ROSHNI SOCIAL ACTION CENTRE, HANGAL Education of the Hearing Impaired Children Early Intervention and Early Education Program
Children with disabilities are routinely excluded from mainstream primary education especially children with hearing impairment are out of school due to the fact that they are not able to grasp whatever is taught by the teacher in the schools. The place like Hangal does not have the facilities of special school for these children. Hence, there was a dire need of educating these children. So Roshni with the support of Association of People with Disability, a NGO based in Bangalore came forward to address the needs of these children. A survey was conducted in the villages of Hangal Taluk and 187 children with hearing impairment were identified. Four staff members are appointed as community teachers to teach these children in sign language as well as in total communication system. These children are helped to get their medical certificate, disability pension and hearing aids. In order to support their education and identify impairment in early stage, the parents, peers, teachers, ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers are trained. Once a year ten days residential camp is conducted for these children to enable their learning. This programme aims at providing opportunities for deaf children to get their right to education through inclusive education in the schools of their locality.
Having found large number of disabled and malnutritious children in the villages of Hangal Taluk, Roshni approached Association of People with Disability to support the programme financially and technically. Thus with the support of APD, Roshni began the ‘Early Intervention and Early Education programme’ for the disabled from February 2016. In the survey conducted, 220 children with developmental delay, malnourishment and disability below the age group of six are identified in Hangal Taluk. The children are screened at an early age and are intervened in order to reduce their disability and to bring these children to the mainstream. Early Intervention Centre is established to give therapies, hence every Tuesday and Friday therapies are conducted to the children with severe disability. Children from 3-6 years are given education and are enrolled to Anganwadi and schools. The aim of this programme is to enrich the quality of life of children with disabilities by mitigating future complications.
