‘SANGAMA’ – a Unique Event put Miles of Smiles on Faces of Special Children & Made Them Special!
‘SANGAMA’ – a Unique Celebration of World Disability Month and Arivu Annual Day held at St Aloysius College Eric Mathias Hall, did put Miles of Smiles on Faces of Special Children & Made Them Special!
Mangaluru: ARIVU (a unit of ARIVU Trust)-a Early Intervention Centre for Special Children which was launched at Shaktinagar- Mangaluru in September 2017 works with a Mission to Work with multidisciplinary 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;
Arivu also connects 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, 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 this NGO. The centre is bearing the expenditure that includes salary for four staff with generous donations from philanthropists. Apart from the kids, they also focus on their parents who will be taught on methods to handle their wards.
As part of their Annual Day, and also to commemorate World Disability Day, Arivu along with Sahodaya team and PG Department of Social Work from St. Aloysius College(Autonomous), Mangaluru celebrated a unique event “Sangama” at Eric Mathias Hall, St. Aloysius College, Mangaluru. The programme began with a prayer in order to invoke God’s blessings, followed by inauguration of the event by lighting the lamp by former MLA J R Lobo joined by Lion Mr. Vijaya Vishnu Mayya President Lions Club Mangaluru, Dr. Sreedevi Bhat, Ms. Shashikala Shetty Joint Deputy Director (Retd) Women and Child Welfare, Dr. Yogish DGM Health Services, MCF Limited, Arivu Trust Treasurer Dr. Radhakrishna Bhat, St. Aloysius Head of Department of Social Work (Postgraduate) Shwetha Rasquinha, Sahodaya co-ordinator Mr. Dhiraj were present. Arivu Trust President Dr. K.S. Bhat presided over the function.
After Lighting the lamp Mr. JR Lobo Ex-MLA, Mangaluru South constituency, stated that differently abled children are full of talent and it is praiseworthy that Arivu team is striving to bring out the hidden talent of these children. To take this responsibility and make it successful sincerity and honesty are required as this job is equivalent to God’s work and a selfless service to God. The organisations in DK and Udupi are striving selflessly to serve the differently-abled population with sincerity and it is praiseworthy.
The Principal of St. Aloysius College, Rev. Dr. Praveen Martis SJ said “Other than imparting educational training to the special needs children we need to strive to provide job opportunities to them. That will create an environment to increase their self-confidence and successfully integrate in the mainstream society”. Founder Director of Arivu Early Intervention Center Ms. Poornima Bhat in her inaugural address said that Arivu started with one child three years ago and currently providing various therapy services to seventy children. Leading organizations, colleges and the public of Mangaluru have supported the endeavor of Arivu and Arivu will strive to reach out and serve more children with special needs in the Mangaluru area.
Arivu center Special Educator Ms. Sapna Shetty proposed the Vote of Thanks. After the stage program, cultural Program was performed by Arivu Special needs children and Team Sahodaya of St. Aloysius College. Team Sahodaya helped Arivu kids perform Group Dance and “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara”( watch the performance on Youtube below) depicting National Unity and Integrity. A Yakshagana was performed by an All girls team from Beltangady.
ABOUT ARIVU:
Arivu is an NGO established by the parents of a child with disability. Arivu believes that Parents and Teachers are the crucial pillars in the overall development of a child and Early Intervention is essential. It is therefore very important to create awareness in the community in general and Parents & Teachers in particular, to understand the disability and take remedial action at the earliest possible. With this intention, namely, to create awareness and provide remedial services, Arivu was born in 2015.
Poornima R. Bhat, holding a Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling from Wright State University, USA has designed a one of its kind Early Intervention Center that has half day and full day Therapy Programs based on New York Headstart Program. Arivu provides holistic therapies and training to children with Autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, reading and writing issues and Mental Retardation as well as counselling to parents.
The Program is based on Adaptive Behavior Analysis and admits Special Children with Autism, Learning disabilities, Cerebral palsy, Mental Retardation and other issues from 0-18 years age. For 18+ Arivu has an Adult Program. Students are provided all the required therapies and included in group activities like singing, dancing, exercise, etc.
Ø Therapy Services provided are Behavior Therapy Speech Therapy, Social Skills Training, Special Education, Reading and Writing Classes
Ø 200 children in and around Mangaluru, Puttur, Karkala and Belthangady have benefited from their services
Ø At present 70 Students enrollment are enrolled at Arivu.
Ø The most unique Program is Art Therapy which was started in 2018. It focuses on using art as a medium of expression, learning and creativity. Done in combination with other therapies like Speech therapy and Behavior therapy as required, it accelerates the recovery of a child.
Ø In three years, Arivu has established three Specialized Programs
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 an 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
Ankur School Program:
It needs to be noted that teaching Autistic children, Slow learners is Skill based and requires extensive training. Arivu Program Director, Poornima Bhat has worked in USA School system and has been trained in Inclusive education. This model has been implemented at Arivu and has benefited more than 150 school children with Autism, Learning disabilities, ADHD and Slow learners from 2016-18. This is the first of its kind Program in Mangaluru. At present Arivu is serving school children from 12 schools in and around Mangaluru area.
Prateek – Services offered to Special children and adults of all ages:
Arivu is one of the very few institutions in Mangaluru that provides early intervention services for infants and children with Autism, ADHD, Cerebral palsy and Mental Retardation. Arivu offers Individual services for therapies and small group therapies for social skills development and social inclusion. Arivu offer half day and full day Program which includes required therapies like speech therapy, behavioral therapy, occupational therapy, reading and writing training.
Mundina Hejje – School inclusion:
Arivu has a full-time, multidisciplinary, center-based programme that is proven to successfully integrate infants and young children with Autism, Speech delay, Hyperactivity into mainstream schools. They have been successful in doing this with students who have earlier been denied such schooling or have had academic and behavior problems.
Upcoming year 2019-20 Arivu is planning on:
– Computer training for Slow learners, Autism, Mental Retardation, Cerebral palsy population
– Include more modules in Art Therapy- Include Music therapy, dance therapy and yoga therapy as part of syllabus
– Collaborate with various organizations, Government entities, Parents and like-minded citizens who believe in Inclusion and Integration
Speaking to Team Mangalorean, Ms Poornima Bhat 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 a 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.
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