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Strides Newsletter - December 2021 - Issue 187

Counseling & Assessments

From Radhika Sasankh's Desk

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Early Intervention and V-Excel Remedial Center

From Lakshmi Sudhakaran's Desk

Christmas

We decided that we would like to celebrate Christmas and English New Year with the children, which are festivals that are celebrated in December, the last month of the year.

To decorate we cut festive items like Christmas tree, star Santa Claus, gift items etc. on paper and planned to make them into big poses by writing small little texts in them. Then we finished doing them as small works in the classes.

A week before Christmas we set up a Christmas hut with the kids involved in this. We decorated the little figurines with the kids and decorated the rooms with colored lanterns so that the whole area had a Christmas kolam.

We drew a picture of Santa Claus on a big board and painted children on it and displayed them.

Then we mounted the bulbs on a big Christmas star and lit them up. The children were very happy to see all this and they got to know how to worship.

We planned to give Christmas presents to all the children. Gift was given to the children on the eve of Christmas so that they could have more fun and they learnt about Christmas and the cultures associated with it.

வருடத்தின் இறுதி மாதமான டிசம்பர் மாதத்தில் கொண்டாடப்படும் பண்டிகைகளான கிறிஸ்துமஸ் பண்டிகை மற்றும் ஆங்கில புத்தாண்டு விழாக்களை குழந்தைகளுடன் கொண்டாடலாம் என்று ஆலோசித்து முடிவு செய்தோம்.

பண்டிகையை அலங்காரம் செய்வதற்கு அந்த பண்டிகை சார்ந்த பொருள்களான கிறிஸ்துமஸ் மரம், நட்சத்திரம் கிறிஸ்துமஸ் தாத்தா, கிப்ட் பொருட்கள் போன்றவற்றை காகிதத்தில் கத்தரித்து அவற்றில் சிறிய சிறிய நூல்களை கூற்று அவற்றை ஒரு பெரிய தோரணங்கள் ஆக செய்ய திட்டமிட்டோம் பின்பு அவற்றை குழந்தைகளின் வகுப்புகளில் சிறுசிறு வேலைகளாக அவற்றை செய்து முடித்தோம்.

கிறிஸ்துமஸ் பண்டிகைக்கு ஒரு வாரத்திற்கு முன்னரே குழந்தைகளை வைத்து கிறிஸ்துமஸ் குடிலை உருவாக்கினோம் அதில் குழந்தைகளை கொண்டு அதில் சிறுசிறு உருவ பொம்மைகளை அலங்கரித்து அதில் வண்ணத் தோரணங்கள் வண்ண விளக்குகள் கொண்டு அலங்கரித்தோம் அந்தப் பகுதியில் உள்ள அறைகளில் வண்ணத் தோரணங்களை கட்டினோம் இதனால் அந்த பகுதி முழுவதும் ஒரு கிறிஸ்துமஸ் கோலம் கொண்டது

பெரிய பலகைகளில் கிறிஸ்துமஸ் தாத்தா மற்றும் கிறிஸ்துமஸ் வரைபடத்தை வரைந்து அதில் குழந்தைகளை வண்ணமிட செய்து அவற்றை காட்சி படுத்தினோம்.

பின் ஒரு பெரிய கிறிஸ்மஸ் நட்சத்திரத்தில் விளக்கை பொருத்தி அவற்றை ஒளிரச் செய்தோம் இவை அனைத்தையும் கண்ட குழந்தைகள் மிகவும் சந்தோஷமாகவும் பண்டிகை சார்ந்த வழிபாடுகளையும் குழந்தைகள் அறிந்து கொண்டார்கள் கிறிஸ்மஸ் பண்டிகை என்பதால் அதை சார்ந்த பயிற்சிகள் வண்ணம் தீட்டுதல் எண்களை இணைத்தல் விடுபட்ட இடத்தில் பெயர்களை எழுதுதல் கிறிஸ்துமஸ் சார்த்த பொருள்களை வட்டமிடுதல் போன்ற விளையாட்டுகளையும் பயிற்சிகளையும் செய்ய சொல்லி ஊக்குவித்தும் மற்றும் கிறிஸ்மஸ் கதைகளையும் சொல்லிகொடுத்ததோம்.

கிறிஸ்துமஸ் பண்டிகைக்கு கிறிஸ்துமஸ் தாத்தா எப்படி அனைத்து குழந்தைகளுக்கும் பரிசுப் பொருட்களை வழங்குவாரோ அதேபோல் குழந்தைகளுக்கு கிறிஸ்துமஸ் பண்டிகையில் ஒரு பரிசுப் பொருளை வழங்கலாம் என்று திட்டமிட்டு ஒவ்வொரு குழந்தைகளுக்கும் கிறிஸ்துமஸ் முந்தைய நாள் அன்று பரிசுகளை வழங்கினோம் இதனால் குழந்தைகள் மேலும் சந்தோஷமாக இருந்தார்கள் இதன் மூலம் குழந்தைகள் கிறிஸ்துமஸ் பண்டிகையும் அதை சார்ந்த பண்பாடுகளையும் கற்றுக்கொண்டார்கள்.

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Kaleidoscope Learning Centre

From Gita Bhalla's Desk

December began on a festive note. It was International Day of Persons with disabilities on the 3rd of December and a special Tarang Fundraising Musical Event was organised by Usha Suresh, for our well-wishers in the US on the 3rd evening and here on 4th morning. It was a beautiful program enjoyed by everyone.

V -Excel celebrates 20 years as our readers and friends would have gathered. So our Sing - Along evening of music called Tumbaka - Tumba was held on 4th December evening and it was a stupendous success despite the rain, water logging and the uncertainty of the days. Anil Srinivasan and Vedanth Bharadwaj who collaborated with the Blue Blue Sky Choir engaged the children and adults alike. Vasudha and our dear friend Sudeep added to the colour, flavour and rhythm of the evening with their selection of children’s songs! It was indeed an enjoyable experience and the whole auditorium of Olcott School came alive with the songs sung by the Blue Blue Sky Choir. The most exciting addition was the inclusion of Chinmay, our alumni who is now in Bangalore. Grateful to his father who got him to Chennai for this event and he was an integral part of the program. He surprised us all by standing up tall and straight and singing a solo heart-rending version of "Hey Jude".

Christmas came with all its colours to KLC and to the center at Sharada. An advent was arranged in KLC and every person in the building participated in the journey of going inwards within themselves. Christmas Carols and songs were sung while everyone walked the spiral and left a lit lamp on this journey.

The corridors of the second floor came alive with Christmas decorations and the children were delighted in decorating the Christmas tree in the foyer. Santa visited and presents were exchanged in classes. The sound of Christmas carols reverberated through the KLC floor for the last few weeks.

Our Stitching vocation got a tremendous boost as we were requested to make dohars and play mats for a few of our friends. Creative juices contributed to the making of nearly eight dohars in the month of December and the most exciting part was that the dohars got sold even before they could make their way to the website. The three customised dohars are featured below and they have received rave reviews. We request our patrons and friends to look for gifts for children and new borns and continue to give us your special requests. We are especially proud of our guiding coaches Vasanthi, Latha and Shashi and our young stitching and hand work brigade Prasad, Rekha, Akshay Sunder, Salman, Sandhya and Hanish.

One of our friends who ordered the Kitty play mat had this to say of our product...

"It's too too cute and beautiful. Amazing work. ❤️❤️❤️❤️ thank you. And the personalized note- such a lovely thought. God bless ya."

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Tumbak-a-Tumbaimage
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Chinmay with the a few teachers of BBS choir image
Christmas giftsimage
Advent spiralimage
Christmas tree in the foyerimage
Exchanging presentsimage
Santa visits and distributes gifts to different classesimage
The KLC corridor dressed for Christmas.image
Dohars and play mats image
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Satellite Centers

From Jayanthi Vishwanath in Nashik

This month has been very busy and exciting for the Nashik Center. To commemorate the World Disability Day, our teachers decided to carry out advocacy related to inclusion of children with special needs. To fulfil this, different teachers followed different methods of campaigning.

Various competitions and games were organized for the students in the school to commemorate the World Disabilities Day.

Our counselor Mrs Pradnya Apte and teachers Ms. Bhagyashree Dalvi and Ms. Vaishali Sonawane carried out awareness programs in their respective housing societies and many women living there attended the meeting.

Our teachers Ms. Tanmai, Ms.Suvarna, Ms.Prerna, Ms.Vaishali Dhomse gathered the children living in their society and addressed to them about disabilities in general and presented several ideas to the kids about how they could make some difference in the lives of special children.

Ms. Swati, Ms. Nilisha, Ms. Varsha rani and Ms. Sandhya Thorat addressed some older children, living in their respective housing societies about the importance of including students with Special needs, in games, other activities and celebrations that take place in their school and their society premises.

Ms. Aditi, Ms. Komal and Ms. Flavia visited J.D.C. Bytco English medium schools and addressed the Class 4 students about different types of disabilities, the difficulties these children face and what kind of help they needed. The teachers of the school were present too.

On 24th 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 decorated Christmas Tree.

Our Music therapist Ms, Swara sang Christmas carols.

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

Erode

Greetings from all of us at Erode center!

As we step into the year 2022, looking back at how we have sailed through the journey, there are many things that we achieved and some we are still struggling. But each one of us have tried to do our best for our children and made a change in them during this pandemic.

In the same note, this month our pre vocational students learnt how to make lemon tea. This was done through the following steps:

1. Visual charts were made to familiarize them with the materials needed, procedure and the safety measures.
2. The children were made to practice making Lemon tea.
3. The students were very excited to learn this and also tried this at home.

This month, elaborare plans were made to celebrate Christmas. Christmas is always special for children as it involves songs, fun and gifts. The children were given colouring and activity sheets related to the festival. A small crib and Christmas tree were made and decorated by the staff and children. Small carols were taught to the children.

Training the children with ADL's has always been a challenge for the parents, so we decided to train them in the center little differently.Every child was asked to bring the necessary things for brushing and bathing. Through different songs and actions the teachers stressed on the importance to follow the routine. We are sure our students will definitely practice at home.

Wishing you all a very happy New Year.

Solapur

On December 3rd, we celebrated World Disability Day at the Solapur unit. We conducted various sports activities for the children. Every student participated very enthusiastically.

On December 15th, the term-end evaluation of all the students were done during the last two weeks of December. Many of the students performed very well. Individual parent meetings were held, the progress reports were discussed and new IEPs were formulated.

From December 20th onwards, we conducted online teachers training program every Monday and Wednesday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. by Indrani Basu from Action for Autism. It will continue till January 20th, 2022. All teachers who attended were from the center.

Abhyasa Kendra, Srirangam

The annual International Day of Persons with Disabilities, held on December 3 every year commemorates the human rights of persons with disabilities. The theme for this year's International Day of Persons with Disabilities is "Empowering persons with disabilities and ensuring inclusiveness and equality."

We also celebrated this day in our Srirangam Center in a simple manner. We all know that it is through acceptance and acknowledgement of these adults in the society that we can bring in equality. As a first step, we planned an awareness program for our parents. This was to educate the parents about their wards and also to give them an insight into the Vocational Assessment and the IEP for Persons with Disabilities. Ms. R. Rekha, our Co Ordinator spoke on Generic Skills briefing on Personal skills, communication skills, social behaviour, Functional academics, safety skills, domestic behavior, mobility and hand functioning, and Occupational aspects.

She also gave some home-based guidance to the parents.

Thoughtful gesture

One of our trainees - Ms. Divya celebrated her birthday in our center. The parents wanted to donate something useful for the trainees as we do not encourage distributing sweets. It was suggested that they donated small mats for the trainees so that it can be used by them and the parents were very happy. Now our trainees are using them for yoga and lunch. Divya is also very proud to see them using her gifts.

Wishing you all a very happy 2022!!!

Vocational Training Unit

From Usha Rajagopal's Desk

December month began with a grand online Tarang program, celebration of Tumbak-a-Tumba, musical extravangza for the World Disability Day followed by Christmas celebration and ended with a New Year Party.

Vasudha’s interview in Big FM was aired and she spoke about V-Excel and Tumbak-A-Tumba event.

Trainees and Teachers watched the special year end Tarang program happily at the center as it was aired in the morning-8.30 to 10.00 a.m.so as to accommodate international viewers. It was a beautiful morning with lovely melodies by Singers Sai Vignesh, Kaushik Sridharan, Shruti Sankaran and Rishipriya

Trainees, teachers along with Usha and Charu were at the Tumbak-a-Tumba event at Olcott Memorial School. Everyone enjoyed the event and sang along with the Blue Blue Sky Choir.

Trainee Saravana Prabu joined Super Auto Forge Pvt. Ltd., Gayathri accompanied him and organized a job coach.

SNEH sent us a job order of 35 designed diyas for painting and to stitch decorative shapes of stars and hearts for hanging on the Chirstmas tree. Trainees were fully involved in the activities of painting diyas and preparing the stars and heart shapes. They cut small pieces of cloth for stuffing after which the stars and heart shape were stitched.

Diya Painting

Stars and Hearts

Ms.Apoorva, Communication Head of Grundfos visited our unit and interacted with trainees. She was impressed with our products and purchased a few of them. She met Usha and Charu, discussed about CSR project activities and trainee Sriram’s job at Grundfos.

Ms.Apoorva also asked for our students and trainees of V-Excel to create a greeting card for New Year which will be used for their office across India. Charu messaged all the units. Nashik and our unit responded and we sent beautiful cards done by our students and trainees.

Regular counselling sessions for trainees and parents were done by the team of Jayadevi and Radhika.

Therapist Vasanth had seesions twice a week for the trainees.

Functional Academics class commenced in person with resource person Uma and trainees enjoyed her presence.

Charu attended the Sol Arc’s conclave, it was very interesting and beneficial. Need to explore for our trainees.

Charu along with Anand met the donors in person to wish and handover our V-Excel New Year diary. Met Mr. Mukund Raghavan, MD of IMPHAL, Ms. Nirmala, Chaitanya Builders and Mr. Rajagopal, MD, Sangeeta Hotels, Mylapore.

With Mr. Rajagopal we discussed the way forward for the food truck in Chennai and requested for sponsoring lunch for New Year Eve to VTU. He acknowledged immediately. Charu met our trainees Vasudevan and Karthik who have been employed at their baking unit and wished them and their supervisors.

New Year Celebrations on December 31, 2021

Charu, Usha and Mani planned for a New Year party for the trainees and teachers in a different way. We wanted the trainees to have a party like any other youngster and decided to have it organized in a hotel. But due to the current Covid situation, planned to organize it at our center itself. We approached Mr. Ram, Founder,Talent Quest of India, who has a network of volunteers. He immediately arranged for volunteers Sathyendar and Avinash who met us toO and discussed about the program. They also interacted with the trainees and spent some time. On the day of the event there were five volunteers who came and organized bhajans, games, music, dance along with the teachers and staff. It was full of fun and frolic for all the trainees and every one enjoyed. Sangeetha Hotel, Mylapore set up the buffet with delicious lunch starting with a soup and on to a wide delectable spread. Trainees chose whatever they liked and relished the food. Teachers and staff enjoyed the spread too.

Cutting of cake and ushering in the New year was definitely enjoyable to all.The volunteers gifted jute lunch bag( made by VTU trainees themselves) to the trainees and this was sponsored by the TQI team. It was a wonderful experience for both TQI team and trainees.

On all days trainees go through their usual schedule of yoga, functional academics, therapies, counselling, games, vocational activities of block printing, Vivikta packing, tailoring, paper mache’ paper bag making, tailoring, jute braiding and stitching the same on the mould, scanning and kitchen activities.

Youth Empowerment Services

From Gayathri Suryanarayanan's Desk

Last month of the year, December 2021, was a very busy, active and colorful month for YES.

Key highlights for the month of December 2021.

• Vocational training activities, Counselling services and OT services at the center

• Assessments

• Disability day

• Placements/Internships

• Field trip

• Visitors from Vidya Sagar

• Christmas and New year celebrations

• USO painting competition

• Production

Vocational training program, Counselling service, OT service, Farm program

During the month of December 2021, vocational activities and training were in full swing at YES. We had 95% attendance throughout the month. Training program happened uninterrupted and the centre was brimming with activities. Clear schedule was followed for all the trainees as always and proper rhythm was maintained. YES market was also being conducted regularly.

Counselling services happened regularly. Focus was given to both individual and group sessions. There were parent counselling sessions as well. Intense counselling was given to address behavioral issues and for those trainees who are ready to be placed.

OT services were happening regularly during the month. Group sessions focused on movement and stamina building.

Farm visits happened as usual.

Assessments

Mid-year assessments were conducted for all the trainees vocation wise to understand their progress and challenges.The assessments were focused on respective vocational skill development, functional academics, general behaviour and communication. All the points were recorded to amend their training program accordingly. The same will be shared with the parents during the proposed meeting during the month of January 2022.

Disability Day

To mark the International Disability awareness day, on 03 December 2021, all the staff members of YES wore blue colour as the colour code for the day. This was to show solidarity and support to the disability community. On 04 December, YES participated in the musical evening Tumbak a Tumba organised by V-Excel to raise awareness on intellectual disability and Autism.

Placements and Internships

December 2021 happened to be a great month for placements. 3 placements and 1 internship were successfully completed during this month. Out of the 3 placements 1 was of our current trainee, Ezhilarasan who was placed in Super Auto Forge, Chennai and the other 2 were from our alumni group who had lost their jobs due to the pandemic. Srinidhi, who was interning at Crowne plaza got placed in Grundfos, Chennai and T..A Hari resumed his job in Blue Lagoon resort. Trainee B.Hariharan began his internship with BSNL at one of their project sites in Nandanam, Chennai.

Field Trip

YES trainees had a wonderful field trip last month which also had a cause attached to it. On 28 December 2021, YES trainees went to Semmozhi Poonga for a nature walk. As this happened to be the last field trip for the year and to welcome the new year, all trainees planted saplings of Hibiscus and Jasmine inside the park. The trainees were very happy and excited to be a part of this good deed and they thoroughly enjoyed the outing with music singing and dancing.

Visitors from Vidya Sagar

On 27 December 2021, YES had visitors from Vidya Sagar’s teacher training program as they wanted to know more about the vocational training part and how to handle young adults with special needs. It was a wonderful group discussion and knowledge sharing session. Lot of appreciation was shared by the Vidya Sagar team. They were presented with mementos, all products made at YES, along with the knowledge and experience shared by us.

Christmas and New year celebrations

YES had a lovely Christmas and New year celebration. A nicely decorated Christmas tree was placed and a beautiful crib was made by our Arts and Crafts team. The staff members played Secret Santa for all our trainees. Trainees received small gifts from their Secret Santa every single day throughout that week. On 31 December 2021, along with our new year celebrations, Secret Santa was revealed and a final gift was given to the trainees. Group picture was taken along with their Secret Santa.

Our new year celebrations started with a small pooja at Vinayagar temple. Paayasam was made as an offering and was distributed to all the staff and trainees. As part of our new year celebrations, our volunteer group "Take a Step" organized a live musical program for our trainees at the center. Ms. Sheeba sang many melodious songs from Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam movies. It was like song on request, as she was kind enough to take requests from all of us and sang those songs. She also distributed sweets to all the trainees and the staff of YES. Together we welcomed the new year 2022 by cutting a yummy in house made cake.

USO painting competition

United School Organization (USO) based in New Delhi had organized a national level painting competition for persons with special needs. From YES, 9 trainees participated in the same to exhibit their creative and drawing skills. The theme for this year is ‘How to build a better and green future’

While 5 of the trainees came under individual category, the other 4 came under high support category as they needed some guidance and support to complete the painting. All the paintings are submitted through YES and the results are awaited in the month of February 2022. It is to remember that our trainee Ramanathan had won the special award for art last year for the same competition.

Production

Laundry services resumed to normal routine in the month of December 2021.

Printing &Documentation – An organizer for the new year 2022 was designed and 25 were made ready for distribution.

Digitisation – We have completed digitizing around 3100 pictures belonging to an external client

Kitchen – Along with the regular products, we started to make healthy snacks twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. These snacks were packed and sold to parents, staff and well wishers

Arts & Crafts – 50 coconut shells were buffed and polished. Bamboo rings were fixed as base. We also completed making 35 art sheets. These orders were for SNEH

With hope and wish for a more peaceful, productive and cheerful year ahead, Yes wishes you all a very happy, prosperous, healthy and successful new year 2022.