Management of Flat Foot in Children with Special Needs :

Flat foot also called as Pes planus or fallen arch, is a postural deformity in which the arch of the foot collapse with entire sole coming in contact with the ground. Flat foot is normal in infants. Till age of 4, the foot arch doesn't develop due to weak muscle tone in foot. As the child starts walking, the ligaments & muscles will strengthen, and the fat will reduce making the arch noticeable.

SYMPTOMS:

1. Pain around arch, heel or ankle & joint pain like in knee, ankle & heel pain.

2. Growing pain or night time leg pain.

3. Tired & easily fatigue leg.

4. Unbalanced gait

5. Poor balance & coordination

6. Limping after long walk.

Home advice:

If foot muscles are weak, then encourage the child to walk on different surfaces like sand, grass, thorough water up & down slopes.

Stretching tight muscles regularly at home.

August has been a rich month with many new beginnings, some strengthening of the old rhythms and a kaleidoscope of activity.

The month started with Vyjanthi Ravindran a friend of V- Excel and a behaviour therapist from the US who visited our centres and looked at individual cases, spoke to parents and teachers . What touched us most was her deep interest in the children , her ability to remain unfazed by any behaviour from the children and her plunging right into the lions den where most people would fear to tread. Thank you Vyjanthi and we look forward to our continued association. Her visit was on the 1 and 2 of August.

15 August saw a touching, beautiful and a unique take on Independence . Old songs filled with patriotic flavour joined new songs equally meaningful. Students performed scenes like the Dandi march of Gandhi Ji. Perhaps the most commendable effort of the school children was to bring out a news paper called The Indian Gazette , which was released by our chief guest Mr. Vasudevan from Equitos. In his sensitive and touching speech he commended the teachers and students for rendering a show which was better than any thing that he had witnessed before.

Two more celebrations-Onam celebrated on a subdued scale this year saw a beautiful pookolam come up in the foyer but the celebrations were restricted due to the current situation in Kerala.

Krishna Jayanthi, celebrated with gusto every year brings new tidings and old . This was a wonderful week at KLC, filled with Krishna in all his manifestations, visitors, fun, happiness, games, songs, pooja and lots of love. The week began with the classrooms transforming into Krishna's abode at various stages of his life, Vrindavan, Dwaraka, incorporating stories from his life.Teachers stayed back late into the evening to get the rooms ready and to draw Krishna's feet all over the building. A peek into it... photos attached - The throne room at Dwaraka where Krishna ruled, Gitaupadesham completely made by teachers of Grade 4.

Tuesday, 28 August, Wind Up Penguin Company visited Sharada and gave a scintillating performance to the students, who were mesmerised, laughing uproariously and enjoying each bit of their performance. This is the 3rd year they are here for us and we were privileged to be singled out by them for their performance.

On Wednesday we had a Cow Pooja in Sharada where Vasanthi aunty performed pooja to Lakshmi (her name) and all the children fed her with Agathi Keerai and bananas.

Krishna came into everybody's class through circle time, main lessons, vocational activities from morning till the end of the day.

Wednesday in the afternoon Senior School celebrated 3 birthdays - Siva, Zubair and Adithya. This was followed by Raksha Bandhan where the girls and teachers tied Rakhi to the boys in class which were made by the girls . In turn the boys who had made chains and hair bands with wooden beads in them gifted it to the girls. These are experiences from Indian culture which give meaning and a sense of coherence to students.

Thursday the students had kadalai maavu scrubbed on their faces, hands and legs like Yashoda did for Krishna. Later we had Krishna's poojai by Vasanthi aunty, songs of Krishna and then Uri Adi for the KLC students.

Sabari, one of our older students came visiting his old classmates and friends and had lunch with them in the afternoon.

Friday was the day of whole of V-Excel celebration of Krishna's coming at Sharada. Vathsala did the poojai and the Uri Adi started for other units - BLA, VRC, YES and VTU, while KLC students watched and cheered them peacefully.

Some of our girls in KLC are being trained in dance by Lakshmi and they gave their first performance in the afternoon of Friday. It was beautiful to watch them move to the song. It’s also been heartening to see the girls actually take pride in their attire and move gracefully and be a part of a shared space .Most of all the experience of being dressed on stage and moving to song and sound.

The biggest highlight of course has been the overnight trips for the senior students who are being trained in the farming vocation. Every Tuesday they leave and every Wednesday evening they return. Besides having to fend for themselves with their ADL's, the boys spend time in the actual work at the farm. Weeding, sowing, watering, harvesting, construction of the cow shed are some of the activity they have been engaged with all under the able supervision of Usha and Mr. Rajagopal. The parents have been really involved and happy with this development.

V-Excel Educational Trust & Grundfos Pumps India Pvt Ltd. together bagged the MCCI CSR Awards 2018 for Project Thozhi - Production and Distribution of low-cost sanitary napkins as a vocational developmental opportunity for persons with special needs. The MCCI CSR Awards recognise high impactful CSR Projects implemented collaboratively by Corporates and NGOs.

We are very proud of our achievement and we thank Grundfos Pumps who have remained a constant pillar of support. This project has empowered our Young Adults with Special Needs to give back to the community. Differently Innovative and Inclusive!

Read more on the link here

V-Excel Educational Trust hosted a graduation ceremony for our young adults with special needs who have been successfully included in the mainstream. These individuals, from our Vocational Training Unit and Youth Empowerment Services, are intellectually or cognitive disabled and have received intensive vocational training based or their abilities. This, in turn, has helped them develop a high degree of self-confidence and independence, which has fostered socially inclusion.

It was an evening of celebration with the parents, staff and trainees at Sandesh Hall, Savera Hotels, Chennai. The event was held on Saturday, August 4, 2018 between 3:30 pm and 6.00 pm. The Graduation Address was delivered by Shri Viji Santhanam, MD Brakes India and Chairman, Sundaram Finance, He also presented the Certificates of Vocational Competence to the graduates. It is an important moment for these trainees who have worked hard to get where they have reached.

Some links to the event
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3

The inauguration of Anandam Learning Center, which is the 10th center of V-Excel was held on Thursday August 9, 2018 at Anandam Old-Age Home, Ambattur, Chennai. The Resource center at Anandam will provide remedial servcies for around 47 school going children coming from low-income families from rural and semi-urban areas who have been assessed with Learning Difficulties. These students are part of a larger group of economically disadvantaged children in the area. These students are provided after school supplementary education by the senior citizens residing at Anandam Home.

For the third consecutive year, our Blue Blue Sky Choir was invited to perform for the Svatantra, an annual musical festival yesterday at Youth Hostel, Indirangar. Despite the rain, the choir performed with earnestness, joy and love in the spirit of inner freedom.

India's 72nd Independence Day 2018 was celebrated by the students, trainees, teachers and staff with full enthusiasm at our centers in Adyar and R.A. Puram. Shri P.N. Vasudevan, CEO & MD, Equitas Small Finance Bank was the Chief Guest hoisted the flag at both the centers. Students, trainees, teachers, staff of all the units rendered songs, movement and brought in the mood of freedom with their own local newspaper.

At the Independence Day celebration of our Nashik branch, the National flag was hoisted at 8am by Mr. Rajesh Bora, a philanthropist who works for several social organizations in the city. He is the secretary of Goonj Foundation, Trustee of Vaatsalya Old-age home and a prominent member of Jain Social group. For the first time, a group of children gave a performance with Lezims. Several enthusiastic parents dressed up their kids like Freedom fighters and other prominent personalities like Mother Teresa. It was an enjoyable and learning experience for the children.

At our Solapur centre, the flag hoisting was done by Mr. Vaibhav Homkar, President, Rotary Club of Solapur east, Mrs Dr. Sarika Homkar, Mr. Manoj Chavan, Secretary, Rotary Club of Solapur East, Dr. Galgali & Mrs. Galgali, members of Rotary Club. Round table group Secretary and other members, teachers and parents were present for the ceremony.

Our young trainees from both our V-Excel Centre at Adyar and Mylapore attended 'Idhyaganam' Musical Program organized by Rotary Club of Madras East on Wednesday August 22, 2018 at Vani Mahal. This is an unique program where the club members invite all the organizations supported by them and entertain the participants with music, dinner and gifts. All our trainees enjoyed the fun packed event for the 3rd consecutive year. Thanks to Mr. Sudhir of Rotary Club of Madras East and all the other members for organizing such a show.

Onam is the biggest and the most important festival of the state of Kerala. It is a harvest festival and is celebrated with joy and enthusiasm all over the state by people of all communities. According to a popular legend, the festival is celebrated to welcome King Mahabali, whose spirit is said to visit Kerala at the time of Onam. Onam is celebrated in the beginning of the month of Chingam, the first month of Malayalam Calendar (Kollavarsham). This corresponds with the month of August-September according to Gregorian Calendar. Onam was celebrated on a subdued scale this year saw a beautiful pookolam come up in the foyer but the celebrations were restricted due to the current situation in Kerala.

At the Tarang on Aug 27, 2018, Uthara Unnikrishnan, the child artist captured the hearts of all present with her enthralling performance and towards the end sang the National Award winning song “Azhage” from the movie Saivam which was soulful to the ears. Uthara Unnikrishnan is the daughter of Carnatic classical singer P. Unni Krishnan and Bharatanatyam dancer Priya Unnikrishnan. Uthara began learning Carnatic music at the age of six from Sudha Raja. She is a sixth-grade student of Lady Andal, Chetpet. Apart from Tamil music, she enjoys Western classical music and wants to master both genres.

KLC students experienced an amazing performance by the students of Wind-Up Penguin Theatre Company , London UK on Tuesday, Aug 28, 2018 at our premises. They create professional-standard original musical theatre performances, which they then perform to underprivileged children in hospitals, schools, orphanages, and special needs centres in developing countries.

The group was led by Issy (actor/violin), and with her will be Ed (clarinet player), Bianca (harp player), Frank (French horn player), Zoe (actor), and Lottie (actor). The six of them are devising a new wordless music - theatre play for children of all abilities.

This was the third year that we experienced the amazing performance by the group. All the students from kindergarten to the higher grades had huge smiles throughout the performance and enjoyed it thoroughly. The actors individually kept the whole group occupied with movements, actions and singing. It was an invigorating 100 minutes of pure happiness for the children and adults.

Thank you to all the performers and Wind-Up Penguin Theatre Company.

We have nine children coming for the morning sessions. They are given two hours of remedials and also play therapy according to their need. We are happy to announce that Mr. Senthil has joined as the Therapy Co-ordinator for V-Excel Remedial Center. He has been working in Early Intervention for some time. He will be taking care of our projects and VRC, under the guidance of Ms. Lalitha Sridhar.

The Anandam Learning Center inauguration went on well with many members of V-Excel attending it. The center has started functioning with 28 children, who have been assessed by us and the intervention is being done by six teachers who are being trained by us and supervised by a senior special educator in their premises.

There was a panel discussion organized by Teach for India and VRC unit head was a panelist. It was a good platform for exchanging views about special education and also the current education scenario.

Independence day was celebrated as usual by engaging the children in various activities that would bring an understanding of the significance of the day.

The trainees from our ATE courses are being accommodated in BLA, VRC and the Neev schools. As decided, we had our in-service training on the third Saturday. We also have planned for training sessions for the Anandam teachers on every Saturday. We did valaikappu ceremony for Ms. Kalpana, our administrative staff. We also celebrated the birthdays of our team members by presenting mugs, designed by the team and made by VTU.

From Bridges Learning Academy:

August was a hectic month with activities and celebrations.

NIOS: Portions for NIOS were completed in phases. Exam preparations, revision test for Hari is in progress. Model classes were conducted in SPASTN and our students attended it.

Pre-NIOS: Syllabus for the month of August is completed. Emphasis was given to time and money concepts. Topics like 'My Body' and 'Transportation' were also dealt with.

Primary: Wildlife was the concept of August. Poems based on this were taught for this month. Number Reading, after numbers were taught for this month.

Independence Day celebration was highlighted by colouring and Art work of the students of BLA. A short speech was given by Monica. A quiz on Independence Day was conducted. Tamilvani explained about Independence Day. Life skills and pre-vocational skills were taught for the pre-NIOS and primary children.

Festival season of the year began with music and movement. The children were taught new Patriotic songs and bhajans by the Music teacher. Few children were taught to perform an unique dance movement with Lezims , an instrument with jingling cymbals.This dance is named after a wooden idiophone to which thin metal discs are fitted which produce a jingling sound and the dancers use this while dancing. Dholki, a drum instrument is used as the main percussion music. It is performed dressed in colourful costumes. The dance is frequently used as a fitness drill by schools in Maharashtra, militias and other institutions because it involves many calisthenic moves and can be quite strenuous. Lezim is more of a vigorous physical exercise and drill than a dance; the formations can be in twos, fours and even in a circle. Historically, there were a few variations of the lezim practiced in the villages of Maharashtra. ( Photo enclosed)

The National Independence Day was celebrated with much fervor at our Nashik Center. This is a day to remember the people who fought the Britishers and gave up their lives to free the country from a foreign ruler. India's freedom struggle was a hard-fought one and Independence Day is the day to pledge and to protect the unity and integrity of our country. The National flag was hoisted at 8 a.m. by Mr. Rajesh Bora, a philanthropist who works for several social organizations in the city. He is the secretary of Goonj Foundation, Trustee of Vaatsalya Old-age home and a prominent member of Jain Social group. A group of children welcomed the guests with Lezim dance. Few enthusiastic parents dressed up their kids like Freedom fighters and other prominent personalities like Mother Teresa. It was an enjoyable and learning experience for the children.Several patriotic songs were rendered in group and solo and sweets were distributed to all to celebrate Independence Day.

The preparation for Raksha Bandhan celebration began a week before the actual festival. During the extra-curricular activity hours, the students and teachers made raakhis with different materials like pearls, rudraksh and colourful threads. The festival of Raksha Bandhan or the 'bond of protection' is all about the love between brothers and sisters. On this occasion, the girls put a tilak on the boys' forehead and tied a rakhi around their wrist. The boys in turn presented the girls with gifts.

From Gopal Jahagirdar in Solapur

1. On 10th Aug. Mrs. Mohini Rathi and Inner Wheel Club members visited to our center. She gave a donation of Rs. 2,500 for a bench.

2. We celebrated Independance Day Program at our school in the presence of Rotary Club president Mr. Vaibhav Homakar, Dr. Mrs. Homkar, Secretary Mr. Manoj Chavan, Dr. & Mrs. Galgali and Round Table Group Members. We explained our work, our needs, and requested help.

3. Round Table Group came with Neha Rathi. They distributed teaching material and stationery iteams to our children.

4. With reference from Amruta Kadadi, Mr. Prakash Wale and Mr. Rajashekhar Shivdare, President of Market Yard Association, Director of Siddheshwar Bank visited our center and Advocate Sankh presented them a standing frame.

5. Met Dr. Sampada Anvekar (Neuropsychiatrist) and Dr. Kundan Kambale (Psychiatrist). Both visited our center and I explained our work. Dr. Sampada is interested in referring children who are her patients and Dr. Kundan was interested in suggesting our parents for medicine.

6. Last month there was a training program by special Olympics and IKEA foundation Young Athletes. Suresh Yemul attended that. They will give a kit according to that activity and will help us train our children.

7. We celebrated Nagpanchami, Rakshabandhan in our center.

From Abhyasa Kendra - Srirangam

Spastic Society of Tiruchirappalli Students had visited our Srirangam units accompanied by, Mrs. Vasuki who is the Coordinator and Ms. Susan Deputy coordinator visited our both training and production unit, they were interacting with our staff and trainees in both units. They had given the feedback that first time they have seen an exclusive Vocational unit which provides fulltime employment for the special needs with intellectual problems. They were very excited to see our trainees working independently on each activity in the production unit.

The students of Spastic Trichy were given orientation on Vocational training that we provide in our Vocational training unit. Process and procedures we follow right from admission to transition of the trainee from training unit to production unit. Services we provide for them to become fully abled for employment in our production unit or open employment.

From Outreach Centre - Pollachi

Clay modeling for students

Clay was sourced from natural environment, processed and was used for therapy. Clay modeling was introduced to our students this month to develop their hand and eye co-ordination as they pound, pat and push the clay into shapes and objects. Students were given clay to manipulate and express their thoughts and ideas by molding the clay of their imagination. Clay therapy helped students to perform sensorimotor actions effectively by using their sense of touch, sight and smell. It helped in building strength to arms, wrists and fingers. The children learned to recognize his tastes, interests and concentrates in his thoughts and actions. They appreciated the similarities and differences between other students. Clay therapy helped the children to make choices, decisions, take responsibility and developed independence. It improved fine motor skills and finger dexterity by manipulating the clay. Above all, the students felt that working with clay is very calming.

Balancing and motor memory activity

To improve childrens' body balance and motor memory a play based activity was introduced to our students this month. This activity is carried out as a challenge to students for their body balancing, coordination, auditory discrimination, jumping motor planning and motor memory. This activity helped students to increase their body balancing skills and leg and eye co-ordination. This motor movement activity helped children to increase their motor planning and motor memory skills. As the child has to listen to the command of the tutor and hit the colors this activity helped them to activate their cognitive and psychomotor domain.

The month of August was a very "Happening" one at VTU Sreyes. It began with a bang with the MCC (Madras Chamber of Commerce) award function at ITC Grand Chola where the work in our Sanitary napkin unit was recognised as a productive CSR initiative with Grundfos. We received a citation and a cheque.

This was closely followed by a visit by Mrs. Vyjayanthi Ravindran - Behaviour Therapist from US who observed the trainees at VTU. Based on her observation of the trainees at Sreyas and other centers, a workshop was conducted at Sharada for the teachers and other staff of V-Excel. 3 teachers participated in the above workshop . Mrs. Vyjayanthi suggested remedial measures and gave demonstration as to how to deal with the students in a better manner.

The Graduation Day celebrations at Savera was a very special event. Trainees who had been part of programs at VTU Sreyes, YES, and had moved on to be employed in various organisations or in set up run by special parents, were awarded certificates and citation. The event showcased the capabilities and potential of the differently abled and set a new standard to aim for. It was a day which saw parents eyes turn moist with pride and happiness.

As part of the Svatantra - a national festival of performing arts, held at the Youth Hostel, Indira Nagar, for the 4th consecutive year, the Blue blue sky choir gave an amazing performance on the eve of the Independence Day at 6 p.m. 3 trainees from VTU unit were part of the BBS Choir. It was a great moment for the teachers, students and the parents, who were present.

A Field trip to farm which was organised for all the trainees and the teachers of VTU to the Sreyes Farm, turned out to be a memorable one for all. Everyone took part in the tree plantation activities with joy. It was a thrilling experience for the trainees to take bath from the motor pump placed in the open fields. The field trip to the farm was also equally enjoyed by the teachers as each group of teachers were engaged in the planting of various varieties of mango, coconut trees and flowering plants.

Two trainees from the Unit go every week to the Sreyes Farm. The farm is a facility developed by V-Excel's associate, ESVI Sarada Foundation for providing a farming experience and opportunities for training towards independent living skills. Digging, seeding, planting, watering, preparations for promoting growth and for addressing pests, are done by the trainees. Harvesting of okra, long beans and washing of vegetables were the activities carried out by them. It turned out to be quite a good experience for all the trainees and teachers.

Teachers and trainees from VTU Sreyes attended the Krishna Janmashtami celebrations at Sharada in the morning. They thoroughly had fun in the celebrations mostly during breaking of dahi handi.

About 15 trainees accompanied by 2 teachers, Manivannan and Deepa attended the Idhaya Ganam musical programme organised by the Rotary Club Of Madras East in the evening at Vani Mahal Hall, T.Nagar. They enjoyed the songs rendered by the singers. They enjoyed the snacks and dinner provided by the host.

The Independence Day was celebrated at Sreyes with great enthusiasm and respect.The function started at 8 am. on the lawn with the flag hoisting by the Chief guest, Mr. P.Vasudevan. Vande Mataram song rendered beautifully by a 4 year old child from the Early Intervention Unit was the highlight of the day. The Chief guest, Mr. P.Vasudevan, CEO, Equitas Small Finance Bank ,in his speech ,urged all to make our country a better place to live in peace by helping others and abstaining from doing anything to hurt others. The celebration continued with patriotic songs by the Early Intervention Unit staff, VTU trainees and teachers. A YES trainee through his speech on “Unity in diversity” expressed his sentiments and aspirations for the country. The program ended with National Anthem song and Goodie bags were distributed to all.

For Onam festival, a beautiful rangoli was made by the trainees and teachers by using flowers, leaves and rangoli colours. The Tarang concert at BVB, Mylapore on the last Thursday was well attended. Ms. Uthara Unnikrishnan's rendition of songs were beautiful, especially the "Azhagu" song touched the hearts of everyone.

The Vocational activities were in full swing during this month. The highlights of production and delivery were:

5000 sanitary napkins for Rotary Carnatic for distribution in flood hit Kerala

325. File folders for the participants of the Wheel chair Marathon

150 thamboolam bags with bead work were made for a wedding

An assortment of bags were made for an event organised by Special World, a forum of special parents

30 Bhoomi Mitra bags

Apart from this, gift hampers were put together for the graduation program, Tarang, Independence Day.

The counsellor S Surya Rekha and Radhika continue their work with the group of trainees as well as teachers and parents. 2 interns from BALM ( counselling ) come to VTU twice a week. They work with the trainees and even do activities with them to create a connection and set foundation to work with them later.

New trainees were assessed by the Therapists attached to the EI unit for planning interventions. The automobile garage program is going on. Deepa, attended all the session of the training by Gita Mam for the new staff of V -Excel. She finds it quite informative and useful. A new skilled trainer, Ms.Ambika joined the tailoring division at VTU.

On 1st August we had a new admission for YES.

The month started on a cheerful mood as arrangements and planning for the Graduation day were in full swing.

On 3rd August, the certificates and citations for all the graduates got printed at YES. On 4th August, we celebrated our Graduation ceremony for 18 trainees at Hotel Savera, of which 9 trainees were from YES. The event was a grand success and was an emotional moment for all.

Mrs. Shalini conducted a soap making workshop for selected trainers on 7th August.

On 9th August, video shooting happened for our Spice Space to be covered in Mylapore times.

40 packets of coffee and tea packets were sold to Nivesh Foundation.

We took up many printing orders like printing visiting cards, receipt books and letterheads apart for photocopying and scanning orders. We also undertook external orders like bibs printing and brochure printing

On 14th August we had Mrs. Poonam Chordia coming from Cocoatrait to give training in roasting and peeling cocoa pods.

On 15th August, for the Independence Day celebrations held at VTU, Sreyes, few trainees from YES rendered a patriotic song and got a good round of applause. Samyukth from YES spoke about Unity in Diversity, which was well appreciated.

On 18th August, all the trainees from YES unit went for a day's field trip to Sreyes farm. They were actively involved in all the farm activities. They collectively planted few plant saplings in the farm. They were also involved in other activities like cleaning, preparing and applying manure, building trellis for climbers and painting name boards. All the trainees thoroughly enjoyed the outing as it gave them a great experience and exposure.

On 21st we had a new trainee joining YES. With this our number of trainees has gone to 36.

On Wednesday, 22nd of August, around 25 trainees from our unit attended the program 'Idhayagaanam' organised by the Rotary club. Trainers accompanied them and made sure they were comfortable and had good fun as well. They were not only treated with music and dance but also with yummy snacks and a full-fledged dinner.

From Friday, 24th of August, Vedant, a volunteer from BALM started his voluntary services in YES.<

During this month we undertook many external orders like bib printing, brochure printing and mug printing along with many regular internal orders like printing visiting cards, letterheads, spiral binding, photocopying and ID cards.

Laundry unit was doing a great work as always with regular support from all the internal and external customers.

Our kitchen unit was busy with standardising the quality of all the products of Spice Space. They also started experimenting different flavours and moulds in chocolate making.

From 29th August, our trainee Deepa, started her internship at our Head office.

On 31st August, ten of our trainees with two staff, started their overnight trip to Sreyes farm around 12.30 pm. Every alternate Friday and Saturday, a group of ten trainees will visit Sreyes farm for their overnight stay programme. They are involved in different farm activities, which are very therapeutic and gives them a very good learning experience.