"Ahimsa is the greatest gift. Ahimsa is the highest self-control. Ahimsa is the highest sacrifice. Ahimsa is the highest power. Ahimsa is the highest friend. Ahimsa is the highest truth. Ahimsa is the highest teaching...."
The Mahabharatha
V-Excel News
A unique cultural and advocacy event marked our decennial celebration at YMCA Nandanam in Chennai. Over 100 special children participated in the Great Indian Parade, showcasing snippets of life in India with choreographed movements, beautiful costumes and large props. They were truly the stars of the day! This festival also had various stalls, exhibits, performances, food, games, and products made by V-Excel's students and other small cottage-industries. In keeping with V-Excel's broad view on advocacy, seven special schools were invited and participated in the festivities and used the platform to sell products made by their own students. Many messages for the community, requesting for more sensitivity, explaining the issues and perspectives of individuals with special needs, and urging everyone to 'embrace differences' were put up at the venue.
Of special note is the delight and interest taken by our chief guest for the event, Major General Ian Cardozo (Retd), Chairperson of the Rehabilitation Council of India, V-Excel's brand ambassador and renowned Carnatic classical singer Bombay Jayashri, cricket expert Kris Srikkanth, Mrs. Aruna Anand Vishwanathan, the chess grandmaster's manager and wife, cine actress Rohini, and Mr. Manohar Devadoss, author of the book A Quiet Courage. We are grateful to all our supporters - YMCA, L & T Construction, Britannia, The Rotary Club of Chennai Port City, The Hindu and our radio partner Radio Mirchi. With the help of dedicated volunteers, the staff and students, V-Excel celebrated its ten year journey with great enthusiasm and joy.
Kaleidoscope Learning Centre
January was the month of the mega fest. The frenzy, excitement, hard work, visual and aural creativity at its best came to its zenith as the staff of KLC put up the exhibit stalls for the cultural extravaganza. Each stall was a masterpiece in its display and its content. The teachers of KLC exhibited an old Indian kitchen, the spices of India were displayed through a beautiful landscape constructed with various spices, the textiles and textures of India were displayed creatively and a cave full of Indian treasures were beautifully laid out. Besides, these we had a display of the musical instruments, the geography of India through photographs and a poster exhibition. Under the guidance of their teachers Saradha and Muthu, children made paper products to be sold at the exhibition. Kudos to the tremendous effort by the entire staff who brainstormed, researched and put up a show worth being proud of!
The Great Indian parade was a visual delight with the entire school participating and the dhobis, the cooks, the man on the street came alive in the dynamic twenty minute parade. Congratulations to all staff and children for an event well conducted.
Back in school after the headiness of the festival behind us, is the beginning of new blocks. Kindergarten enters a harvest block, the Grades 4A and 4B study the human being and Grade 5 begins study of the Egyptian civilization. There is excitement as new food is tried out and children delve into the whole hows and whys of mummification in the old civilization.
It is with great sadness that we bid farewell to one of the most outstanding teachers of all time, Sowmya Sarathy. Sowmya has been looking after the Kindergarten and has been in KLC for the last six years and carved a niche for herself. She leaves to get married at the end of this month and we wish her a very happy, fulfilling life ahead.
Academy for Teacher Excellence
ATE has attained another landmark in its history by inaugurating the IGNOU Study Center on the 21st January 2013. Mrs. Kannegi Packianthan inaugurated this Center in the presence of Dr. P. Ashok Kumar Regional Director IGNOU, and Dr. Varadarajan, Deputy Director IGNOU. All the students joining the Certificate Course in Early Childhood Special Education (Mental Retardation) were present; parents of V-Excel students were also present. 15 students have enrolled from Chennai and 8 from Sholapur where V-Excel has a satellite center. Many of the students are parents, volunteers and others who are interested to work with people with challenges.
Dr. Vasudha Prakash spoke about the services offered by V-Excel and her vision for V-Excel growing into a University; these courses are just a step in realizing this dream towards training teachers, both in regular education and special education sectors. Dr. Ashok Kumar highlighted the courses offered by IGNOU and promised his support to all the courses we conduct. Dr. Varadarajan spoke on the importance of reaching out to the differently-abled community. Mrs. Kannegi Packianathan spoke about the plight of the differently-abled and how much is being done by the Govt. of Tamilnadu in supporting them through various schemes and concessions. She even asked those students and parents present to call at her office anytime for any help needed.
The final exams of our Counseling Course that had two parts - written and case presentations - went on smoothly. The students seem to have done fairly well.
Early Intervention Unit
Sensory integration profiling has been undertaken this month for many children at the Early Intervention Unit. Under profiling, we consider not just the sensory integration program offered by us but also take into account everything around the child that triggers sensory stimulation and every activity the child does at home or outside that can impact its natural learning. Based on this understanding, we have suggested environmental modifications to suit the sensory needs of the child.
Social skills are an integral need of a growing child and hence we do a social development check for each child to identify the level of social development. This involves different aspects and levels of the child's interactivity, mingling, interactions, reactions, responses, etc. Based on these and other communication criteria, strategies for social development have been chalked out. Peer interaction, waiting skills and play skills were also facilitated.
V-Excel Satellite Centres
Children in our Nashik center have been showing good results after our remedial and therapy inputs. However, for some the doors of regular schools are not open and a short remedial program leaves a lot more time at hand. Parents of these children are hence requesting V-Excel to start a special school there and have assured of their complete support. In fact, four of the parents have even asked us to prepare a proposal with estimated costs, so that they can approach donors and corporate houses for funds!
Regular work at Tirunelveli centre and Erode centre is going on. The children's programs undergo periodic revision, based on their progress and parent feedback. We do need much more parent interaction in these cities since the general awareness is lower and they look forward to professional direction from us. New cases for assessment come up and we need to strike a good balance of specialized resources at hand and need of the child. We also suggest home programs to a few.
V-Excel Remedial Centre
Children are back after their half yearly exams and results. Some children have shown significant improvement whereas some are struggling to cope up with their grade level academics. It has been our observation that children who have been regular and consistent for more than 6 months, show definite improvement. Another factor is change in the attitude of parents. If the parents are willing to understand and accept the child's difficulties, withdraw their pressure and expectation, and wait patiently, the children do improve. It has been a continuous effort and struggle on our part to bring about this change in attitude of parents apart from working with children.
We completed one assessment for a child with learning disabilities and attention problems. He has started attending remedial classes with us. We are in the process of conducting two more assessments.
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder attending morning sessions are showing good progress and steps will be taken to admit them into KLC (our special school) from June onwards.
A new child has stepped into our centre. He baffles us all with his 'little adult' talks, his drawings of 'Richard Parker and Life of Pi', his insistence on calling him "Piscine Patel and not Pi", his angelic smile which turns into a frown when asked to write anything. He's a classic case of 'mind acting overtime but body struggling to keep pace'. We have started him on play therapy and will wait to see what emerges before planning his future program.
Rural Outreach Program
Awareness generation for dispelling ignorance among rural masses is an important part of our work in the disability sector. Various superstitious and religious beliefs are deep-rooted amongst the villagers and this affects their outlook and towards special children. Keeping their experience in this context in mind and recognizing that there are many people in cities too who believe in these misconceptions, we have requested special educators from the rural outreach program to conduct a street play at our upcoming January megafest in Chennai. They will be performing the play in the regional Tamil language, at least two-three times on the day.
Vocational Training Unit
The new year commenced bustling with activity for the megafest. The products made were neatly packed and the practice for the stage performance kept all our students very active. On the day itself, the students were at their best and with great ease performed their respective parts. It was encouraging to see the beautifully hand-crafted, hand-made products being well received by the enthusiastic crowd.
As a follow up of megafest, the bags made by the students drew attention. The vocational training unit received an order of 300 bags and students diligently worked towards completion of the order. It really gives us joy to see such productive outcomes from the children!
As a part of therapy and building independent commuting skills training, two girl students are being trained to cycle under the able guidance of a teacher. We can visualize them cycling happily all the way to their workplace.
Counseling and Assessment Unit
In January, we mostly handled adult cases as the children from V-Excel were busy with the mega fest practice. We love to see how happy the children are when they are engaged in purposeful activities, also learning various motor and social skills in the process.
Across all the counselors, we conducted around 40 sessions of counseling - some parents from our remedial unit VRC, vocational unit VTU, and special school KLC. We also counseled some teachers and a few corporate clients. Our weekly counseling desk in the corporates continued and the follow-up cases are steadily gaining ground.
Consultations with new cases and parents were taken up by the counselors; some included an IQ assessment. We will plan our Art sessions with parents in the month of February and hope to see parents relax and bond together.
Contact Information
V-Excel Educational Trust
#1 Norton 2nd Street
Mandaveli Chennai 600 028
Tel: 91 - 44 - 24620243
91 - 44 - 24956373 E-mail us or visit us at www.v-excel.org
V-Excel Center for Research and Rehabilitation
(In assocation with S.V. Sarada Foundation)
50 Sreyes, M.G. Road
Shastri Nagar, Chennai 600 041
Tel: 91 - 44 - 24522061
91 - 44 - 24521986 E-mail us
Academic Concepts, Inc.
33 Pine Street
East Brunswick New Jersey 08818
Tel: (732) 619-7944
Tax ID: 22-3632715 E-mail us
