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Strides Newsletter - October 2021 - Issue 185

Counseling & Assessments

From Radhika Sasankh's Desk

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Early Intervention and V-Excel Remedial Center

From Lakshmi Sudhakaran's Desk

Navrathri is a festival that is celebrated over nine days. We in EI planned in such a way that our children were engaged in activities related to these nine days. Unlike the decorations that we usually make for the festivals,we decided to make a golu- an arrangement of dolls that the children would bring from their homes.

Every child was asked to bring a doll and also the parents were asked to write why these dolls were special for their children. These slips were then displayed alongwith the dolls.

Another important item of Navrathri is the Dandiya. Though it is practiced in North India, the staff decided to learn it and perform it alongwith the students on the final day. The practice sessions were enjoyable and relaxing for all.

The nine colours of Navarathri were introduced. Every day, the child would come and do finger printing on the chart with the colours assigned for the day and also identify similar colours in the environment. The story on Navarthri was narrated and colouring pages were given. On Vijayadasami day a small pooja was done and the dance performed by the staff and the students.

We are happy and proud to say that we have been able to integrate festivals into our therapy and acitivities to bring in learning in all our children. We have already started planning for Diwali and Christmas and shall be back with more exciting news.

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Kaleidoscope Learning Centre

From Gita Bhalla's Desk

Crawling back to normalcy, after the pandemic was seeming longer, more difficult and extremely slow. In this period, the advent of October came as a breath of fresh air. It was the festive season beckoning us back to life. So, Navratri saw the dolls being laid out in the traditional Golu. The children in the school visited the Golu and sat around while traditional songs were sung.

School was closed from 7th to the 14th of October and on 15th October a small puja was done on the occasion of Vijayadashami.

School reopened with longer hours and a full day for the Junior school as well as for Senior School, on the 18th of October and there was a thrust in the vocations as everyone was preparing for the upcoming participation in “The Marketplace”, a live event of selling indigenous products, in a common place. So, from KLC we began to prepare adult and baby dohars with quilting work, applique and machine stitching and making diyas with wax for the coming Diwali season. Our dohars have been giving a lot of joy to some of our friends. One mother who received our baby dohar had this to say: (Praveena - a friend of V -Excel had bought this baby dohar from our centre...)

Hey Praveena and team V Excel!

The handmade dohar that you all made for Rishi's birthday is beautiful, special, and comfortable. Rishi is a second born and as all second borns do, he only had a lot of things that were purchased for his brother. This blanket is Rishi's own (though Dev may not agree). There is something special about any gift that is handmade, like the gifts Netra and Rudra gave Dev for his birthday. But they are his friends. You all, doing this, giving your time, hard work, love, and blessings for a child born in the middle of a pandemic, a child you have never seen is truly touching. Words cannot adequately express the gratitude I feel in my heart, perhaps if this message was written on a physical paper, you'll see the tear stains.

Once it is safe for all of us to meet, please let us do!

I can't wait to take the kids for the V Excel production of Lion King, again soon.

Thank you, guys!

Diwali was the block in many classes and stories of why Diwali is celebrated in various parts of India was discussed and brought to the students.

The parent group Disha, was re-energised and the first live meeting in two years happened under the leadership of Priya Dandapani our very involved parent volunteer and it was an exciting beginning and encouraging too where parents assembled , were addressed by Dr. Vasudha Prakash and Lakshmi Sudhakaran. Many of our parents participated in this meeting. We hope to revive Disha and see it flourishing once again.

While classes started in right earnest during school hours many students came for individual therapy with Puja at school or at her house. Art therapy for Prasad, Akshay Sundar, Akshay Nathan, continuing of projects on their writing and joy therapy was a big part of October work.

Similarly, a few of the children got external therapy regularly from Neha during the school hours. We are hoping to see more children settled and being helped by these sessions in the future.

Parents of the residential program at CLAPS were addressed by Lakshmi Sudhakaran, with some inputs from Vasudha, looking at a smooth transition, from school to their new premises. We wish the group good luck and assure them of our continued support

Golu in school on October 6th, 2021image
Vijayadashami Pooja on October 15th, 2021image
Dohar embroidery work being done by traineesimage
Candle Diyas made by Traineesimage
Feedback about our Baby Dohar – Rishi and Devimage
Diwali Block in classesimage
Why Diwali is celebrated in various parts of Indiaimage
DISHA meeting on October 2nd, 2021 image
Therapy / Writing at homeimage
Art Therapy at schoolimage
KLC parents of CLAPS meeting with Lakshmiimage
Satellite Centers

From Jayanthi Vishwanath in Nashik

From the October 4, 2021, our Centers began functioning in a regular manner and re-adopted the pre-COVID schedule. All kinds of online classes and Hybrid –model schooling were stopped.

The first term-end evaluation of all the students were done during the first two weeks of October. Many of the students performed very well.

Individual Parent meetings were held and the progress reports were discussed and new IEPs were formulated.

Our Center celebrated Sharadh Navarathri with great zeal and excitement. All the students and staff came dressed in colourful traditional attire. They sang bhajans and Aarti to invoke the blessings of Goddess Durga, played Dandiya- Ras- Garba. The celebration ended with the distribution of a packet of goodies to all the students and staff.

From 18th October, Sports and Music therapy were added to the curriculum.

Our VTU students prepared a Diwali Gift hamper containing 9 items required for Laxmi puja. The Vocational products were displayed in an exhibition organized by Goonj foundation, on account of the Festive Season. Many of our Vocational Products were sold-off during the exhibition.

During the last week of October all the students in our Centers were involved in painting and craft activities like Diya-painting and Paper Lantern-making

Erode

Greetings from all of us at Erode center!

This year we planned to celebrate Navarathri for nine days and then conclude it on October 15th, 2021. The plan was as follows:

• Decorating golu – seven steps and offering sweets everyday
• Student and children together performing dhandia on the last day
• EI children to be engaged in colouring and pasting activities. Everyday one colour to be selected and children to do activities related to that colour.
• Pre vocational students to be engaged in making the decorations and arranging them.

The staff and students were seen busy all through the nine days and the students were happy displaying their work . The students learnt the dadiya steps with so much of enthusiasm that was a surprise for all of us. Overall it was a great experience for all.

Our Coordinator, Ms. Lekshmi Ramesh paid a visit to our center on 21 st October 2021. She had review meetings of students, did new consultations and a general meeting for the staff. She also had a parent meeting and the following points were discussed:

1. The effect of the Pandemic on the emotional well being of the parents and the students
2. The importance of diet and rhythm in the present condition
3. Use of mobiles and screen time-tips to control and channelize students
4. The expectation of parents and the need for trust and motivation
5. The need to have regular support group meetings
6. The general queries and concerns of parents clarified

Abhyasa Kendra, Srirangam

We take pride in announcing that Abhyasa Kendra has completed seven successful years catering to the Special needs children and adults. We have been continuously working on improving the quality of services and also add on to our services. We are very happy that we could provide our trainees and students uninterrupted services during the past one year through online and physical classes, We have fully resumed our physical sessions and production also.

Vocational Training Unit

From Usha Rajagopal's Desk

The month began with a happy news of our trainee Sriram joining Grundfos as an intern for housekeeping followed by celebration of Navarathri for two weeks, field trip in the third week and ended with participating in display and sale of our products at 'The Market Place' - Fika

Trainee Sriram joined Grundfos Pumps Ltd., in the housekeeping department as an Intern. Manivannan was assigned as job coach for two weeks. Sriram had a grooming experience at a Salon before starting work. He was trained to commute this unfamiliar route of about 12 kms by bus.

Navarathri Celebrations

Navarathri celebrations at VTU, Adyar comprised of a 17-step golu set up with dolls with the full involvement of all our trainees and teachers. The dolls were cleaned and the steps decorated. Each step had a particular theme starting from Lord Ganesha followed by Durga, Lakshmi, Krishna, Dasavatharam, Lord Vishnu and Shiva, Rasaleela and many more and with the last step representing Mahabalipuram beach and village.

On Saturday, Oct 9, 2021, our volunteer Ms. Rama and her Bala Vikas students rendered Sai Bhajans and made our trainees sing along. Chandra performed a dance on Lord Krishna and many of V-Excel's unit heads and parents attended the event. Our Founder Trustee Dr. Vasudha Prakash and Excecutive Director Ms. Ajita Panshikar visited and rendered a few beautiful bhajans.

On the occasion of Vijayadashami, on Friday, Oct 15, 2021, Ayudha Puja was performed in the center in which all our trainees and staff participated.

Usha and Charu handed over the stipend of Grundfos to trainee Sarvana Prabu and Chandra for their training in Digitization of Records and Bar Coding Project supported by Grundfos Pumps Pvt. Ltd.,

V-Excel was given an opportunity to participate in the exhibition at The Market Place Chennai at Fika, Adyar on October 30, 2021. VTU products were selected and new products like Jute Block Printed Table Runner and Jute Wine bottle bag was designed with the help of our colleague Aparna Bubna. Teacher and trainees made the products, labelled and packed them for The Market Place, Fika Adyar.

Trainee Sarvana Prabu went with YES Coordinator Gayathri and trainees for an interview to Super Auto Forge Pvt Ltd.,

VTU and YES went on a combined field trip to St. Thomas Mount and Church. All trainees were able to climb the hill in 20 minutes. They visited the church and viewed the runway of the airport from one side. Uma Swaminathan explained about the story of the church and asked questions. It was good experience for both units’ trainees to have interaction and also the teachers.

Trainees and teachers started labelling all the products and packing for the stall for The Market Place Chennai.

V-Excel Stall at The Market Place Chennai, Fika, Adyar on Saturday, October 30, 2021

It was a happy event and good experience participating in the exclusive exhibition after a long time. All the units joined hands and the team work made it very successful. Admin team, YES and VTU were there to setup the stall in the early hours of the day. Each unit had given the slot with one trainee and trainers manning the stall. From VTU Chandra and Saravana Prabu were assigned along with Manivannan. We were the only NGO with an exclusive products as all other were mostly garments and bakers. We had a good response and sale.

Youth Empowerment Services

From Gayathri Suryanarayanan's Desk

With the beginning of the festive season, October 2021 turned out to be a very cheerful and colourful month. We had an array of celebrations at YES with many special occasions falling during the month of October.

Key highlights for the month of October 2021.

• Vocational training activities, Counselling services and OT services at the centre
• Navratri celebrations
• YES anniversary celebrations
• Placements/Internships
• Combined field trip
• Visitors from CLAPS
• Participation in The Market Place at Fika, Chennai
• New admissions
• Production

Vocational training activities

Though we had a lot of celebrations and festival holidays, the vocational training in all the vocations were happening in a seamless manner. Trainees were given opportunities to learn while being part of the production work. They were part of all the celebrations right from the preparation and planning stage.

YES market initiative that was started in the month of September, continued to happen once a week as planned. We saw a few progresses with respect to the objectives of this and we also observed the areas where training and finetuning was needed.

Sreyes farm visit for 5 of our trainees has been going well and has become a part of their learning program.

Counseling services and OT services at the centre

Counselling services and OT services are going on as per schedule.

With more trainees at the centre, OT has a lot of group sessions and need based individual sessions are conducted. This happens weekly twice, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Counselling sessions with the counsellor happens once a week on Mondays. Parents are met based on the needs and trainees are met on rotational basis. Counselling sessions basically focus on behavioral issues and independent living.

Navratri Celebrations

October month, being the month of Dussera or Navratri, YES had a grand golu arranged at the centre. Golu, where decorated idols and dolls are arranged, cheered up the whole centre. YES golu theme was reuse and recycle. Trainees and staff from all the vocations took the challenge and the outcome from each was fantastic. Apart from having 7 steps for all the dolls that trainees brought from their homes, we had thematic arrangements like Mahabalipuram (our first field trip for the year), a village setup, a temple and a chariot and in house made board games. On 15 October 2021, Vijayadasami a day for a new beginning. On this auspicious day, we offered our prayers for a good start post this pandemic and hoping for better days ahead. We had a small pooja and we also had the honor of having our partner Mr. Sudhir Krishnamurthy and Ms. Nalini Sudhir with us that day. We chanted a few shlokas and final arthi was performed.

With each single day with sundal, chanting and visitors, we had a fantabulous Navratri celebration.

YES Anniversary celebrations

11 October is a significant date for YES as it marks the day of inception of YES, 8 years ago. This year we combined that with our Dusshera celebrations. Dr. Indira Jayakumar, Medical Director Apollo Shine Foundation kindly agreed to be our special guest and we also had our Founder Director Dr. Vasudha Prakash as part of the celebrations. Trainees showcased their talents and were well appreciated by the guest. We also had a photo corner.

Placements and internships

Last month has been very good in terms of our placement related activities. 2 of our trainees got into internship with Crowne Plaza, Chennai from 11 October. Gokula Krishnan is part of their Front Office system and Srinidhi in the baking unit. They are under the internship under their training division and are getting paid stipends.

On another attempt to place our trainees in an industrial sector, a prospective employer has been identified. 2 trainees from 2 different units of V-Excel attended the interview on 23 October. Interview went well and there is a great possibility of them being placed in that unit.

Combined field trip

YES unit combined with the other vocational unit, VTU for last month’s field trip. We were totally 31 of us including staff and trainees. We took up a small challenge of climbing those 120 odd steps to reach the hilltop and successfully did that with ease. Our trainees enjoyed the hilltop view and were lucky to see a couple of flights take off from the airport. We then got inside the church and spent a few minutes in complete silence. We had sandwiches in a big hall and enjoyed the breeze for some time. We reached our respective centres for lunch

Visitors from CLAPS

3 parents from the community living group, CLAPS, visited YES to get an idea of a model vocational training centre. It was a great experience to see them trying to understand the setup, schedule and the systems in place and it also felt good to be able to guide people from this community. All 3 of them were in awe with the structured that has been followed here and very appreciative about the products made by our young adults at YES.

Participation in The Market Place @Fika, Chennai

V-Excel participated in the exhibition The Market Place organized by Pehnava at Fika Chennai. From YES we had a whole range of products made exclusively for the V-Excel stall. Right from Idli melagai podi, Millet mix and Laddoos, chocolates, soaps to printed mugs, bottles, painted diyas and stoles we had a good array of products on display for sale. One trainee and a trainer volunteered to man the stall for YES. There was an amazing response for all the products and appreciation for the efforts.

New admission

In the month of October 2021, we had 4 enquiries and 3 new admissions.

Production

Laundry services are going on as usual.

Screenprinting – We completed one set of Madras Collection series with 10 designs in the new format. Kitchen – For Dussera we made snacks and laddoos as offerings, apart from our usual production work. Digital printing – We completed an order of printing 50 mugs for a corporate.