From Disabled To Abled

Doing good with TRF help

For Tanmay who can only crawl, Devyanshu who cannot walk or stand, Charu who cannot speak and Gargi who cannot hear, life is not going to be same now, after the inauguration of Saksham at Jaipur.

“To see these people who come crawling, or being wheeled into our physiotherapy centre, walk with minimal or no support is the most special moment for me,” said PDG Anil Agarwal, sharing his thoughts about Saksham, the multi-therapy department for differently-abled children set up by Rotary at Disha, a resource centre for people with multiple disabilities in Jaipur. The project is aimed to deliver complete remedial services and empower the children with functional independence.

Rotarians of RC Jaipur Midtown, D 3052, along with their Global Grant partner RC Fairhope, D 6880, USA and TRF, upgraded Disha with a sophisticated physiotherapy, speech and audiology department. The total cost of the project is $95,000 (Rs 58 lakh).

Since then the rehabilitation scenario has transformed at the centre. “Vishal Chaudhary suffers from dystonia; he cannot stand or walk and uses the wheelchair. I was thrilled to see him stand upright using the unweighing support system and gradually put his foot forward on the treadmill trainer. Very soon, if not independently, at least with the help of assistive device he will be in good functional status,” said Agarwal.

Several hearing and speech impaired children are benefitted by the diagnostic tools such as the audiometer and Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE) screener and speech therapy software. “Mumal was not able to communicate at all; in the course of the treatment with the aid of this software, she has started uttering few words,” said her mother. Presently her vocabulary has reached up to 30 words, thanks to Saksham.