Uttarakhand Sabhi Ke Liye Shiksha Parishad and Raphael Centre have jointly conducted counselling camps for parents of children with special needs. Camps have been held in all blocks of Haridwar and Dehradun districts this month, and in some blocks of Tehri Garhwal and Uttarkashi. The programme will continue till the end of March 21.

The camps are coordinated by the Block Resource Coordinator. Raphael’s team of special educators meet the parents as a group initially and then have one-to-one sessions with the parent and child. A brief assessment is done of the child’s needs. The parents are suggested activities to do at home, their expectations become more realistic, and further referrals are made, as required. Too often, because of a lack of communication the parent comes without the child. Without seeing the child , counselling is not possible.

Persons with disability require a disability certificate to apply for the Unique Disability Identification Card. which is compulsory to avail of any government schemes, the reason being that the child does not have a disability certificate. Thus far, Raphael’s team has counselled almost 300 parents.

There are very few trained resource teachers in the districts and thus parents have no access to training or information for the child with disability. The primary school teachers in the Blocks covered so far have requested Raphael to conduct online webinars creating awareness on disability which we will do from April 21.

Raphael Centre, Mohini Road, Dehadun