Bhubaneswar : SBI Life Insurance, one of the most trusted life insurers in India, has taken up the cause for empowering children with special needs in Keonjhar district. The company has joined hands with local NGO Sadbhabana for two flagship projects; ‘Prayas’ – a residential school for the mentally challenged children and ‘Community based rehabilitation program (CBR)’ – a home based therapeutic intervention program.
SBI Life’s collaboration with Sadbhabana NGO has been done under the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility program for holistic development of children and adolescents with mental and physical disabilities. Children between the age group of 0-18 years will be provided basic education, therapy and counselling support along with sessions for parents. This will help in empowering the children to live an independent life when it comes to doing daily functional tasks etc.
Mr. Amit Saha, Regional Director- Bhubaneswar Region, SBI Life Insurance handed over the cheque to Mr. Chandi Prasad Patnaik, Secretary, Sadbhabna NGO, Keonjhar in presence of Ms. Vidya Krishnan, CGM, SBI – Bhubaneswar Circle and other respected dignitaries.
The following activities will be covered under the flagshipprojects for the beneficiaries:
‘Prayas’:
• Nutrition: To meet the nutritional requirements, beneficiaries will be provided with nutritional kits on a monthly basis
• Education support: An Individual Education plan (IEP) for each child is developed by special educators. The focus majorly is to introduce basic alphabets, numbers, rhymes along with Activities of daily living (ADL)such as dressing, eating, drinking etc. Due to the pandemic situation, classes are held at the respective homes of the children
• Therapy Support: Children with sever joint deformities receive physiotherapy support to strength their muscles and speech therapy is also provided to children to improve their speech and abilities to communicate
• Health care & Counselling: Regular health check-ups are conducted to reduce the risk of any underlying health conditions and Counselling support is provided to children and their parents to better equip them to deal with issue they may face in their daily lives
• Pre-vocational Training & Extra-Curricular activities: Pre-vocational training on topics like measurement, money exchange, time management, etc are provided along with providing other therapy through music, yoga, sports etc
‘Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) program’:
• Physiotherapy: Physiotherapy is provided to the children with physical disability at the door step on a bi-weekly basis. Dedicated physiotherapists helps children achieves their optimal physical development
• Special Education: Special education of about 6 days a week is planned for children with learning difficulties communication challenges, emotional and behavioral disorders etc
• Parents meeting and training: Regular meeting with parents is conducted to reduce the emotional stress and parents are trained to develop their scientific and structured knowledge on various techniques adopted under the program as children spend majority time with their family
According to WHO, around 150 million children live with a disability worldwide. In developing country like India, majority of the children with disabilities between 0-19 years of age tend to belong to rural areas and they miss out on the opportunities like education, employment etc. due to disability factor. A look at Keonjhar’s population census indicates that there were 34,728 people with disability in 2011, of which over 10% reported mental disabilities. Sadbhabana; a local not for profit organisation has been actively working towards welfare and upliftment of children with mental disability, across 13 districts of Keonjhar in Odisha for the past 20 years.
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