Rehabilitation care for the specially abled
Started in 1996
H D Kote, Kodagu
Building Human &
Social Capital
Family Centric
Approach
Complementing Institution & Community based interventions
Identify, assess and enable PWDs to maximize their physical, mental and sensory abilities, compete with the mainstream and lead a socio-economically productive life.
Inclusion and Integration of Persons with Disabilities through Comprehensive Care, Support & Treatment
SVYM has been working in the area of disability since 1996, and is aiding PWDs to overcome their challenges by providing them with suitable medical care, therapy, counselling, and most importantly empowerment to maintain a life of quality and dignity.
The program was initiated to cater to the needs of 3000 PWDs in the surrounding areas of Saragur, and HD Kote taluks of Mysuru. Today this program addresses all the 21 types of disabilities as per “The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016″ and targets to serve more than 37,000 PWDs directly and to generate awareness among 22,00,000 rural people in all the Taluks of Mysuru & Kodagu districts.
Rehabilitation of a girl with Cerebral Palsy at the Rehab Centre at SVYM’s Vivekananda Memorial Hospital in Saragur.
Key Impact
39,000
Persons with Disabilities reached in Mysuru and Kodagu Districts of Karnataka
3,000+
Persons with Disabilities served with corrective medical interventions
1500+
Persons with Disabilities achieved complete rehabilitation to lead a socio-economically empowered life
250+
Active Self Help Groups formed
with PWD members in Mysuru and Kodagu district.
Building Human Capital
Early Identification of Disability
2240 Newborn & children screened for early identification of CwDs at hospitals, Govt. schools and Anganwadi
Medical Surgical Care
867 PwDs served with specialist medical consultation. 177 PwDs served with corrective and curative surgeries
Rehab Therapy & Training
510 PwDs & caretakers received counselling & economic support for rehabilitation. 25 PwDs & caretakers received vocational training for socio-economic stability
Vaccinations
Facilitating COVID-19 vaccination of 29500+ PwDs with 1st dose and 14800+ PwDs with 2nd dose along with their caretakers through home visits, counselling & transport
Building Social Capital
Assistive Devices
127 PwDs including 31 CwDs served with aids and assistive devices to enhance mobility
Social Empowerment
254 PwDs SHGs received the handholding training & supportive visit towards micro credit activities, collective problem solving and SHG functioning
Inclusion and Participation
Observed World Cerebral Palsy Day, World Mental Health Day & World Sight Day in various taluks of Mysuru with around 860 PwDs, family members and community members
IMPACT STORY
Impossible is nothing! Overcoming challenges with resilience
The knuckles on her right hand look no less than on a boxer’s fist, thick skinned, dark with callus, hardened against the poundings of an unrelenting life that wouldn’t go down, just like a punching bag.
The same fist bears her entire weight, minus the legs, amputated 12 years ago due to gangrene. She would pivot on her fist & slide over, using a plastic mat to reduce friction, the other hand designated the task of opening the door, picking things & other actions. The wheelchair seemed ineffective, as mounting it needed someone’s help. But she chose to be independent, after 12 years of being a recluse, a hopeless who wouldn’t even let the light in. The door shut.
In 2018-19, SVYM team knocked on that door as part of identification & screening of the specially abled in
Karnataka, the door never opened, but she was identified by a hopeful father. The village named Attikuppe in Hunsur, fed into the datasheet next to Latha labeled with physical disability.
Latha, a D.Ed was trying for a Govt. job before the accident that turned her life around to such an extent that she opened Youtube on her mobile to search for a painless way to take her own life. But even the youtube algorithm spotted something & showed a different search result, a video about the ‘law of attraction’ that also led to a talk with her Uncle who handed her ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne. She read it back to back 10 times.
The door opened after 12 long years, around the same time she heard about SVYM’s Viveka Rural Livelihood Centre (VRLC) from her Uncle & the vocational course in Sani-preneurship involving making & marketing phenyl, floor cleaner, sanitizer & soap oil. But the 3 batches planned were already over. The
resource faculty & arrangements done with.
She wanted the universe to conspire in helping her do the training & Mr Prasanna, Co-ordinator from VRLC sensed it, requesting her to come to VRLC next Sunday. For the first time in VRLC’s history, the course was conducted for just 1 candidate. A 4 day course completed in 1, theory & practicals blended, raw material for starting off supplied.
The result, launch of Latha’s products under the label – Royal Clean and SVYM’s Vivekananda Memorial Hospital being the first client to buy the full batch. Her father would joke that the tears in his eyes are because of the soap, butnot the 12 years that went into precipitating them.
Latha says if she gets going, she’ll employ more specially abled & make her start-up become an example for others. It was time to put her in the wheelchair and take a photo. Lifting her felt so light, was it due to the fact that there were no legs, or was it because she chose not to let anyone see her as a burden, is a lesson in one’s evolution that’s locked, so is the moment in the photo below.
Thank you UNICEF India for supporting SVYM in building the human capital through training of 90 individuals in Sani-preneurship.
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