Parents say thank you to special teachers

As the world celebrates International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3, parents of children with disabilities in Jharia expressed their gratitude to the special teachers of a government-owned resource centre for the disabled children. The teachers of the centre took the extra effort to continue the training and exercise session for these children even during the lockdown by reaching their houses. The resource centre was established under the education programme of Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan. 

Manoj Singh, physiotherapist of the Jharia-based resource centre, and Akhlaque Ahmad, special educator-cum-speech therapist, during the lockdown, didn’t allow the training and exercises to be discontinued even for a single day for over 20 cerebral palsy affected and autistic children.

Talking to The Telegraph Online on Thursday, Singh said, “Though altogether 109 children are registered at our centre, we were greatly concerned about the well-being of around 20 cerebral palsy affected children, ever since the imposition of lockdown. We used the smartphones to make video calls explaining the exercises and even sent videos of exercises to be carried out regularly through WhatsApp.”

Echoing sentiments, Akhlaque Ahmad, said, “We also carried out training in basic hygiene and cleanliness about these children which is quite crucial for their health.”

“For some children of the economically backward section of the society, whose parents could not afford to have smartphones to avail the online exercise lessons, we had to visit their home and give them the lessons,” said Ahmad.