supported by Rotary Club
– 3 sections working with girls of diff levels of mental retardation

• Total expenses incurred during 1 st april, 2010 to 31 st march,2011 -
1.
Salary4,22,700/-
2.
Conveyance(payment for van facility)- 3,51,500/-
3.
Rent-
4.
Annual day & festival celebrations-
1,20,000/-
7,508/-
5.
Repair and maintenance 1,424/-
6.
Furniture and other assets 7,450/-
7.
Stationary, teaching material & misc. 8,328/-
8.
Advertisement(in local news paper) 2,400/-
9.
Miscellaneous 6,771/-
Total Rs.9,28,081/-
• Total amount received from children as fees and conveyance charges- Rs.4,78,500/-
•
Difference: Rs.4,49,581/-
• Asha-SV approved Rs.3,17,000, we sent $7,068

MONTHLY BUDGET FOR THE YEAR APRIL 2011 TO MARCH 2012
ESTIMATED EXPENSES-
RENT FOR THE PREMISES-
CONVEYANCE EXPENSES-
SALARY- TEACHERS- Rs.
10,000/-
25,000/-
18,900/(7 for classes, 1 for afternoon session)
2 HELPERS + 1 SWEEPER5,000/-
PSYCHOLOGIST- Rs.
PHYSIOTHERAPIST- Rs.
4,000/-
6,000/-
SPEECH THERAPIST- Rs.
2,000/-
SPEECH ASSISTANT- Rs. 2,300/-
MISCELLANEOUS- Rs.
1,000/-
TOTAL MONTHLY EXPENSES Rs.74,200/-
RECIEPT FROM CHILDREN (FEES +CONVEYANCE)- Rs. 38,750/-
FIXED PRIVATE DONATIONSRs. 4,500/-
TOTAL RECIEPT-
NET DEFICIT-
Rs.43,250/-
Rs.30,950/-
• April 2011 – March 2012 (12 months) Rs.3,71,400/-

• Our children have steadily shown improvement in their performances through out the year.
– Some have shown very significant improvements in areas like academic and pre-academic performances, motor functions and behavioral problems
– while in some, the improvement was not as significant due to various problems like base line condition of the child, repeated medical illnesses, irregular timings at school, inadequate and/or improper inputs at home due to various types of limitations faced by parents.
• See Case Studies document/ppt.
• Attempting all-round growth as much as possible
– During the last year, we have tried to develop our children as complete individuals, taking part in a variety of activities, caring for each other, taking initiatives and responsibilities and enjoying their work. We had a variety of activities and events all through the year apart from routine class room activities.

• Sports
– In sports activities, our children participated in interschool games competition organized by Rotary club and also in District games organized by Ministry of youth and sports and they won many medals.
This helped in tremendous boosting of their confidence and interest.
• Cultural/Other
– In cultural activities, we participated in interschool completion with 10 other special schools at Lucknow (organized by Pyssum day care centre, Lucknow) and our children won the running trophy
– Like always, we celebrated rakshabandhan, Independence Day, janmashtami, teacher’s day, dusshera, Diwali, children’s day, Christmas day, basant panchami and Holi. The children went for Zoo trip on the founder’s day, 23 rd January.

Public awareness/interaction
• Multiple visits from students of different institutions with different motivations:
– Class VII students of St. Mary’s convent school for an interactive session with children to know and understand them.
– Class IX students of St. Mary’s convent school for an interactive session with children to know and understand them.
– Class XII psychology students from DPS Kalyanpur for studying behaviour patterns of challenged children.
– B.A. psychology student from PPN College to study the illnesses and factors causing childhood mental disabilities.
– A P.hD student of psychology Dept (HSS) of IIT, Kanpur also had few interactive sessions with our children for collecting informations regarding their cognitive skills.

Public awareness/interaction
(contd.)
• Visits/interactions with students of different institutions:
– One M.Tech student of mech. Engg. Dept of IIT did a lot of behavioural analysis and experimentation with our children with aim of developing more specific and efficient teaching aids for special children. He is in final stages of preparing the model of one aid that he has designed.
• Our annual craft sale was held this year at DIWALI BAZAR organized by Arpita Mahila Mandal (a local social welfare organization) and the diyas, envelopes, bracelets, pillow covers, wall hangings etc. were greatly appreciated by all.

Public awareness/interaction
(contd.)
• Rotary club organized inter school games for our children. Their effort has started a new and very healthy trend for the special children of Kanpur city.
• Round Table Club sponsored children’s day celebration. The puppet show organized by them was highly appreciated and enjoyed by the children.
• Lions club organized free dental checkup camp for the children and tree plantation day at our school.
• Awareness of needs of special children and our work in the area has become known in the city and from time to time several individuals have come forward with promises of support ( e.g. Mr. Harish Vaswani sponsored Christmas celebration ) .

• For the parents, we organized lecture on “handling problem behaviors” and “acupressure in neuromuscular ailments”.
• Held a one week workshop for parents on “understanding and handling a challenged child”.
• Many parents opted for counseling and meditation sessions this year (they were a little hesitant and resistant to discuss and accept their problems previously).

• A one week orientation lecture series was held for the teachers in April ‘10 apart from regular short discussions and lectures.
• Two of the teacher’s have been selected for the B.Ed (special education) course and are pursuing it.
• We have also recruited mothers of two special children as teachers in our centre and their wards are our beneficiaries.
Inclusion of parents in the teaching team has made the team of our teachers more dedicated and more devoted to the cause.

Besides money, lack of space continued to pose challenges.
1.
Lack of larger space is preventing further admissions.
2.
One-to-one therapy (e.g. for attention deficit issues) is currently not possible due to non-availability of private quiet space.
3.
Currently speech therapy is being conducted in entry area using hospital screen prevents full concentration and hence is suboptimal.
4.
Vocational activities (e.g. kitchen work) besides craft work is not possible.
5.
Recreational activities (e.g. indoor games & activities that children could involve themselves in) is not possible for same reasons.
Attempts to secure larger space were pursued vigorously through the year but nothing has materialized as yet.