The Singapore International Foundation was involved in a two-year project with a non-governmental organisation based in India to help children with special needs. Straits Times photographer Joyce Fang, who recently spent two days in Kolkata to see how they have benefited from the tie-up, filed this report and photos.
ABISHEK Das, 10, sits cross-legged on his bedroom floor. Brows furrowed, his hand moves across the exercise book placed on a low, pine-wood desk.
Suddenly, he grimaces and turns to his mother Mousumi Das, 42, who is behind him. In his eyes is a look of despair.
A visiting teacher, who is seated across from him, has told him that he has made a mistake in his maths problem. Mrs Das reaches out to hug him. An only child, Abishek was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with autism when he was two.
ADHD is characterised by hyperactivity, while autism is a brain condition that affects personal development and interpersonal skills.
The housewife first noticed that Abishek was different when he was at playschool. He was always distracted, never made eye contact and jumped around a lot.
Medication helped, but only with his behaviour. His speech did not improve.
'He tries to communicate with other children but his peers don't understand him. They say he is mad, he doesn't speak,' his mother says.
She has taken him to five speech therapists, but with no result.
Abishek now attends the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Ahead Rehabilitation and Research Institute for Mentally Challenged Children.
Located in Kolkata, India, the school has 45 special needs students - 22 are autistic, and the rest have varying degrees of learning disabilities.
The project, which the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) began in 2008 in collaboration with Ahead, enables the NGO to call on the expertise of volunteers like Singaporean special education professionals Siti Tasrifah Abdul Shukor, 38, and Erni Noorhaidah Ahmad, 38.
They have been helping to teach the staff in Kolkata through the Workshops on Special Education series on autism.
The Singaporeans also held workshops on sexuality education and pre- vocational training for the parents of the Ahead children.
One of the many changes the SIF volunteers have wrought is deceptively simple: a restructuring of classrooms for autistic children.
'They had only tables and chairs in them. There were no physical structures you could move around,' Ms Siti recalls.
'Partitions are needed to minimise distractions so that the children can focus on their work.'
Less than six months after the idea was pitched to the school, a few low walls, partitioning the room into cubicles, greeted Ms Siti.
Ahead teacher Bhaswati Das, 47, explains: 'We already knew about these teaching methods, but never knew how to implement them. But when they were here, we were able to make the changes because we were taught the proper way.'
These seemingly small changes mean that parents like Mrs Das are seeing their children come home happier.
Still, that is not enough. She wishes that her son can be taught life skills, such as learning to socialise and be independent. 'I won't be with him throughout his life,' she says.
Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/Singapore/Story/STIStory_617747.html
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