In the late 1990s, Iyapan Subramanyan from Edayur, Tiruvalur district, Tamil Nadu, experienced a personal loss when his older brother with Down syndrome died. Faced with a lack of awareness and lack of medical facilities in his village, as well as social judgment, Iyappan started Shri His Arnodayam Charitable Trust in Chennai in 2002.
Twenty years later, Arnodayam has become a refuge for hundreds of children with intellectual disabilities, all abandoned by their own families.
“After my brother passed away, I decided to pursue an education in the field of disability and rehabilitation. That’s when I started Arnodayam with the help of my sister Jayachitra in a small house with one child and little food,” says Iyappan.
Arnodayam is intended for children with multiple intellectual and physical disabilities, including cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and other neurological disorders. Currently, there are 115 children of her from 1 year old to her 35 years old. Its main focus is to provide these boys and girls with shelter and care and rehabilitation through education and occupational therapy.
In its 20th year, Arnodayam will open a 21,000-square-foot women’s-only facility in Kallikuppam, Chennai, capable of accommodating nearly 100 inmates.
Most children endure rejection, abuse and unimaginable hardships and arrive home in pitiful conditions, Iyappan said. “We have so many children that parents put in hospitals or adoption centers when they realized that their child had special needs.” He said he had a serious medical condition.
In its 20th year, Arnodayam will open a 21,000-square-foot women’s-only facility in Kallikuppam, Chennai, capable of accommodating nearly 100 inmates.
Pooja was abandoned by his parents a few days after his birth. She was then adopted by her, thinking she was a normal child. However, within six months, her adoptive parents realized she had special needs and returned her to her agency. Pooja has an intellectual disability with her developmental delay, after which she was sent to Arnodayam.
Pooja has an intellectual disability with developmental delay and was then sent to Arnodayam.
“When Pooja came to us, she was eight months old and had some developmental delays. It took her two years to sit,” Yappan recalls. Now, through therapy and training, 12 year old Pooja is now able to stand and walk with our support and is part of our special education training.
“This child had no life, no one for her. But with timely care, her life came back and it has come a long way. It’s very moving, and I’m very happy to be able to change a child’s life,” he said. This is just one example of the many stories we have, he added.
Since Arnodayam was founded, Iyappan and his team have saved 364 children. The main motivation is to improve the quality of life of children through education and treatment so that they can contribute to society as independent individuals. “When we started, we didn’t have the money or the resources to care for these children. All we had was the passion to help them,” he said. said.
Poverty, social stigma, family problems, and the fact that it takes a lot of time, patience, and resources are the main reasons families abandon a child with special needs. And parents don’t want to, Iyappan said. “It breaks my heart to see parents abandoning their months-old babies on the streets.”
In 2008, Arnodayam was approved by the state government. The government and the Child Welfare Commission send the children found in the hospital to Ar Nodayam. The government has also started offering grants to organizations. “We receive children through the Child Helpline (1098), and Child Welfare Boards in all districts of Tamil Nadu, sometimes directly from government hospitals,” he said. . Children with HIV are treated and, once stabilized, are transferred to government-licensed HIV homes.
Programs offered
Over the years, Arnodayam’s focus has also shifted to rehabilitation, including occupational therapy. Place your child in Early Intervention, Preschool Level 1, and Vocational Programs based on your child’s ability and fitness.
NGOs also have vocational training units. Playatnastarted in 2012, where older children (18+) are trained in bookbinding and making paper bags, envelopes, candles and beads. “We try to make them as self-reliant as possible,” Iyappan said.
“Initially, the focus was on occupational therapy to help develop the necessary interactive social skills. It provided a great opportunity and helped them become more productive at their own pace.”
Apart from this, students also learn other activities such as music and dance.
Sumangali was just over two years old when he came to Arnodayam in March 2010. She was diagnosed with spastic cerebral palsy, a severe disability that made her chances of survival very slim. However, physical therapy, speech therapy, and medical care have allowed her to become quite independent and even help small children. She can even tell the time, which is quite a feat given her poor early prognosis.”
Over the years, Arnodayam has won various awards in India and abroad, including the prestigious World of Children Awards 2016. The organization also launched the Special Mom Awards in 2017 to transform the way society considers and responds to special children and their families. Most of the time they are misunderstood, discriminated against and judged. Each year we give an award to the mother of a special child.
CHALLENGES FACED IN THE LAST 20 YEARS
Like other NGOs, Arnodayam has faced some challenges. He identified three main challenges. The first is to secure human resources to take care of such children with intellectual disabilities. “It’s a huge responsibility. Our backbone is our caregivers. We ensure they are trained, well equipped, loving and caring.”
Financing is a major challenge as caring for children with severe intellectual disabilities requires specialized care and services. For example, some children cannot sleep on their own. “We face many challenges in securing properly trained caregivers,” he added. “It’s a big commitment and a lot of people don’t want it.”
Third, as Yappan says, paperwork. “As an NGO, we have a lot of documents and rules that we have to follow. We had to register from different departments. It also makes sense.”
Ippan recalls how long and arduous the process of building a house for a girl was. “We bought the land in 2009 and it took her 10 years to get the approval. Then we started financing and building. I did.”
Apart from this, students also learn other activities such as music and dance.
Arnodayam’s main sources of income, apart from government subsidies, are donations (both from India and abroad) and corporate social responsibility funds.
Sanyukta Gupta, co-leader of the India chapter of Catalyst 2030 and co-founder of Chennai Volunteers, has been a donor and supporter of Arnodayam since its inception. “My first visit to Arnodayam was with my two young children when I moved to Chennai. Since then it has been a wonderful journey to see him work on his vision with great dedication.
“I am blown away by what Sri Arnodayam has achieved. Even with limited means he was able to achieve this. We didn’t have the resources then, but now we have very good facilities,” she said. Gupta added that it takes a lot of commitment and confidence to do this with complete confidence.
child and parent reunion
Over the past 20 years, Sri Arnodayam has reunited nearly 100 children and their families. “We tried to identify the parents of several young adult children using the clues we got from them. We tracked nearly 105 families and asked the parents why they were leaving their children. rice field.
