Making Special Kids More Special! Arivu Trust & St Aloysius College to host ‘Sangama’
Making Special Kids More Special! Arivu Trust/Arivu Early Intervention Centre (AEIC) , Shakthinagar-Mangaluru & Sahodaya and Dept of Social Work of St Aloysius College-Mangaluru to host ‘Sangama’- a Unique Celebration on the occasion of World Disability Month and Arivu Annual Day
Mangaluru: With a Mission to Work with multi disciplinary teams in hospitals and build Early Intervention Programs; to provide Advocacy, Education, Empowerment of Families; Set up groups of volunteers and assess families with disabled children in the entire Dakshina Kannada district; Conduct camps and seminars on various issues of disabilities, to create awareness and provide education to families and society; Develop professional working relationships with other organizations who have developed successful early intervention models; Ensure parents are aware of their child’s problems and the challenges; to provide Early Intervention and Remedial Services to include the parents and family members working with the Rehabilitation Professionals and to teach how to help the child;
To Connect with medical professionals who will provide early diagnosis and recommend early intervention; Provide Rehabilitation and Behavior services; to Develop an individual plan for your child and help the family implement it; to Develop specific strategies to help your child learn new skills and use them in different settings; and Help reduce your child’s difficult behavior by understanding what the ‘cause’ of the behavior is and then teaching your child more appropriate behavior- ARIVU (a unit of ARIVU Trust)-a Early Intervention Centre for Special Children was launched at Shaktinagar- Mangaluru in September 2017.
Addressing the media persons during a press meet held at Mangalore Press Club, Ms Poornima R Bhat M S (USA) – Founder/Director of AEIC said “Arivu is an Early Intervention Centre for Special Childrenrun by ARIVU TRUST®, providing Counselling and Therapy Services at Shaktinagar, Mangaluru. Arivu is celebrating “World Disability Month and the 3rd Arivu Annual Day” in collaboration with Sahodaya and Department of Social Work, St. Aloysius College (Autonomous) Mangaluru on Tuesday, 11th December 2018 at 3.00 PM at Eric Mathias Hall, Maffei Block in St. Aloysius College (Autonomous)-Mangaluru”
Also speaking on the occasion, Dr Radhakrishna B Bhat- Treasurer of Arivu Trust said, ” J.R.Lobo Ex. MLA; M.V.Basavaraju Disability Commissioner Karnataka State; Rev. Dr. Praveen Martis SJ, Principal, St.Aloysius College; K.Prabhaker Rao Director-Works, MCF; Lion Vijay Vishnu Mayya, President, Lions Club, Mangaluru; Dr. Shreedevi Bhat, Ashwini Clinic, Kaikamba, and Ms. Shashikala U. Shetty, Rtd. Jt. Director, Women & Child Welfare, Govt.of Karnataka will be the guests of Honour. Yours Truly ( Dr. K.S.Bhat MD, President, ARIVU TRUST®) will preside”.
Ms. Swetha Rasquinha, Head, PG Dept. of Social Work, St.Aloysius College speaking said that Sahodaya is an outreach programme for the empowerment of the specially abled, started in 2000 to conscientize the staff and students towards the needs and aspirations of the specially abled. Ms Poornima Bhat also explained the background in which the three entities are joining hands together to create awareness in the community. The program will end with a gala cultural program by the children attending the Centre and Sahodaya group. All are cordially invited.
Speaking to Team Mangalorean, Ms Poornima K Bhat said, ” Arivu, which means Awareness in Kannada language aims at helping the parents in raising their children diagnosed with autism and Attention Deficit Hyper-activity Disorder (ADHD) through behaviour therapy and counselling, speech and occupational therapy and counselling. The ARIVU logo symbolically represents a concerned individual taking the community (depicted by the ring around the waist) along with him from darkness to brightness by creating awareness. The centre was started a year ago and has 70 children, with majority of them diagnosed with autism and ADHD. And nearly 250 children come and get training at our NGO. The centre is bearing the expenditure that includes salary for four staff with generous donations from philanthropists. Apart from the kids, we will also focus on their parents who will be taught on methods to handle their wards”.
Poornima recalling the ordeals she faced at the early stage of raising her toddler son, Prateek Bhat (now 27-year-old but has a stunted intellectual growth of a four-year-old), further said, ” We moved to USA in 2001 when my husband got a job offer as a visiting scientist at the Air Force Research Laboratory-Ohio, USA. While in USA I worked in a Rehabilitation and Counselling areas in New York- and later thought of acquiring skills to deal with my son. I decided to change the course of my career with an MS in Rehabilitation Counselling after having to bring up my special son and that’s when I started dreaming about ARIVU. An offering of Arivu Trust, it is the result of the first-hand experience of its founders in raising my son diagnosed with downs syndrome. This is a non-profit NGO set up for creating awareness in the community about disability and taking remedial action”.
Please call 8971237669 for more information and details about Arivu Early Intervention, Parent/student counselling, Speech therapy, Behavior Therapy, Sensory Integration and Special education Services.
ABOUT ARIVU :
ARIVU is an NGO established by the parents of a child with disability. They believe that Parents and Teachers are the crucial pillars in the overall development of a child. At ARIVU, they provide therapies and training to children with Autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, reading and writing issues and Mental Retardation. Educating parents and helping them to understand their child’s issues and developing a home plan is our highlight. Overall development of the child requires working in the following areas: Behavior, Speech and language, Social skills , Fine Motor skills and Academic.
At ARIVU, they assess the child, understand the deficiencies in the above mentioned areas and develop the required skills. They provide Behavior Therapy, Speech and language therapy, Sensory Intergration Therapy, Social skills training and Academic development through Group and Individual therapy sessions.
ARIVU would also love to accept new and used educational materials. Let us spread awareness about Arivu and refer families in need to them. You will be helping a child in travelling in the right direction, under the leadership and guidance of the following Trustees:
President – Dr. K. Sundara Bhat
Professor and former Head of the Dept. of General Medicine at Father Muller’s Medical College in Mangaluru. Dr. Bhat has a distinguished career exceeding 30 years as a physician at the Father Muller’s Hospital, Mangaluru. He holds an MBBS and MD from Kasturba Medical College in Manipal. Dr. Bhat served in Central Kerala for 6 years before returning to settle in Mangaluru.
Vice-President – CA Ravinarayana B.V. Bhat
Bhat is a finance professional and Fellow Member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He also qualified as Certified Internal Auditor and Certified Information Systems Auditor from USA. He started his professional career as practicing Chartered Accountant at Bangalore. With the six years of practical experience he moved to Bahrain Airport Services, Bahrain. Since last 17 years, he works for Oman Air, national airline of Sultanate of Oman.
Treasurer/Secretary – Dr. Radhakrishna B. Bhat
With a Ph. D. in Metallurgy from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, Dr. Bhat has served as a scientist at the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, Hyderabad for 17 years. He accepted an invitation to be a visiting scientist at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton OH, USA for 5 years. He later became a senior scientist at the GE Global Research Center, Albany NY, USA, for 6 years before returning to India for good in 2012 to settle in Mangaluru and realize his and his wife’s dream of ARIVU.
Administrator – Ms. Poornima R. Bhat
After completing her M.S. from Wright State University, Dayton, OH, she worked in Rehabilitation and Counseling areas at Albany, NY, USA. With a B.Sc (Electronics) from Bangalore University and a diploma in Computer Applications from Hyderabad Central University, Poornima decided to change the course of her career with a MS in Rehabilitation Counseling after having to bring up a special son and dreaming about creating ARIVU
Honorary Advisers: V.S. Basavaraju-Executive Director-Strategy, The Association of People with Disability (APD), Bengaluru; and Sr. Maria Jyothi A.C.-Founder Principal, St. Agnes Special School, Mangaluru
How you can help Arivu Trust: Your donations to Arivu Trust® are exempted U/S 80G of the Income Tax Act 1961, vide order F No. CIT(E)BLR/80G/ITO(E)I/MNG-1026 A/AAETA8972H/Vol2016-2017 dt. 23-06-1016 of Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions), Bengaluru. Bank Account details for your donations: Account Name: ARIVU TRUST Bank: Karnataka Bank; Account No.: 5132500100657401; IFSC CODE: KARB0000513; Branch: H.O. COMPLEX BRANCH, Mangaluru. For more details contact : 0824-2213632; 8971237669; 8197402109 Email : arivutrustr@gmail.com; Web : www.arivutrust.org
