Sankalp Special School Kanpur Renewal 2019-2020: Nurturing Children with Special Needs

Sankalp Special School, Kanpur 2019-2020 renewal

Background Caters to children with special needs (autism, behavioral problems, learning disabilities, speech/language issues, mentally challenged) Project s goal is to nurture these kids with targeted attention and therapy so eventually they become self-sufficient Individual progress plans for each child, 5-7 children per teacher, Physio/Speech/Behavioral therapy Supported by Asha-SV since Fall 2009 Asha Stars project: Like any other Asha-SV project except the funds sent are only those that have been directly donated to the project. Asha Kanpur oversees the project (funds are sent to Asha Kanpur, they do the disbursals and monitor funds utilization); they also try to raise funds locally FB page - https://m.facebook.com/Sankalp-Special-School- 1717996268428138/?ref=bookmarks

Current statistics Students - 56 + 7 new admission in line (need to arrange for the conveyance for these children, only then they can start coming ) Staff 10 teachers for class +1 new teacher needed to attend to the 7 new children 1 Speech teacher (part time) 1 Physiotherapist (part time) + 1 assistant therapist (full time)* 1 Coordinator 2 Supporting staff Principal cum psychologist 5 Hired vans +1 new van might be needed for conveyance of new children or else, we can use the present vans by sending them in second round (of course, they will have to be paid extra)

Review 2018 Jan- Annual picnic on 21stJan was held in Apna Ghar hostel premises. This is situated in a rural setup away from the pollution and the hustle bustle of the city. This was a mega success and everyone wanted to have such event again and again! Sale on 26th Jan - we had put up a stall for sale in the premises of the Javed Habib Parlour in their opening ceremony. Feb - 3 of our students participated in the drawing competition organized by Kanpur Zoo authorities on their founder's day i.e.4th Feb. One girl, bulbul got a prize too! On 19th Feb., we put up a stall at the annual day celebration function of ACME public school. We tried making potato chips and aloo papad in Feb for holi. Children enjoyed the activity and when some of them told about it at their homes, the parents came and bought the products. Rest of it were taken by the teachers. Mar- Holi was in early march so the first few days of the month were holiday (In Kanpur, they have 8 days festivities during Holi!). After that they prepared for our upcoming annual function, apart from the regular school activities

Apr - Annual day on 7th April! As always, the children amaze with their performances as well as their behaviors and mannerisms on the stage! They also started making namkeen and masala grinding and packing in April(we had decided to make household consumables after seeing the response of parents for the chips and papad that we made in Holi!) May - This month is utilized in annual assessments and preparation of annual reports. These reports are handed over to parents every year so that they know how the child is performing and what all activities we are doing at school. This is also a time when the teachers get to meet the parents who otherwise don't communicate often. The school was closed for summer vacations on 26th May after the parents meeting on 25th May. June - White-washing of the premises. Also, aluminum cabins were constructed for the speech teacher, vocational teacher and the teacher who is doing one to one activities with children. Earlier they were sitting in open space in the corridor outside the classrooms. Dr. Deepti generated some funds locally for this and rest of it was contributed from Asha general account

July The school resumed after the vacations. Fresh assessments of all children were done and new targets were set to work upon. Few new children were admitted and some old ones stopped coming due to various reasons, mostly family issues. One child who discontinued school, Ujjwal Sonker (although just 14yrs old) has started sitting at his vegetable shop with his father. He had developed necessary skills for this job such as sorting, packing, weighing, calculating price using a calculator etc. We also had a drawing competition organized by Innovia Academy, a personality development institute on 17thJuly. We also started making Laiyya and chura namkeen and mathri on regular basis and people outside school are buying it. August As always, this is the month of celebration. We celebrated Rakhi and Independence day apart from other school activities. September - September started with Janmashtami celebration. This was followed by teachers day celebration. Since Dr. Deepti had got my operation few days back, she organized fun games for the teachers at school, followed by lunch. On 7thSept, we were invited to LIC s founders day celebration. Our children performed on a quawwali song there . The people were amazed by the performance because the children portrayed every emotion! LIC donated a desktop computer for our children. On 29thSeptember, we got a medical check-up camp for our children. The team included a pediatrician, an ophthalmologist and a team of dental surgeons. This was a new activity that we thought would be useful.

October On 11thOct, we were invited at Kalyanpur Branch of DPS school (one of the best schools of Kanpur) in there Annual Festival PANORAMA . Our children performed in their Model UN event and we also put up our sale stall there. We got wonderful response. Dusshera was celebrated on 20th-21stoctober, we had an exhibition of our products in the school premises as a group of local shop-owners visited our center. They also donated a steel almirah for our use. November - We had Diwali puja and celebrations on 5thNovember. This year, we did not put our pre-diwali sale stall at IIT Kanpur shopping centre. Instead, we participated in their Diwali Fun Mela this time in order to get better publicity and compare ourselves with other commercial vendors. We think our quality and presentations were pretty okay. However, the main difference was that we depend on locally available raw material and we don t use very costly material so that the initial investment is not very much and the cost can be recovered easily. This year, the children s day celebration was organized by Kanpur chapter of IAP (Indian academy of pediatrics). We hope to have more collaboration with their team in future. December Managing Director of one of the best private Engg. college of Kanpur, PSIT celebrated her birthday at our school along with her team. They also promised more collaboration in future. We also organized a free Unique Disability Identity Card making camp for our children with help of Saksham , a local NGO working towards rights of people with disability.

We were chosen for the Brainfeed magazine school excellence award for the year 2018-19 under the special schools category along with 8 other schools from all over India. (www.brainfeedmagazine.com)

Changes made in 2018 Dr. Deepti started coming to Sankalp full time We have started giving more emphasis on sensorimotor activities which form the base of further development (the physiotherapist has been provided with a full-time assistant) The vocational incharge s work was not upto Dr. Deepti s satisfaction so she was asked to leave and Dr. Deepti is now handling that part. The teachers were happy to do the execution part of the work The teacher doing one-to-one work was shifted in the class since we got new admissions We started new class on the first floor of the compound with the kind permission from the owner We are now having a one hour academic session for the teachers every Saturday were we discuss relevant topics We could reach out to many new people and could organize 8 sales during the year instead of just one sale

Challenges VOCATIONAL WORK The biggest challenge at present is to create a steady market for the sale of our products. We had to stop masala packing since we don t have a steady market and the shelf life without preservatives is short Improving the quality and making items that look mare fancy is also a challenge SPECIAL EDUCATION TRAINING WORK As Dr. Deepti is reading literature, she can see that a lot more can be done to improve the basic skills of the younger children. But for that, she need more teachers. Atleast one teacher is needed for the one-to-one training work. And one teacher is also needed to assist the speech teacher as one teacher can not handle all 56+ children and do justice to their needs Another problem is because of the teachers who come and go. Any new teacher takes time to adjust and during this time, the children under her start forgetting some of the skills they learnt earlier. This is especially true for the children who have behaviour problems. But I can t think of any solution for this

Future plans There are no new plans for this year as of now. We need adjust to the changes that were made last year and stabilize the system Vartika s relative who came for the site visit were suggesting that we can sell the non-perishable items such as jewellery etc. online. But Dr. Deepti have no knowledge regarding how to go for it so if someone can volunteer, this can be started, provided Asha supports the idea

Financials

Current monthly expenses as on Dec 2018 Category Details Expense Rent + Electricity bill School building (24000+4000) 28,000 Van payments 5 vans (3 of them go on second round to bring children) 72,200 Staff salaries 10 Teachers (35,100) 71,100 1 speech teacher (4800) 1 physiotherapist (4800) 1 physio asst. (3000) Coordinator (4000) Supporting Staff (3800+5500) Principal (10000) Misc. expenses Maintenance & cleaning, repair work, school stationary etc. 1,500 Fee received -86,800 Total monthly deficit 86,000

New budget for Apr 2019-march 2020 For better services, we will need three additional teachers, one for speech work, one for conducting one-to-one activities and one for the additional teacher needed to handle 7 new admissions. So that will require an additional 10,500/- per month. One additional van required if we take in additional 7 children. Additional expense of 12000/-. But this will also cover some of the children who are presently coming in second round so we will save 4000/-. So net addition of expense is 8000/-. Estimated increase in fees from 7 new children is around 10,000/- Mahesh ji has said that we need to add Asha central office handling expenses in the budget which will be 2.5% of the total amount

Estimated monthly budget for Apr 2019-march 2020 Category Details Expense Rent + Electricity bill School building (24000+4000) 28,000 Van payments 6 vans 80,000 Staff salaries 11 Teachers + 1 teacher for one-to-one activity (42,500) 81,500 1 speech teacher +1 asst (4800+3000) 1 physiotherapist (4800) 1 physio asst. (3000) Coordinator (4000) Supporting Staff (3900+5500) Principal (10000) Misc. expenses Maintenance & cleaning, repair work, school stationary etc. 1,500 Fee received -96,500 Total monthly deficit 94,500

So, total funds needed for one year are- 94,500x12= 11,34,000/- + 2.5%= 28,350/- _____________ 11,62,350/- _____________

Success Stories Priyanka Bansal, 26 yrs, moderate mental retardation with motor dysfunction esply in legs with speech problem. She used to be absolutely quiet n nonresponsive when she came 2 yrs back. This was more bcoz nobody talked to her much at home. Now she can stand and walk with support, push abdul's wheelchair and do some household work like cutting vegetables, rolling dough to make rotis etc... She also expresses herself through 2-3 word phrases on prompting... Sahil Gupta, 24 yrs, mild MR with mild Cerebral Palsy. Could read and write a little and do some arithmetic. Was going to another special school but they did not teach any practical skills. Now he can do a lot of household work like cloth folding, mending his clothes, making tea, maggi, sandwiches etc. Zoya, 20 yrs, mild to moderate retardation with severe motor incoordination. Could not concentrate and had no interest in doing anything. Also, even though she had good muscle power, her functioning was very poor as her movements were not coordinated. She can now manage many gross activities like dusting, mopping floor, making bed, even though she does these slowly. She can mend her clothes and stich on a straight line using sewing machine, though she can not thread a needle. She does not like kitchen work at all! . With increasing stability in her body movements, concentration is also improving. Bulbul Mishra, 21 yrs, mild retardation. She is with us since 11 yrs. She could only eat, drink and manage her toiletting needs herself at that time. Now, she can manage her home kitchen work with few verbal instructions and supervision from her mother. She can also read labels on various items, read their price, handle money upto rs 50. She can also make a basic grocery list (knows spellings of most of the common words). Also, she had no speech when she came but now speaks small sentences, although the pitch n tone are not very normal but what she speaks is usually comprehendable. Bulbul Mishra, 21 yrs, mild retardation. She is with us since 11 yrs. She could only eat, drink and manage her toiletting needs herself at that time. Now, she can manage her home kitchen work with few verbal instructions and supervision from her mother. She can also read labels on various items, read their price, handle money upto rs 50. She can also make a basic grocery list (knows spellings of most of the common words). Also, she had no speech when she came but now speaks small sentences, although the pitch n tone are not very normal but what she speaks is usually comprehendable.