NOTE TO TRUSTEES
Summary:
Project Name
Organization Name
Organization URL
Project Location
Project URL
Project Contact Information
Chiguru: An inclusive Balwadi
Shristi Special Academy
www.shristi-special-academy.org
Sy. 20, Jettipalya,
Channenahalli, 20th Km,
Off Magadi Road,
Bangalore South Taluk 562130
Telephone No: 28430524
Not Available
Ms. Meena Jain, Founder President
Shristi Special Academy
MIG71, V Main, I Cross, KHB Colony II Stage,
Basaveswarnagar, Bangalore 560079
Email: info@shristi-special-academy.org
Tel: 91-80-3204875/3113419 (Off)
91-80-8430524 (Rural Campus)
91-80-56903544 (Residence)
Project Duration
Project Lead (VIBHA representative)
Number of Children benefited
Amount Funded
Schedule of Payments
June 2005 to May 2006
Rekha Suryanarayana and Rajesh Haridas
25 at present, may grow to 50.
Capital Expense: $4296 (one time),
Recurring Expense: $6544
?
Organization Profile and Background:
Shristi was founded in 1995 by three special educators Meena Jain, Sharon Watts and Suchita
Somashekariah who had a passion for rehabilitating children with special needs. Beyond being a special
school they wanted to be an organization that reached out to the mentally challenged AND their families.
Counseling families to cope with the upbringing of their special children and in dealing with the stigma
associated with mental disabilities is an integral part of Shristi’s mission.
Shristi has grown from just 4 children at its inception to 103 children and 46 staff including therapists,
instructors and support staff in 10 years. Many are unpaid volunteers. Shristi’s values are those of
unconditional acceptance and giving, and a belief that there can be improvement in every mentally
challenged individual regardless of the level of impairment. A holistic approach is adopted that includes
periodic medical screening (ENT, Dental, and General Check up), psychological assessments, nutritional
supplement, rehabilitation training, practical exposure through field trips and family counseling. The
ultimate goal of all their programs is to make each child as self-reliant and socially integrated as possible.
All children regardless of their families’ economic status get the same high-quality care. Shristi reaches out
to the mentally challenged children who come from economically backward families and those from
neglected rural areas. About 50% of the children are from such families.
Services and programs offered by Shristi are:
-
Saathi - Early Intervention program
Dhruti - Vocational rehabilitation center and sheltered workshop
Prayatna - Respite care center for the severely challenged and multiply disabled
Prakruti- Autism intervention unit
Chiguru- An inclusive preschool program (Balwadi) in the rural community.
Shristi offers its services through two campuses, one in Bangalore city and another in rural Jettipalya about
20 kms from Bangalore. The infant stimulation unit and early childhood education are offered in the city.
The rural campus houses the autism unit, the vocational training unit and the new inclusive
preschool, “Chiguru” which is the program addressed in this proposal.
Shristi is held in high esteem by local medical institutions and they frequently get referrals from
NIMHANS (National Institute for Mental Health and Neuro Sciences) and St. John’s Medical College
Hospital.
Shristi shares its expertise in the area of rehabilitating special children through various activities, which
include interaction with other institutions, parent awareness camps and workshops. More details on their
activities are available on their web-site at www.shristi-special-academy.org.
The three founder members of Shristi, Ms. Meena.K.Jain, Mrs. Suchitra Somashekaraiah and Ms. Sharon
Watts, have received numerous awards from state and national institutions for their work in the field of
developmental disabilities. For more details and to see profiles of children who have been helped please
visit their web-site at www.shristi-special-academy.org
Shristi has been funded in the past by several individuals (one of whom donated the land for the rural
campus) and corporations like HP and IFLEX.
Project Proposal:
Title of Project: CHIGURU: A project to enrich the Rural Community through Early Education, Early
Identification of Developmental Disabilities and Early Intervention
Target Group: Infants and preschoolers, ages 2-5, in the villages around Jettipalya where Shristi’s rural
campus is located.
Goal: Two-fold :
- Act as a head start program for rural children to ensure future school achievement comparable to
their urban counterparts.
- Develop a model of inclusive education where developmentally normal and delayed children learn
together.
Brief Description: Chiguru was started with the intention of providing a high quality preschool program
for rural children. The idea is to provide them the same early learning experiences that a child from an
urban or well-off family would get. The intention is also to screen them for developmental disabilities
early and provide remediation if necessary, so that main-streaming to regular schools later would be easy.
The inclusive model ensures that the disabled and typical children learn from each other. The curriculum,
defined by UNICEF, builds language, cognitive, socio-emotional and physical motor skills. Integral to the
curriculum is teaching the children good health and hygiene practices. The children are in school 9 AM to 2
PM and are provided transportation to the school from the villages, as well as breakfast and lunch. The
meals address nutritional deficiencies the children face at home.
Objectives:
- Impart effective preschool training in the rural community, which includes language, cognitive,
socio-emotional and physical development
- Screen children early for developmental disorders like mental retardation, autism and learning
disabilities
-
Provide opportunities for developmentally delayed children to interact with typically developing
peers and learn from them
Sensitize typical children towards the differently-abled
Teaching good health and hygiene practices and encouraging the family to adopt them so as to
increase overall health in the community
Prevent malnourishment and deficiency diseases by providing a variety of nutritious food.
Create awareness in parents through education and skill training.
Unique Features:
- Rural Balwadi, acts as a head-start program
- Early childhood diagnosis and treatment of disabilities offers best chance of recovery.
- Inclusive model
- Currently free, plan to charge fees starting June 2006 to make it sustainable.
- UNICEF program
- Plan to run this as a pilot program for inclusive education and then seek government and other
funding
- Plan to convert the curriculum to Kannada, the local language, so that the learning can be carried
over to the home setting and generalized across other villages.
Monitoring and Evaluation:
- Improvement in the children will be assessed quantitatively through Normative Scales used for
normal Indian children i.e., Bharadwaj, VSMS, Portage, etc. for assessment in areas like writing
and reading skills, social skills such as peer group adjustment, general attitude, etc.
- Qualitative assessment will be done through parents meeting, opinions from village community
through surveys, etc.
Future Scope:
Currently 25 children, including about 7 children with disabilities are part of the program. In 2007, when
additional infrastructure becomes available, the program will grow to 50 children. This is a pilot program
for inclusive education which is expected to be reviewed and modified periodically. The plan is to duplicate
the program across other villages once the pilot program is proved effective.
Component 1
Monthly recurring expenses:
Item
Transport (10 months)
Nutritional (10 months)
Resource Material (10 months)
Celebration expenses
Teacher Salaries (12months)
Total
-
-
Monthly expenses
$58.75
$142
$58.75
$87.5
$114
Annual expenses
$587.5
$1420
$587.5
$875
$1368
$4838
Rationale:
The transportation cost is the running expenses of the school bus which picks up and drops off
children from the surrounding villages
Nutritional: Children get breakfast and lunch followed by milk and fruit
Resource material includes include the following: Pencil boxes with Pencils, eraser, ruler etc;
Paint boxes, chalks, slate pencils, crayons, art and craft materials, playdoh, project books ( these
are very expensive), chart paper, sketch pens, notebooks, color paper, glazed paper, workbooks,
charts, crepe paper, glue, adhesive, scissors, etc
Celebration: This includes sports day, annual day and birthday celebrations for the children. This
has increased a lot from the original budget. What exactly does it include?
Teachers include one general educator, one special educator and one assistant. (Add breakup of
teacher salaries)
Component 2
Quarterly/Annual expenses
Awareness/Parent meetings
Medical/therapeutic
Educational Aids
Picnic
Total
-
-
$200
$262
$700
$116
$1278
Rationale
Parent training and awareness.
Health screening and consultation with specialists in case of disabled children
Educational Aids: This includes books – prewriting and story books, picture books, slates, puzzles,
form boards, pegboards, concept boards such as for shapes and colors, language cards, magnetic
boards, fractions, flash cards, mirrors etc. Much of this equipment is wooden and so is expensive.
Children go on an annual picnic and learn from the experience.
Component 3
Management Expenses
$428
Rationale
Management expense is 7% of the total of components 1 and 2. Chiguru’s component of Shristi’s
overheads like electricity, water, office expenses etc. (Is this explaination correct, in the proposal this is 7%
of the sum of recurring and capital. In my mind, it should be 7% of recurring, right?)
Component 4
Capital expenses
Furniture/lights and fixtures
Play equipment
Audio-Visual equipment
Total
$1505
$1105
$1686
$4296
Rationale
-
These are one time infrastructure related expenses.
The total amount requested is:
- $6544 recurring. (Sum of components 1,2 and 3)
- $4296 Capital. (Component 4)
Concerns:
Trip Report: (If applicable)
Rekha’s visit report:
I visited Shristi in Jan. 2004. I had heard about Shristi from my sister-in-law, whose company IFEX was
funding some building expenses at Shristi’s rural campus. Being a parent of an autistic child myself, I was
curious to see the kind of care and treatment available to such children who were less fortunate than my
own. I was extremely impressed with the level of rehabilitation services provided and the dedication of
everyone at Shristi. They had individualized education plans (IEP’s) for every child, very similar to the
models used here in the U.S. The staff was aware of the latest therapeutic methods and provided physical
therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy. There were adequate support staff to take care of
toileting and personal needs the children had. They had a parent counselor who went and talked to the
families of the mothers who faced problems at home on account of their disabled children. The children all
looked well-adjusted and happy. Most were learning through hands on activities using blocks, puzzleboards, beads and other manipulatives. Some of the older children were helping to serve food at lunch time.
In the vocational training center, every child was busy, some were cutting sheets to make paper and jute
bags, some were decorating cards, some were making candles and hand-made soaps. The autistic children
were in circle time, learning to move their hands and feet to music – a very difficult task for them. Overall,
my impression was that it was a very well run organization.
Rajesh’s visit report:
Final Comments: Schools all across the world, including the US are slowly moving towards inclusive
education. The combination of location and expertise at Chiguru is optimal in implementing an inclusive
education pilot program. Founders are highly respected and extremely dedicated to the cause and have the
expertise to make such a program successful.