Strides Newsletter || V-Excel Educational Trust

Strides Newsletter - December 2019 - Issue 164

Academy of Teaching Excellence

From Meera Suresh's Desk

Inclusive education classes have been completed successfully. Viva voce exams have been scheduled for the first week of January 2020. Annamalai University exams are scheduled to start from January 5. (4 days). The Viva Voce for the same will be held on 9th January 2020. NIEPMD CRE program was held on 27th & 28th December 2019 and CRE Program was inaugurated by Mrs. Lakshmi Sudhakaran. The CRE Program completing certificates were handed over by Prof. Anand Jagadeesan, Mrs. Ananthanayaki, Dr. T Santhanam and Dr. Suganthi.

Counseling & Assessments

December was a festive month as usual, with Christmas and New Year in sight. Through the month the counselling department met parents, teachers, trainees and the group and individual sessions continued. The Annual Day practice has started and the children have written a play themselves. Counsellors were working with students to create the script.

Individual sessions for art and counselling conducted in the month of December. There were a few new clients and many were follow ups.

Our counsellor visited a firm which is tying up V-Excel for placement and internship of our trainees. A short orientation program was conducted.

Another counsellor also visited a factory in Vandallur where a trainee has been placed. First it was to see the suitability of the place and so as to prepare the trainee and then to orient the staff who will directly work with the trainee about disability and particularly about the trainee. The trainee and parents were also prepared. Counselling dept has chalked out a detailed plan as to prepare, assess the trainees for placement and internship.

We had 4 corporate this month and all the desks were full.

Early Intervention

From Lalitha Sridhar's Desk

Strategies to promote good sleep in young children

A good night’s sleep makes a world of difference to everyone. Promoting good sleep patterns is a wonderful investment for your child and for you. Lack of sleep causes irritability, forgetfulness, anxiety, difficulties with learning and low motivation. If your child’s sleep routine is disrupted return them to a healthy sleep schedule as soon as possible.

Here are some of the strategies to do so:

Swaddling an infant.
Try tight and loose pyjamas to determine which type your child prefers.
Bed tent to block out distractions, light and noise. A small light with a warm glow if your child is afraid of dark.
Neutral colour on the walls.
Dark blinds to cut down light.
Placing mattress on the floor if your child is afraid of heights.
Predictable routine prior to bed time (e.g. Bath, teeth, story, bed).
Reading in a bedtime story in a quiet voice.
Eliminating rough and tumble play prior to bed as this may be over stimulating.
Going to washroom before bed.
Organised room: Clean and uncluttered.

Sleep is critical in promoting children’s growth and development.

Kaleidoscope Learning Centre

From Gita Bhalla's Desk

"Tis the season to be jolly... fa la la Lala la la"! December came ringing in on reindeer sleigh bells and the school turning into the festive colours of green red and white. Year after year the school wears the Christmas spirit in its class rooms, corridors and most importantly in the children's hearts. Humming, singing, putting up trees, decorating, looking for presents under the tree is a child’s ultimate delight, and no matter how old our students get, Christmas remains a time to love bond and be jolly. The week long celebrations included a tiffin times on Christmas theme, a concert for the children and for children of Indradhanu School who came on the day of Tiffin times! We had for the first time a student Santa Claus and we thank Kailash who volunteered and did an excellent job of meeting, greeting and coming on his sleigh! Again as a first time the trainees from VTU performed a small play entitled 'The first day of Christmas'. Presents, thoughtfully chosen by the class teachers were distributed on the day before school closed for the Christmas break.

Earlier in the month the world disability day was the day of expressing solidarity with the community of persons with special needs and we joined the walkathon on the beach and later participated in the beach games and awareness walks organised by Nandavanam another special needs centre.

As a part of the main lesson on letter writing, Senior School students and teachers visited the post office.They bought envelopes and stamps for the students to write letters to whom they chose. Some wrote to their parents, some to their friends, and some to teachers.

Open day was held in the second week of December. Parents attended various activities in the classes and spent time watching their children learn. Each class had a different plan for their parents and activities ranged from painting together and in some classes the parents cooked in the kitchen and then had lunch with the students. Senior school parents accompanied the students and teachers to the Sreyes farm where they spent the whole day. Parents were really happy with their experiences. Some of them wrote:

A feedback from a father "Thanks for exposing us to the fact that our children, when you leave them with nature, they don't need entertainment, engagement, spoon feeding and care giving. Being with the nature is their first love.
Though we became aware of this fact long ago, ever since they are visiting the farm, it was a hands on experience as a parent.
The more simple the farm is, the more better it looks. Very thoughtful of Mr. And Mrs. Rajagopal for making this happen.

Nizhal organisation with Shobha Menon as its head, was approached after a break of two years, and they gave us permission to start farming / gardening in Kotturpuram Park. It was very helpful to Grades 4 and 5 to start and continue their farming work there. We hope to do some meaningful practical work with our children in the coming months.

Mother's Day was celebrated on the 12th of December. . There was a Secret Santa Surprise workshop, where Sowmya Sarathy taught 22 mothers to make beautiful buttons out of waste cloth and stitch it on shopping bags. The workshop was meticulously planned by her and conducted in a warm, cozy, calm and joyful atmosphere for the mothers. They were all very happy and loved the session.

From a mother who participated "Today's class was very relaxing and fun. Enjoyed a lot.... very excited to try it out again. Thanks a lot Sowmya and V-Excel for arranging this..."

School closed for Christmas break for eight days beginning on the 22. We reopen on the 2 of January 2020. From KLC we wish all our readers and friends a stupendous new year.

V-Excel Educational Trust

World Disability Day Celebration

On the eve of World Disability Day 2019, our Vocational Training Unit in Adyar had a different kind of celebration. Our trainees and teachers went to the nearby Adyar Department Stores and served the customers. Our PRO and Vocational Coordinator, Charu Sriram, coordinated with the store owner Mr. Balamurugan who was happy to be part of this day and the community.

Trainees were taken in two batches and allotted various activities inside the shop. Pranav handed over baskets to the customers, Chinmay and Chandra helped in picking items, Prashanth, Saravana Prabu, Adrian,Sriram aided in setting the groceries on the racks. Pon Harish and Adrian also removed items from the shopping carts and placed them for billing. It was amazing experience and one in which our children were able to serve the general public, and acted as advocates for our sector.

We extend our gratitude to Mr. Balamurugan, MD, and staff of Adyar Department Store Shastrinagar.

Field day at VGP Marine Kingdom

Trainees from the Mylapore vocational unit had a great field day at VGP Marine Kingdom on 07 December 2019.

With the weather being perfect for a day out, our trainees enjoyed every bit of the outing. They were excited to see all the marine creatures from a close quarter. It was a different experience for them to walk through the underwater tunnel and to enjoy at the touch pool.

Trainees also had a great learning experience as the guide explained about each of those species and their habitat.

Overall it was a fun day with lots of happy learning.

Picnic at Patilwada Garden Restaurant by students of Nashik center.

An one day picnic was organised for the children of V-Excel Learning Center in Nashik to a garden retreat at the outskirts of the city on the 11th of December 2019. Teachers, staff and students reached by Vans arranged by the school at around 11:00 a.m. On reaching the venue, children were thrilled to see the swings and slides and absolutely overjoyed to see the toy train. They enjoyed the train ride to the fullest. Later, all the kids relished eating the Special meal. They returned safely back to school around 3:00 p.m.

Old & New - A Musical Journey' with Tiffin TImes

Many thanks to SCAN and Vidya Sagar for giving us the opportunity to be part of the musical evening, 'Old & New - A Musical Journey' with our mobile food truck, Tiffin TImes. Evening was filled with music and masti.

It was a great pleasure serving the wonderful audience who had come to enjoy the music and encourage the artistes. Day's menu had Aloo paratha, Kaara paniyaaram, Keerai vada, Bhel puri and Cupcakes with tea. We also had volunteers who helped us in serving the people in wheelchairs.

It was great to see our trainees and the students of Vidya Sagar helping each other.

Tarang in Chennai

The monthly Tarang concert held on Thursday, 26th December at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (BVB) - Mylapore between 2.00 p.m. - 3.00 p.m. featured a vocal concert by Ranjani Sivakumar accompanied by Rangaprivya on Violin, Sunaada Krishna on Mrudangam.

V-Excel Remedial Center

From Lekshmi Ramesh's Desk

Remedial Unit and Bridges Learning Academy

Success Story:
Hariharan of Bridges Learning Academy passed his NIOS Senior Secondary Exams this month with flying colours. Hariharan joined BLA in 2014. He came to us with diffidence, low self-esteem and no clarity about his future plans. He was unable to cope up in a normal schooling system. At BLA we planned to integrate him in the NIOS curriculum to help him pass the Secondary exams. We also worked on his self-esteem and helped him gain confidence in his work and himself. Slowly he began to bloom with the motivation of his teachers. He passed his tenth exams and continued to prepare for the Senior secondary exams. This month he completed the course. Motivation from teachers, congenial atmosphere and hard work in the right dose helped him to achieve this feat. We the members of VRC are proud of him. He is a source of inspiration for children who wish to achieve but do not know how to achieve. BLA is always ready to take up challenges and welcome into its fold many more Hariharans and produce more success stories.

Deepam Celebrations:
Karthigai Deepam was celebrated with lighting lamps and singing songs to give thanks to God for the light and energy that he has bestowed on us. The children were given a talk about the importance of light and why we celebrate the Deepam festival. The children were given Pori Urundai which is a traditional sweet of the people of Tamil Nadu made of puffed rice and jiggery.

Term End Exams:
The students of BLA pre NIOS and Primary sections wrote their second term exams. The evaluation helped the teachers and parents to understand the progress and current level of the children in academics and overall behaviour.

Christmas Celebration:The students participated in the Christmas celebrations with the children of KLC. We also had a celebration on 23rd December. A crib was assembled. Baby Jesus was welcomed with carols. Children made wish lists and posted it on the walls for Santa. They were given small gifts as a token of love and appreciation by the teachers.

Activities:
VRC was part of preparing a new year gift for Donors of V-Excel. The children assembled small pouches of pot pouri. The olfactory senses also need activation to improve perceptions. The fragrance of the dried flowers filled their minds with happiness and the activity helped them to learn team work. The other item was to prepare a set of four serviettes. The plain cloth was printed with designs using blocks. A few selected children from VRC and BLA were taken to "Sreyes", Vocational Training Unit, to use their facility to print on the cloth. The children enjoyed this task. The patience and meticulous work of children was appreciated by one and all.

Plans for the New Year 2020:
The progress of the children and their interest in vocational activities has motivated our team to incorporate more skilled based training for the children. It has been planned to teach children block printing and stencil drawing during this term. We also wish to introduce activities like singing, rhythmic movements. We end this year which has been very fruitful for the team as a whole and welcome the new year with light and energy. Looking forward to a year of learning and development.

Nalandaway

We had our most awaited Christmas celebrations for the month. We did some fun activities for Christmas which the kids really enjoyed. Since the kids were having their half yearly examinations during the last 2 weeks of school, we shuffled their schedules.

Anandam Learning Center

Anandam centre celebrated Christmas in a grand manner. The children decorated the centre to welcome little baby Jesus the guiding spirit of love and energy filled the air.

Satellite Centers

From Jayanthi Vishwanath in Nashik

The month of December was one of the most activity-oriented month for all the 3 centers, located in Nashik.

Various programs were held in different parts of the city to commemorate the World Disability week, Our Center too held 2 programs related to this event.

On December 3rd, being the International Day for the Disabled, a rally was conducted for about an hour, with the students and staff of the school walking on the main roads, and shouting slogans to bring awareness about disabilities.

On 4th December, all the kids were taken to a garden resort on the outskirts of the city, called Patil wada, where they enjoyed taking several rides on the toy-train, playing, dancing to peppy music and ended the day with a sumptuous meal.

On 5th December, our BLA students attended a fun-day event at BIg-Bazaar Super-market . They enjoyed playing games, participated in competitions and went back home with gifts.

On 12th December, a seminar was organized for parents of students on "Financial Planning for the future of your Special child". The seminar was presented by Mr. Shrinivas Kulkarni, a parent of our student with PDD, who had attended this seminar at NIMHANS, Bangalore. It was an interactive session and all parents have been coaxed to plan for the future of their Special child.

On 14th December, about 18 students from our all the 3 Centers participated in a program organized by a NGO "Colours Unseen" They presented an original musical skit, written and directed by our teachers. The theme of the skit depicted that "There is only One God", who is worshiped in different forms in different sects and that we need to Respect all Religions.Our students performed remarkably and exhibited their unseen colours which was not only loved and appreciated by the audience but also altered the way the disabled ones are perceived.

On 21st December, our Nashik Center's Annual Day was celebrated. Altogether 70 children came on stage to perform a 20-scenes musical dram called "Balkrishna Leela". It was a powerful and endearing performance by the children, which lasted for 2 hours. It was lovely to see the children dance in colourful costumes and they received a lot of cheering and ovation from the audience. The chief guest of the program was Mr. Ashish Kulkarni of Shankaracharya Nyas. We are thankful to the Trustees of Shri Gobind Singh Foundation for providing us their state-of-art Auditorium for conducting Annual Day event.(Collage enclosed)

On 23rd December, we celebrated Christmas in the school with Santa Claus walking around the place, showering goodies on the excited kids, who were happily adorning Christmas caps. The place looked festive with lights and a decked up Christmas Tree.

After an exciting and busy month, the center closed for vacation, after Christmas celebration.

From Gopal Jahagirdar in Solapur

3rd December, International Day of Persons with Disabilities was celebrated as sports day at our V-excel Solapur center. The president of 'Aakhil Bhartiya Marwadi Yuva Mandal' inaugurated the event. All the school and vocational students enthusiastically participated in running, musical chair, lemon and spoon race, bucketball and various such games. The President, secretary and other group members distributed prizes to the winners.

On 7th December Sunita Vaidya, Dr. Radhika and Dr. Neha attended Speech and Language workshop held in Pune by Shereen Idiculla (Clinical Director and Trustee of PlayStreet).

On Saturday 21st December, we organised a Workshop on "Oral Motor Development" by Dr. Radhika and Dr. Neha Rathi for parents and teachers. It was helpful for feeding, oral sensory stimulation and speech therapy.

On 21st and 22nd December, Raghavendra Patil participated in The National Workshop at Latur organised by Sanvedana school.

From Abhyasa Kendra - Srirangam

Importance of Parent Counselling in Vocational Training

Parental counselling is an integral part of vocational training programme. Parents of young adults with developmental delay have to adjust to a wide variety of emotional and psychological problems. Parents need support to cope with their own personal inadequacies as well as the needs of their child. Parents go through high level of anxiety, depression, negative parent-child interactions, and insecure attachment of the child, physical abuse and child’s behavioural and emotional problems at home and at school.

Parental Counselling:

Helps parents to accept their child as a "different" rather than a "lesser" person
Empowers parents to provide a supportive environment for their children
Brings about parental responsiveness, settling down of child's diet and rhythm
Helps parents understand child's development and behaviour and to respond appropriately
Helps parents to identify more effective ways of connecting with their child, positive parenting and disciplining
Helps in copying with their inadequacies and learn practical strategies to handle the situations
Helps parents to understand and practice the techniques taught during consultation and to use them in everyday life
Helps the parents find their inner strength and help them communicate without inhibitions.

Professional consultation on stress management is essential for parents to cope with their own feelings and frustrations.

From Erode

The Importance of Hand Dominance

Hand dominance should be established by the age of five in order for a child to function at his/her most efficient level with hand writing tasks, activities of daily living (ADLS), and over all coordination tasks.

The importance of developing a dominant hand

It is important for a child to develop a dominant hand so that he/she can learn how to efficiently perform tasks involving midline crossing and bilateral integration skills. One hand needs to act as a helper to the dominant hand. For example, when cutting a piece of paper, one hand must hold the paper while the other hand cuts with scissors.
Overall in order to develop skilful and proficient hand dexterity, coordination, fine motor control, hand dominance needs to be established.

Activities to facilitate bilateral coordination tasks:

Push a toy car around a track – hold the car with one hand and the track with the other hand.
Screw lids on and off jars or bottles, or assemble nuts and bolts.
Thread beads on a string or use lacing cards with yarn or shoe laces.
Use tracing on paper or even colour on small pieces of paper. The non-dominant hand is to stabilize the paper so that it doesn’t move.
Play with play - dough and cut it into pieces with scissors.

Activities involving one side of the body:

Play 'keep it up' with a balloon: keep a balloon off the ground by hitting it up with only one hand.
Play tennis with an age appropriate tennis racquet.
Play darts, throwing with the dominant hand.

Midline crossing activities:

Play with sand, scooping it from one side of your body and crossing over to pour it onto the other side.
Play Twister, Hockey pokey, Simon says.
Play sorting games (i.e., card games)
Make figure 8 in the sand/on a dry erase board/or with streamers, and trace it with finger or with chalk.

From Tiruneveli

Strategies to regulate auditory – over responsiveness & under responsiveness

For Auditory over responsiveness:

Seat the child away from auditory distractions, such as fans, windows, doors etc…
Seat the child away from classmates who tend to be chatty and noisy.
Use a visual support to aid understanding of instructions E.g., visual work system typed notes on a handout, pictures, keeping instructions on board etc…
Minimize verbal instructions and provide support with visual strategies.
 Prepare the child before entering a noisy environment by placing it on the visual schedule.
Allow the child to listen to music through head phones.
Provide a visual prompt card, help card so the child can request to leave the room when feeling overwhelmed by the noise.
Teach the child a more appropriate way to respond to an unexpected noise:
- Teach the child to cover ears or put ear defenders, earphones on when unexpected noise occurs.
- Teach the child calming strategies to use, when there is an unexpected noise E.g., breathing exercise, deep pressure exercise

For auditory: under responsiveness

Stand beside the child when giving instructions.
Use a visual cue (E.g., placing a colored card on the child’s desk, holding up a visual cue) to gain the child’s attention before giving new work, instructions or directions.
Use a visual support to aid registration of instructions.

From Outreach Centre - Pollachi

It's December and the end of the calendar year, we witnessed annular solar eclipse this year. Children at OutReach Remedial Centre, Pollachi, were sensitized about solar eclipse, as few children enacted about solar eclipse to their fellow classmates using properties. We also celebrated Christmas and New Year with our students, staffs and had a winter break for 3 days.

Vocational Training Unit

From Usha Rajagopal's Desk

The month was special due to special occasions and festivals starting with the an unique celebrations of World Disability Day, Ibrahim’s (oldest trainee) farewell, Nikil’s internship at TEAM Company, Vandalur and Christmas Eve.

Month began with happy news, Ibrahim one of the oldest trainee who is with us for the past 9 years, has got placement at Writer’s Café, Peter’s Road. Placement was initiated by Charu by contacting Mr. Mahadevan directly through mail. It was followed up by the parents directly getting in touch and getting a confirmation. He will begin shortly. Parents met Usha, Charu and Usha Venkatesh and submitted the exit form. We had a farewell and teachers were asked to speak about him. Trainees congratualted him and presented him a handmade best wishes card. It was both happy and emotional moment for all. He is yet to join and parents will inform us the date.

VTU celebrated World Disability Day with a difference. ‘We receive from society but on this special day we wanted to give back’. We organized to take them to the local retail outlet Adyar Departmental Store and serve the customers. Sixteen trainees went in two batches with teachers and helped customers in shopping. The initiative taken by teachers helped them outgrow inhibition in this regard. Trainees were taken in two batches and allotted various activities inside the shop. Pranav handed over baskets to the customers, Chinmay and Chandra helped in picking items, Prashanth, Saravana Prabu, Adrian,Sriram aided in setting the groceries on the racks. Pon Harish and Adrian also removed items from the shopping carts and placed them for billing. It was amazing experience and one in which our children were able to serve the general public, and acted as advocates for our sector.
We extend our gratitude to Mr. Balamurugan, MD, and staff of Adyar Department Store Shastrinagar.

German Donor Mr. Jan Uwe and Lakshmi visited VTU to discuss about support needed by us. Anand, Shanthi and Charu had a detailed discussion with them and have asked us to submit a proposal at the earliest for the year 2020-21.

Orientation for HR and production department at TEAM office, Vandalur by Usha Venkatesh and Charu. Nikil parents also part of it and showed them the work place of his ward. Nikil was made to work for half day. Mr. Swaminathan, CEO, met the parents and assured them of safety and other facilities. The supervisor Mr. Pandian was given orientation about the strengths and challenges of Nikil. Parents were very happy and emotional. Nikil will start from Tuesday, Dec 10, 2019. The internship will be for two days in a week for 3 months.

Trainees were busy making Bhoomi Mitra Bags and CD coasters for Gift Hampers.

They also set the Christmas Tree and Crib.

Some trainees had therapy sessions based on last Thursday schedule which falls on Tarang day.

Arts and Crafts team Margaret, Priya, Shanthi and Jayanthi displayed and sold products at an exhibition organized by Chennai Seva Sadan, Chetpet. This was organized by Margaret.

Charu and Usha met Sriram parent regarding his internship at Blue Lagoon. We also gave an option of a Paatshala at Mayavaram. It was suggested by our counselor Usha Venkatesh. They were very happy for both option. But he will start the internship at Blue Lagoon from 1st week January 2020.

Vocations - All the trainees were busy making CD coasters for gift hampers.

Functional Academics - Training on independent travelling Chandra - number identification, bus route, awareness of route to YES, self introduction and coordination of right and left side.

Prashanth – Random number identification, bus route number, route and landmark on his way home and right and left side of the road.

Gazali – Random identification. He is unaware of bus number to his house. Orientation on how to have right attitude and any type of work is good.

Food truck was stationed at Sreyes and trainees Vishal, Mahesh, Pranav, Sriram and Chandra were busy working on chopping vegetables and master chef.

Vocational Unit trainees made CD coasters for gift hampers.(Collage enclosed)

Christmas celebrations at Sharada. All the trainees and teachers attended the celebration. Trainees performed a skit directed by Neha and Puja for all the KLC students and teachers. It was a very beautiful to watch that our younger adults performing for the students with full of energy and fun.

After the celebrations, we all went to Adyar Poonga near MRC Nagar. It was a beautiful place and had nature walk. There was a guide who spoke about each and every tree and its usage. Trainees enjoyed and walked with ease without any hesitation.

VTU trainees’ farm visit started today. It is a day trip and all the trainees were dropped at Sreyes. The were given some task by teacher Rishi and they were surprised to see them doing all the tasks without any issues.

The trainees who went on farm visit for a day last week, had one night stay program from this week onwards. They all enjoyed and most of them were able to adapt themselves in the new environment.

Youth Empowerment Services

From Rama Nagarajan's Desk

Month of December was filled with moments of joy, cheer and accomplishments.

On 01 December 2019, Vocational coordinator of YES Ms. Gayathri attended a meeting at Sankalp along with Ms. Charumathi Sriram and Mr. Anand Jagadeesan. This meeting was about the proposed product for the products made by persons with special needs. V-Excel is also a part of this project along 4 other institutions for people with special needs. Prime objective of this project is not only to provide livelihood to our young adults with special needs but also to increase the market for the products made by them and for capacity building.

On 06 December 2019, Ms. Gayathri along with the counsellor Ms. Latha Kannan, conducted an orientation program for the staff members of Kocoatrait. This is in accordance with our placement process and it has reached the next level of identifying the trainees and start the internship. The orientation program went very well and the directors of Kocoatrait Mr. Nitin Chordia and Ms. Poonam Chordia have given commitment to support us in all possible ways.

On 07 December 2019, YES trainees had a beautiful day out at Marine Kingdom. This is supposed to be India's largest walk in aquarium. All the trainees were so excited and thrilled to watch so many varieties of marine creatures. The day was also very pleasant and it was fun filled day for them as they could see the underwater wonders from a close quarter.

On 11 December 2019, 2 of our trainees, Balambiga and Vishal Kirthik formally started their internship at Kocoatrait. They were there for couple of hours understanding the process and the work. This gave them the opportunity to get used to the place and the people. They were engaged in sorting the cocoa beans and segregating them based on their size and quality.

On 13 December 2019, Balambiga and Vishal Kirthik started with their actual internship. They had a brief training session on wrapping and packing the chocolate bars by Ms. Poonam Chordia. They could pack about 105 chocolates before lunch. It was a wonderful start for them.

On 14 December 2019, Tiffin Times participated in the Musical evening organised by SCAN in association with Vidya Sagar at Vidya Sagar’s auditorium. Trainees and trainers from YES participated actively for this along the team from VTU. Event was a success despite the unpredictable weather conditions and the efforts were well appreciated.

On 18 December 2019, 20 volunteers from a company called VMware visited YES and spent about 3 hours with our trainees. They split themselves into 4 groups and observed all our vocational activities. They also interacted with the trainees to understand them better. Our trainees explained all the tasks involved in each of the vocation. They were indeed very happy to share their work samples with the guest team. Few from VMware liked our products and bought them. They have also committed to visit our centre on a regular basis henceforth and offer as much as support as possible.

On 19 December 2019, It was a wonderful day for YES staff and trainees as we had the opportunity to host the teams from other special schools and organisations like Sankalp, Arunodhayam, Swaabhiman, Sarva Mangala Vihar Trust to name a few. YES hosted a meeting for the initiative SNEH, a market hub for products made by individuals with special needs. All of them had a tour around YES and were very happy seeing all the trainees actively involved in vocational activities.

On 22nd and 23rd December 2019, 2-day mela was organised at Vidya Sagar. Products from YES were exhibited there for sale along with the products from other V-Excel centres and staff members Mr. Yuvaraj and Ms. Divya took care of the sales on Sunday and Monday respectively. Our mobile food truck Tiffin Times was also part of this mela to cater to people from different stalls, visitors and students at Vidya Sagar. Taste and the choice of dishes made were highly appreciated.

On 26 December 2019, all the products made for the V-Excel gift hampers from YES were duly delivered at Sharada for the packing process on 26 December 2019. We made Planners, Chocolates with boxes (6 pcs.), Millet Dosa Mix, Handmade Soaps with boxes, gift hamper cards and gift envelopes for 100 hampers. Our Arts and Crafts mentor Ms. Girija took extra efforts to design the cards with thumbprints of our children into beautiful bookmarks. Trainees and the trainers thoroughly enjoyed the process.

On 31 December 2019, YES team had a lovely program on new year’s eve to bid farewell to the year 2019 and to welcome the new year 2020. Trainees and trainers of YES had an interesting and entertaining program. Mr. Nitin Chordia from Kocoatrait, Mr. Arun from IHM and Ms. Aruna from Yogadarshini interacted with the trainees and shared their knowledge and experience about employment, social skills and healthy regime respectively. All the 3 sessions were very interactive and all the trainees participated enthusiastically. This was followed by music and dance by the trainees and snacks from Tiffin Times. The day ended with exchange of wishes and greetings for a wonderful new year 2020.

Providing lifespan services to individuals with special needs...