Matru Sangharsh- Annual celebration

Membership of MS [ Matru Sangharsh ] started growing, monthly meeting attendance was also going up. Dr.Shailaja Deshpande continued to guide the mothers from the front. She motivated them to take decisions. She started with action group. This action group of young and enthusiastic mothers in turn started helping and supporting elderly and aged mothers. After the initial inhibition, each mother started thinking beyond her self and her mentally challenged son/daughter. Dr.Shailaja with her personal resources got many experts and professionals attached. In monthly meetings these people started guiding mothers on various subjects like routine health problems to leisure time activity for mentally challenged. MS also started celebrating annual programme since last three years.

On 26 th Jan'10 MS celebrated their annual function at Sandnya Srushti, Butibori. Mothers are really resource full. They not only raise required funds but manage the whole physical management also. This programme was scheduled between 11.00 am to 4.00 pm. Dr.Shailesh Pangaonkar, Psychatrist and Director of Central Institute of Behavioural Sciences, was the main speaker. During his keynote address, he said parents of special children are not ordinary parents, they are the special parents. And their ability as a parent of mentally challenged or autistic is far better than the normal parents. GOD has bestowed special responsibility upon certain more capable people and in my opinion they are the special parents. I have very high regards for these parents. This and other encouraging message from Dr. Pangaonkar certainly boosted the spirits of all parents present. There were many other recreational items on the agenda. One of our senior mother Mrs. Kothiwan, who is 75 plus sung a marathi song and all of us thought that we never new she was such a good singer. Group of mothers presented a dance and we could notice, that few of them had real good talent. Our students also gave a dance performance and as usual got a huge applause. The programme included lunch for all 400 people present. The function concluded at 4.00 pm as scheduled.

What we learn: The forum of Matrusangharsh is bringing out many dormant talents of mothers, who otherwise were only leaving under the pressure of being mothers of special children. This forum seems like giving new lease of life to these mothers which in turn is helping their mentally challenged children. We at Sandnya Sanwardhan Sanstha always believed that mental disability is a multi dimensional problem and should be managed for all its dimensions simultaneously.

Learning through social events is one of the most effective medium to make our special children learn. Celebrating birth day of every student in typical Indian way in our special school is very popular amongst our students. Through this, they tend to learn many things like, patience, sharing and performing in a required way.

Republic Day Celebrations

Celebration of any thing and every thing in our special school is like a festival time. There is always lot of enthusiasm. Every one is bursting with energy.So Republic Day i.e. 26Th Jan is not an exception in this regard. You will find all our mentally challenged students in white dress and white shoos. Whether they can walk or not, whether they can talk or not, whether they can perform or not, it does not

make any difference. All have same degree of enthusiasm. They laugh when all laugh, they clap when others clap, they will run when they see others running. The campus of Sandnya Srushti is so charged up that it can not be explained in words. A boy in front of mike, tries to give a speech where in fact he can not speak. But he makes different sounds in varied pitch as per her/his teachers prompting. The joy on his face must be seen to believe. A CP child, who is mentally challenged and sitting on a chair, when tries to perform the drill exercise along with the peer, where in fact he is unable to move his arms, but the type of attempt he makes, I always feel, that, for so called normal people like me it is a lesson to be followed. We normal people give up our attempts with slight failure and do not have much courage to face the reality. Whenever I am in Sandnya Srushti campus, the sight of these mentally challenged makes me forget the rest of the world.It is like in meditation. It is a feeling which I can not put in words nor can I explain it. Their movements, their attempts, their gestures, laughter and every thing they try makes me forget the whole of the world.

The other side of these celebrations is the parent. When parents in the audience see their son/daughter perform a certain act, the satisfaction can be felt through their glowing faces. You can make out from their faces and expressions, that they could not believe that their child can perform a certain act. Apart from this, you must see the respective teachers face, which says, well done my boy/girl. The teacher is so eager and happy to show the world around them that, though he is different but still can perform. With out speaking, they try to tell the world, that let us give them opportunity and than see the difference.