Initiated and organised by Jayant Pendharkar
The following members of FORTESS from Mumbai participated in the visit to SRCC. Mrs.Mala Ramadorai was our special guest briefed the members in details about The Children’s Hospital under The Society for the Rehabilitation of Crippled Children(SRCC) (registered in 1948), and Centre for Child Development (CASE) – Special Education Therapy Department.
Information of members:
Mr.S.Ramadorai: President of SRCC
Mr.S.Mahalingam: Vice-President of SRCC.
The hospital is managed by Dr.Narayan Shetty of Narayana Health (NH) and has started functioning after a formal inaugural function in.
Jayant Pendharkar Harish Menon
Ranjana Maitra B. Gopal
D.G. Rao R. Hariharan
Lata Sivaprasad Keyur Dhaky
Suresh Kumar Ganesh Kulkarni
S.D.Haridas
Centre for Child Development (CASE)
Mrs.Mala Ramadorai introduced us to the CASE Staff, Director, Mrs. Priya Deshpande, Ms.Sukaina and Ms.Parul, Admin and Nisha, Home Science and briefed members on the various activities. CASE caters to children with special needs – eg. slow learners, mild autism, dyslexia and similarly differently abled children. The curriculum followed is the National Institute of Open (NIOS).
This programme, among other options, offers the opportunity of appearing for 5 subjects for the NIOS exams over a period of three years. In addition, children are exposed to vocational topics like baking, cooking, stitching, pottery, gardening and Yoga and sports so that the children can pursue these skills as a career or independently set up their own entrepreneurial activity. Each child is given individual attention and children in groups of 3 to 4 are taken care of by each teacher.
The department organised for the members to meet and interact with the children for almost an hour. Many of the children shared their experiences and spoke on what they have been skilled in and what they liked to do. The children also expressed interest in interacting with FORTESS members and requested members if they could spend time with them in the learning process for the development of children at CASE. It was heartening to note the happiness writ on the face of each child. The children displayed their skills like singing. Further the physical training teacher, who caters to floor exercises of each child, organised lezim dance with drumming by skilled children which was excellently displayed.
The children also displayed their energy and enthusiasm in different sports activities. The one to one interaction with the differently abled children was an eye opener for the Fortess members, who have expressed a desire to help the children in one form or the other. The Director of CASE was impressed with the visit and looks forward to what Fortess members can give back to Society through CASE.
Visit to SRCC Children’s Hospital managed by Narayan Health(NH)
Mr.Ritesh Kumar – Head Administration and Mr.B. Gopal of FORTESS who was responsible for the infrastructure set-up of the hospital joined the FORTESS members for a floorwise visit to the hospital. Some of the significant benefactors who have contributed are Ramakrishna Bajaj Charitable Trust, Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation, JSW Foundation, TCS among many other contributors.
This hospital has the latest state-of-the-art medical equipment and offers paediatric care facilities in several areas of specialisation, like Paediatric Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Neurosurgery, Orthopaedics, Cardiothoracic surgery, Critical Care, ENT, with highly qualified and skilled doctors. The Fortess members visited each of these units, including OPD, Transplant Isolation zones. The hospital has been designed beautifully with paintings of children and each floor having a significant symbol painting to distinguish floorwise units. It has over 200 beds, 87 bed Critical Care units, 7 OTs amongst several other essential facilities. To top it all, the hospital has displayed beautiful paintings done by the differently abled children of CASE, in addition to the soothing pictures displayed around the children’s beds. The hospital also has a large play area in-house for the children.
The Hospital offers excellent facilities to treat children from various parts of the globe and Fortess members can help in popularising this Hospital for children in their own regions. Members can visit the website: info.srcc@nhhospitals.org/www.narayanahealth.org for more details.
Feedback from Mrs.Mala Ramadorai on the visit
Mala expressed her thanks to Secretary Fortess and members for this visit and suggested that members of Fortess can think of associating with SRCC by connecting with CASE Director and staff who can guide the members on specific needs and requirement of children at SRCC.
