Mohinish was 14 years old when he joined Swayamkrushi in 1998. He was multiply handicapped, in that he was both mentally challenged and visually impaired. When he enrolled with us, he was dependent for a few self-help skills.
He was initiated by giving him mobility training to start with. He was taught to go and sit in his class room. This was completed successfully. He could not speak and he was given speech therapy.
Continuous YOGA exercise at the school improved his co-ordination and physical condition. He was introduced to the Vocational training unit step by step. He became able to reach the dining hall himself when asked to do so.
He was trained progressively to button his own shirt wear his shoes and to tie his shoe laces. Even though his speech is not very clear, being in single words, is language receptive and follows simple commands and instructions.
He was trained with persistent efforts to fold medium sized towels with the use of a jig. He has become quite good at this job. He is working at the moment in a guest house and he is ready for taking up a fixed job in a large say Five star hotel.
Kameshwari, a moderately mentally challenged person, was admitted in our school in the year 1997. She was found to be independent in self help skills. She was assessed as a suitable candidate for training in the community based rehabilitation scheme in our group homes.
She was introduced to household chores and gradually shifted to learn culinary skills. This consisted of preparing and cutting vegetables, cleaning and preparing a simple curry dishes.
As a second step she was introduced to handle the gas stove and progressively she was made to handle the pressure cooker.
During this period she was trained in the day school on sight vocabulary. She learnt names of provisions and personal belongings. She proceeded to learn her home address and developed a number concept upto no 10.
In India was have ;no of dishes cooked from wet ground flour and lentil. Kameshwari was taught to operate an electrically operated wet grinder. The nice thing about this was that the ladies from the surrounding homes got their flour ground by Kameshwari for payment. This became a crucial factor in the community based training of rehabilitation.
Kameshwari was trained to pack; half a kg and 1 kg of food provisions and she has been placed as a packing worker in a leading food chain stores. |
