Nimisha Muttiah a Speech Language Pathologist at Penn State University, Pennsylvania, USA on a recent visit to Sri Lanka in July this year, took time to journey to Jaffna; to see for herself how children with special needs were being handled and of her weeklong she spoke Vijayaluxmi Sivananthan of LakbimaNews. ‘I spent most of [...]

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The Sundaytimes Sri Lanka

Salient silent heroes of Jaffna need help to continue good work

Joanne Kotelawala
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Nimisha Muttiah a Speech Language Pathologist at Penn State University, Pennsylvania, USA on a recent visit to Sri Lanka in July this year, took time to journey to Jaffna; to see for herself how children with special needs were being handled and of her weeklong she spoke Vijayaluxmi Sivananthan of LakbimaNews.

‘I spent most of my time interviewing parents of children with special needs.’ Her particular interest was to know whether there were facilities for special education in Jaffna and the suburbs. Initially Nimisha had been motivated to engage in this exercise as a part of a research project in connection with her doctoral studies; at the end of the visit she felt a need to talk of her experiences to others with a focus on showcasing the hard work of the volunteers.

In the process of her interviews with parents of the intellectually and physically challenged children, Nimisha came upon The Ark, a place to which parents expressed gratitude and praise for caring for the children who could not be accommodated in the regular education system. “The Ark is a residential and day school for children with intellectual impairments,” Nimisha explained. She also mentioned that the facility has been in existence since 1978 and managed by the order of the Holy Family sisters, “the nuns were clearly committed to caring for these special children despite the many challenges faced” clearly expressed how impressed the young researcher was, by what she saw.

Nimisha went on to speak of the school “It accepts both boys and girls between the ages of 6-16 years who have been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, autism, intellectual impairments, seizures (fits), learning disability and hyperactivity.” I was also told that “currently the school has enrolled 40 children of whom 25 are residential,” and that “many of the children are residential as their parents have to travel long distances to the school. And it is impossible to make a daily trip.” The sisters who run the school and are engaged in the training and development of the children have had training in Special Education initially in Sri Lanka and subsequently specialized in India. “A few of the hostellers pay a small token fee towards their upkeep while the others are not charged anything, all the children are provided the midday meal by the school,” said Nimisha, happy the school was ensuring that the children received some proper nourishment too. The Ark functions purely based on donations and Nimisha had been told that there is a monthly shortfall of Rs.80,000/- which involved cost of food, staff salaries and hostel maintenance. It was a poignant moment for young Nimisha, as the sisters were speaking of lack of funds, how an ice cream van plying the road was waved down and beckoned to the school compound, the children surrounding the van and the wheel chair bound watching in earnest. Every child was treated to ice cream even the cerebral palsy victim on the wheel chair was fed the treat. The love and kindness at The Ark has to be seen to be felt. The Ark is located at Udduvil, Chunnakam.

“The Sivapoomi School for children with special needs, cares for over 200 children with Down syndrome and autism, and is a day school; where the schoolday ends at 2p.m. The uniqueness of this school is, it provides the children with transport to and from school to ensure attendance and they too provide meals while at school, ” and the principal of the school had confided “many parents are unable to bring their children to school due to economic difficulties,” said Nimisha and added “nearly all of the parents that I spoke to had high levels of satisfaction with the services that this school provides, too, they spoke highly of the quality and dedication of the teachers that taught their children.” The principal had proudly pointed to a banner showing one of their students who had participated in the Youth Special Olympics (2011) and had succeeded in winning a silver medal, at the games. This school is completely free of charge for all the children and the principal of the school had shared the fact that they function, based on donations from well-wishers which in recent times have dropped. The school has been functioning for the past 8 years. Sivapoomi School is located in Kondavil, Jaffna.www.sivapoomi.org

“My visit to Jaffna was inspired by the work of Dr. Anand Kumar who runs God’s Own Children’s Foundation which runs ‘The Atchuveli home for differently abled children” located in Atchuvelli, just outside of Jaffna, and is home to 13 boys of whom seven have special needs, ” said Nimisha of how the trip to Jaffna came about. In this home she said, “the children are of varying ages and were resident there because either both, or one of their parents had been killed in the war or due to their parents not being able to afford to keep them at home,” and continued the story by saying “ during my seven day stay in Jaffna I visited the Achchuvelli home daily and had the opportunity to interact with the boys and see the capable skills of their matron.”

Nearly all the persons in the home had faced some form of brutality during the period of the war. But now they seemed to be leading normal lives, participating in daily household chores, is what had impressed Nimisha most. “I am taking back with me very positive impressions of my visit” said Nimisha, going on to explain that “ Dr. Anand also facilitates other children with learning disabilities to attend regular schools with typically developing peers. www.godsownchildren.com

Nimisha had also met Dr. Sivarajah, a resident of Jaffna for the past 30 years, who has engaged to providing services to people with special needs while teaching at the Jaffna University. The organization he runs is the “Association for Rehabilitation of the Disabled” (AROD) which has been functioning since February, 1990. “AROD is unique in that it is only place I came across in Jaffna that looks after the interests of adults with disabilities,” said Nimisha.

This organization conducts vocational training in various skills such as sewing, handicrafts, rattaning, plants and beauty culture, giving individuals with learning disabilities an opportunity to be self employed or employed through AROD, empowering them, and making them self sufficient.

Nimisha said she felt compelled to highlight these institutions and organizations that persisted in providing much needed services to individuals with disabilities despite their difficult circumstances.

For these are the salient, silent heroes of society who need the assistance of those who care for fellow human beings and for their right to speech therapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy.




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