A special school, which helped transform lives of plantation workers of this high range tea town by educating and empowering their differently abled children, is gearing upto celeberate silver jubilee of its service.
A unit of Srishti public trust, a Tata Global Beverages supported initiative, DARE (Developmental Activities in Rehabilitative Education) School has rehabilitated 205 marginalised children over the years in this scenic tea town, where the plantation history of the country began.
Started with just five to six specially abled children in November 1991, the institution has now grown as a unique platform to transform marginalised children into educated and empowered members of society.
The School now has over 60 special children, including 22 girls, belonging to different ages. Not just the kids of plantation workers, but other children are also now studying at the school, located in a sprawling scenic campus dotted with garden of exotic flowers.
Srishti Trust managing trustee, Ratna Krishnakumar says when DARE was started, many parents had considered them as curse.
"Special children was a marginalised community then. They were kept at home," she told reporters at the DARE campus here today.
"There was a stigma attached with them. Many parents even thought that it was curse to have such children".
Besides being taught life skills, basic reading and writing, fundamentals of mathematics, the children are also given lessons in dance, drama, yoga, meditation, physical education, speech and physio-therapy.
Most of these children are located within a radius of 35-40 KM and are picked up, brought to school, and dropped back to their homes in the evening in the institution's bus, she said.
Ratna said after graduating from the school, many of the children have been rehabilitated in other projects at Srishti--'Athulya', the hand-made paper and stationary unit, 'Aranya', natural dye and textile design unit, 'Nisarga', fruit preserve unit, the 'Deli', bakery and confectioneries unit and at the vegetable garden.
Those working in Srishti projects are paid according to the plantation wages and getting annual bonus, she said adding that many of these special children are earning more than what their plantation worker parents did.
Along with monthly payment and annual bonus, their basic needs including housing, transport, food and medicine are being taken care of by the Trust, she said.
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