Comprehensive Therapy Programme for children with intellectual disabilities

SAMADHAN works among the resettlement colonies in Dakshinpuri and families from low-income groups in and around Dwarka in New Delhi. Most parents of the beneficiaries are small vendors, housemaids and migrant workers who depend on daily wages for meeting their day-to-day expenses. The first 6 years of the child is the golden period of development and when disability is first diagnosed in children, most parents do not know or refuse to accept that their child might be differently-abled and hence miss out on accessing critical early intervention therapies which leads to irreversible complications for the child. Intellectual disabilities in particular needs regular intervention and counselling. Taking children for their regular therapy to distant government hospitals and therapy centres means losing out on their daily income. Deep-rooted stigma and superstitions stemming from regressive notions push many families into keeping their children in the shadows and instances of domestic abuse against the child and the mother are also quite prevalent, more commonly among the poorer families.

SAMADHAN works within the community, and we have established two affordable, accessible and vibrant quality therapy centres with components for the overall development of children with intellectual disabilities as well as providing counselling to their families. This greatly benefits the families with disabled children to get regular therapy near to their homes where they do not have to carry the child long distances or worry about losing their daily wages while doing so.

The curriculum is individually tailored to suit the varying need of each child. It is not just the service providing model, it also offers counselling support for the families to cope with the challenges of having a child with intellectual disabilities. We provide occupational therapy, speech therapy, psychological interventions, family counselling, special education and pre-vocational training, and guidance on nutrition and diet. We also assist the families in applying to and availing of relevant government schemes, such as the NIRAMAYA health insurance scheme, for the benefit of the child.

SAMADHAN with the help of the donors, provided prosthetic and orthotic devices, home intervention guidance for family members and nutritional supplements during the pandemic.

Children, who would have remained disabled for life, can learn to maximize their physical and intellectual functioning, enabling them to be completely/partially independent. Since our establishment, we have served over 50,000 families and are currently serving over 70 children. Our goal is to increase this number by creating more awareness camps and expanding our services through mobile therapy centres and collaborations with like-minded civil societies for covering more target areas and reach more children.

The children with mild to moderate disabilities are trained to become a part of the mainstream schools. We have trained over 10 children to be part of the mainstream schools. We aim to train at least 5 children a year as a part of our school readiness program.

Training mothers to become partners in our work provides an income for them which leads to greater self-worth, improves their status and changes community perceptions. We hope to establish a strong SHG as well as build the capabilities of the mothers and community women for employment within our organisation as therapy aides and administrative staff.