Our Door-to-door surveys help in establishing an informal relationship with families in a target community and are conducted periodically in different areas. Apart from introducing Samadhan, the survey workers also function as agents of change. Families of children with disability get either a referral to a suitable agency that can help them or they are brought to our own centre. Even if there is no identifiable disability in a family surveyed, the contact results in increased awareness about disability, explodes many myths, and provides guidance and counseling on issues related to disability.
School Survey
Our survey workers meet the Principals and teachers in mainstream schools, healthcare workers in clinics and dispensaries in the target areas of Dakshinpuri, local VIPs, women and students and information on inclusive education was shared with teachers and Principals.
Community Awareness Programmes
Creating awareness through selected media such as puppet shows, street plays, slides, talks etc and through informal discussions with the women, the mothers of the disabled and the key persons of the community. Our most successful programme is the puppet theater since it educates as it entertains. It gives an added advantage of interacting directly with the audience and gives us valuable insight into community perceptions on a variety of issues.
Regular health camps are conducted which identify children with disabilities and delayed development. A gradual shift in outreach to accommodate identified needs is the identification and referral of children with disabilities other than intellectual disability
Training of Trainers
Community OutreachThrough our community awareness programmes, we identify potential workers who will be willing to train themselves to participate in our activities. Their input is crucial and they are able to establish an immediate rapport with the community which was something we could not do since we were seen as outsiders. The women are trained to conduct surveys to identify children with intellectual disability in the 0 to 12 years age group. They are also given some training in basic skills in listening and counseling, transferring the skills of home management of the child with intellectual disability to the mother or care giver, to be carried out in the home of the child. Six monthly orientation sessions keeps them updated on the latest issues pertaining to disability Involvement in our activities and provides them with some income. It also gives them an improved self-image and leads to changed community perceptions as well as an improved role in their own families. Training faculty are Samadhan’s senior professional staff.
We also organize speakers on other issues relevant to their work such as importance of breast feeding, infant nutrition, ORD, management of epilepsy and other disability related issues. We have a well established module whereby the more experienced community workers and mothers who have been successfully empowered according to their potential are given faculty positions in our training component. This boosts self-esteem and their role as women with responsible jobs and who earn an income changes the way they are seen. No longer are they ‘mere’ women but contributors to the family income and respected by numbers of the community.
