Success Stories

Sowmya S Devathar

Sowmya, a young lady of 17, joined Shristi in July 2015, before

Sowmya, a 17-year-old, joined Shristi in July 2015, before which she attended an integrated school for persons with disabilities in Bengaluru for 3 years. Unfortunately, she did not learn anything nor did she mingle with other students in the class. As she had difficulties in adjusting to that environment, she was taken out of that school and made to stay at home for 3 years. Sowmya comes from a middle-class family, where the sole breadwinner is her mother. She has been diagnosed with Down’s syndrome and has severe cognitive, language, speech and social skill challenges. She also had some behavioral disorders.

Harsha

Harsha, who is diagnosed with cerebral palsy, is..

Harsha, who is diagnosed with cerebral palsy, is almost 18 years old now. He has been with Shristi since the age of 7. Before moving to pre-vocational training nearly 3 years ago, he had inadequate hand functions with a lower-level of cognitive abilities. Through intensive physical therapy, Harsha’s hand functions developed significantly, helping him carry out multiple pre-vocational skills such as cleaning, peeling, cutting vegetables, cutting and folding paper to the required size and stringing medium-sized beads. His sense of balance has also improved greatly and has become significantly independent in self-care. Harsha still has dyskinetic movements while performing many activities — something he is actively trying to overcome.

Bharath L G

A young man of 19, Bharath hails from a nuclear..

19-year old Bharath hails from a rural nuclear, middle-class family. He has two younger siblings who are in school. He primarily depends on his mother for care as his father is not involved. Bharath joined Shristi in 2007 and was diagnosed with intellectual disabilities and speech and language disorders. At the time of joining our programme, Bharath suffered from problems such as:

Lack of proper balance while walking
Lack of eye-hand coordination

Abhishek

Abhishek is a quiet, 14-year old boy who..

Abhishek, a quiet 14-year old boy, who prefers interacting only with familiar people. He is diagnosed with cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, and microcephaly with a seizure disorder. He has two siblings — a brother with special needs, and a sister. When he first joined Shristi 2 years ago, he was battling several challenges, including cognition and self-care disorders. He had poor hand functions and couldn’t effectively hold a pencil, preventing him from even copy any strokes. Harsha would also get startled and fall because of loud noises and sudden movements. With our structured and consistent programme, he has shown considerable improvement. He can now hold a pencil correctly and copy numbers and alphabets. Abhishek is completely independent in self-care, and interacts well with other children and teachers. His falling has also reduced drastically. His mother says that he often helps her with simple domestic chores when asked to do so.

Mangalagowri

Mangalagowri is an active, sociable, 10-year-old..

Mangalagowri, an active and sociable, 10-year-old girl was diagnosed with cerebral palsy (dyskinetic). Currently, she receives physiotherapy five days a week and is very motivated during therapeutic sessions.

With her major problem being uncoordinated movements in both upper and lower limbs, she used to find it difficult to perform activities of daily living. At Shristi, the goal was to decrease her dyskinetic movements and to engage her in more functional activities. Therapeutic exercises for her included weighted cuffs on upper and lower limbs, which ultimately improved her proprioception of joints, tone of muscles, and balance.

In the recent past, we have observed a considerable reduction in Mangalagowri’s dyskinetic movement, leading to her tasks getting completed with lesser effort. She has also begun walking with minimal support and can flex her knees more in the process.

Karishma

Karishma’ s work of art is a triumph in the face..

Karishma is a story of triumph in the face of overwhelming odds. She was born in 1991 with Down syndrome. She underwent early intervention at Mathru Mandir, Chennai, developed early learning skills at Srishti Special Academy, Bengaluru and did her pre-vocational training and creative movement therapy at RASA, Chennai. She was also part of the Sakthi Foundation, participating in their annual events. Karishma performed a number of dance-dramas, staged programmes and felicitated celebrities.

In 2008, Karishma relocated to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam with her family where she developed the skill of painting. After returning from Vietnam in 2015, Karishma lived in Mumbai for 2 years during which, she participated in Shaimak Dawar’s dance school and performed on stage. She is a certified yoga teacher from the J-yoga college in Japan. She also taught yoga for special children. She has now relocated to Bengaluru with her family and has set up her own art studio and a recreation centre for young adults with Down syndrome called Studio 21 UP.

Karishma’s journey as a contributing member of the society began in 2011 with her first solo painting exhibition titled – ‘I Can, You Can, We Can’. Since then she had 4 solo exhibitions and one auction in India and Vietnam and has donated over 135 paintings. Her exhibitions and auctions have raised over 75, 000 USD for charities supporting infant heart surgeries and special education in Vietnam and India. Karishma is now a self-advocate. Karishma’s work has been recognised and appreciated internationally. Besides being extensively covered by print and TV media in Vietnam, her early years’ talent was widely published in Indian media too. Her yoga sessions for young children was featured in the Niki magazine, Japan.

In the words of The Consulate General of India in Vietnam – “I must say she is a great diplomat and a great representative for India in Vietnam”. Karishma has modeled for a prestigious jeweller, CKC & Sons in Bengaluru and walked the ramp for the ‘Karnataka Women Achievers Award Event’ supported by Enable India. Karishma is also the recipient of the ‘World Down Syndrome International Award 2014’ and again in 2018, she received the ‘Self-advocacy Award’ from India International Down Syndrome Federation.

Karishma was a speaker at the UN in Geneva on the 21st March 2019 on the occasion of the World Down Syndrome Day. She was invited (along with her sister Kajol) by the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations and The Asia Pacific Down Syndrome Federation. To know more about Karishma, visit: www.karishmakannan.com

Dinal Jain

Currently working as an Assistant Teacher in SnehaDhara..

DOB: 17 May, 1994

Qualification: Cleared English, computer and home science from NIOS Board

Achievements

2013 Asia Pacific Paralympic Games, Australia

1 gold medal in the 25-meter butterfly stroke
1 bronze medal in swimming relay
4th place in the 50-meter butterfly stroke

Apart from this, I have more than 30 medals from National Swimming competitions I am going to participate in Special Olympics, Abu Dhabi this March ‘19..

Professional Experience

Currently, I am working as an Assistant Teacher at SnehaDhara Foundation. I work with children aged 8-10 years. I teach them yoga, dance, music and personal hygiene. I am also responsible for the children eating during lunch breaks. We have a cafe programme at school. I handle all the financial transactions — from buying items for the cafe to receiving cash from items sold. My role includes taking orders from staff and parents, preparing the dishes and selling them.

Hobbies

I had started yoga at a very early age. I can easily do most asanas. I would love to be a professional yoga instructor someday. I also teach kids to do yoga at school. I love music and dancing. Often, I dedicate my free time to dancing; I have my own dance routines. I choreograph and select music for my dances. I love to cook. I can make sambar rice, roti, parathas, khakra and tea without any assistance. With a little help, I can easily handle many other dishes.

Rangaswamy

Rangaswamy is a friendly, active boy who is almost..

Rangaswamy is a friendly, active boy who is almost 15 years old now. He is diagnosed with Mild Intellectual Disability, ADHD and speech delay. He was identified by our CBR team during the survey of surrounding villages last summer. He attended a normal government school, where he was unable to cope both with the setup and the studies. In June 2014, he was admitted to Shristi. At the time, he was very stubborn, had poor attention span, sitting tolerance and his social skills were grossly inadequate for his age.

Today, his compliance level has improved significantly; he not only cooperates with his teachers but also helps his friends. His sitting tolerance and attention to the task have improved to a great extent (he needs occasional monitoring though). He is verbal but his speech is not clear. His social communication skills have improved and is independent in self-care. Even though his academic abilities are low, he managed to learn the pre-requisites for vocational skills — making paper bags, punching holes to file a paper, packing candles, etc. Currently, he is learning some basic office skills such as going around to different units to show circulars, conveying simple messages to staff, etc. He took part in running programmes and successfully completed 10-KM runs.