Handi Care International - We Can Make a Difference

Centre for Special Education for
Children with Special Needs
UPDATED - JANUARY 2010

Our Building "CENTRE FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION" is completed and was inaugurated on May 8, 2009 at Amar Seva Sangam campus.

Click here to view HCI's Sponsorship of Children at the Centre

Click here to View Available Children

CENTRE FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION - A DREAM COME TRUE PROJECT!!

	Salient Features of the Centre: 6,600 Sq. Ft. of rooms 8 Classrooms Large Indoor Activity centre Dining, Physiotherapy & Office Rooms Outdoor Play / Exercise Ramp for wheelchair access all around the outdoor play area Washrooms
Front View with Ramp for wheelchair access		Side View of the Centre – Backside of class rooms
Directors from HCI at inauguration with Swami Dayananda Saraswati CSE Annual day Jan 5, 2010	HCI raised and disburse $106,000 for the building and $10,000 for teachers’ training in the 2006-2008 period. This was possible mainly due to our compassionate donors, who came forward to sponsor one class room each, as listed below. more photos of the building Inauguration Photos Press coverage of the Event *Photos during Gita visit*	Meena Suppiah with Swamiji CSE Annual day Jan 5, 2010
To build this centre has been the dream and strife of HCI since 2005. Our volunteers worked mainly with the special needs children, almost on a one to one basis. Even within the short duration of 4 to 6 weeks, the children showed significant improvement. They, particularly Kavitha Krishna came back with the proposal to build a centre exclusively for the special needs children, as such a facility was direly lacking at Amar Seva Sangam. Though it seemed like a lofty goal of unreachable heights, our success with rebuilding Thonithurai after the Tsunami gave us a lot of hope and confidence and HCI board approved the proposal to raise funds for the same. Little did we know that the initial agreement we signed with ASSA for $80,000 which included the cost of teachers’ training in 2007, was going to be overthrown with an amended version of $130,000 within a year. The cost of cement and building materials had escalated to unbelievable heights. Thanks to the engineer Mr. Rajapon and the contractor Mr. Mariappan, that we saved bundles, even at this rate. A building of this magnitude would have cost us close to $160,000 or more with any other contractor. At one point, our dream was at the verge of collapse when no one wanted the job, due to the rough rocky terrain and the labor intensity involved was too high to worth their while. Fortunately the retired engineer came to our rescue and accepted to take on this project at no profit. Rajapon reminisces that it was very tough to blast off the rocks in the ground, which was a lot more than what was anticipated and he even had second thoughts at some point. But luck is on our side and now the building is a reality!! A permanent asset to use for the ones in need.. *It is more than just a school !!*
This will be a Training centre for Special Education in the entire district, to enroll and train new candidates and parents. 30 more from the waiting will be joining the school, for a total enrolment of 100. This facility includes separate rooms for each class grouped according to ability. Each classroom is equipped with educational tools and learning aids such as black boards, flash cards, charts, posters, kinesthetic materials, and other toys and games to support learning. Chairs, desks and other supportive furniture will be custom-built on site in order to suit the needs of students with physical disabilities. One classroom will be devoted to job-skills training for older students. 80 other children from the respite canters (Parent Managed Respite Centre) will have access to and benefit from resources of CSE. Properly structured support and training will be provided to the parents of children at the centre. This will help parents understand their child’s needs better and be able to participate in their education. This program will be modeled after an existing parental support system offered in the village-based rehabilitation centres at ASSA. It will be funded through other operational funding sources. Additional training will be provided to staff members. The appropriate program for each staff member will be determined based on previous education and experience.

We need sponsorships for the children, 100 of whom will be placed in our new centre within the next few weeks. We welcome you to take a look at some of the children awaiting sponsorship by clicking here Click here to read the souvenir we published for the fund raising event. To build this centre has been the dream and strife of HCI since 2005. It is built in India at “Amar Seva Sangam” which will caters to the needs of 75 mentally challenged children in the poor rural area of India. These children have varying conditions from Autism to Cerebral Palsy to Mental retardation. The primary aim of this initiative is to build a centre with classrooms, games & activity rooms; train qualified educators and equip the centre with sufficient educational & activity materials. We gratefully acknowledge all our donors and sponsors who made this dream a reality.....
List of Major Donors:
1	Mrs. Gita Sankaran & family	31. Ms. Georgina Roche
2	Karuppiah Suppiah & family	32. Mr. & Mrs. Venu Thampi
3	Dr. B. Ramaswami	33. Mr. & Mrs. Narayanaswamy
4	Dr. & Mrs. Anilkumar & Shanthi Menon	34. Mr. & Mrs. Mahendra Shah
5	Pankaja Group	35. Mr. & Mrs. Raghavan Sundaresan
6	Dr. & Mrs. Terry Papneja	36. Mr. & Mrs. Sekhar Iyer
7	Mr. & Mrs. Cadambi Sriram	37. Mr. & Mrs. Sudhir Negi
8	Dr. & Mrs. Raj Tuppal	38. Mr. & Mrs. Nara Manickam
9	Mr. & Mrs. Bhupatrai & Sarla Bhuta	39. Vani Pasupathy & Suneil Sastry
10	Dr. & Mrs. Ramakrishnan, USA	40. Mr. & Mrs. Natarajan Iyer
11	Dr. & Mrs. T.N. Krishnamurthy	41. Mr. & Mrs. Vinod Arora
12	Mr. & Mrs. Ravi Subramaniam	42. Mr. & Mrs. Sam Krishna
13	Chandran Ratnaswamy	43. Mr. & Mrs. Raj Valliappan
14	Dr. Vamini Selvanandan	44. Mr. & Mrs. Suman Ghai
15	Dr. & Mrs. Dinesh Krishna	45.Mr. Mrs. Pravin Ghai
16	Mr. & Mrs. V.I. Lakshmanan	46.Mr. Mrs. Adaikkappan
17	Mr. & Mrs. Sunil Ghai	47.Mr. Pankaj Dave
18	Mr. & Mrs. Arun Luthra	48.Mr. & Mrs. Gopi Menon
19	Mr. & Mrs. Naveen Seth	49.Drs. Yegappan
20	Mr. Ajay Koushik	50.Mr. & Mrs. Nalini Bhargava
21	Mr. & Mrs. R.K. Moorthy	51.Ms. Nargiz Daya
22	Mr. & Mrs. P. Srinivasan	52. Mr. & Mrs. Praveen Ghai
23	Mr. & Mrs. N. Krishnamurthy	53.Dr. & Mrs. S. Pasupathy
24	Mr. & Mrs. S. Kalyanasundaram	54.Mr. & Mrs. S. Thiagarajan
25	Mr. & Mrs. S.K. Mosur	55.Mr. & Mrs. Sundra Rajan
26	Drs. Raghu Raman	56.Mr. & Mrs. Vijay Bajaj
27	Mr. & Mrs. Ram Ramakrishnan	57.Mr. & Mrs. Vinod Verma
28	Mr. & Mrs. Srini B.Srinivasan	58.Mr. & Mrs. N.Raghunathan
29	Mr. Gary Gurmukh
30	Mr. & Mrs. Arun Kapoor

CORPORATIONS & ADVERTISERS
1.	JET AIRWAYS	21. Ideal Tile & Carpet
2.	Hindu Temple Society of Canada	22. Newmarket Volvo
3.	Bayer	23. Maharani Fashions
4.	Sunlife Financial	24. Thushari Suduvelikanda
5.	Balan Manian	25. Ian Kirby - Scotia Bank
6.	Metratrade Ltd	26. Skylight Travels
7.	Royal Bank	27. 5th Element
8.	Fundserv Inc	28. Remax - Dynasty Realty Inc.
9.	GGI Ltd	29. Kannan Dental
10.	The Sixtythree Foundation	30. Neal & Massey Ltd
11.	Statebank of India (Canada)	31. Sultana Samosas
12.	ICICI Bank
13.	S.V. Tek
14.	Anjappar Chettinad
15.	Purdue Pharma
16.	CIBC Wood Gundy
17.	Manas Metals
18.	Raj Bassi
19.	Latha Sukumar
20.	South Asian Women's Centre
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We sincerely thank all other donors whose contributions are equally valuable and indispensable.
Birth of this commitment
Since 2004, 5 to 10 youth volunteers from HCI have been spending the summer months working with these children with mental challenges. The results we see from this one on one education are substantial. Given a proper centre facilities with trained teachers, we are confident that many of these children can be rehabilitated to a great extent. The strong message came from our young volunteers asking HCI to commit to building the centre
Estimated Budget for the project (In Canadian Dollars):
Building 8 classrooms & ramps around the building : $82,000 Physical Education room : $15,400 Resource & Wash rooms : $10,000 Staff training : $10,000 Total : $117,400

The expected outcome of this project is three-pronged:
Enhancement of current programs: The overarching goal of this project is to change the focus of the program from a day care centre to a special education school. This will be made possible by securing funding for the necessary additional training, facilities, and equipment.
Staff Training: Given requested funding, all current staff members will receive basic training in special education. This will consist of either an intensive course leading to a diploma or a correspondence course leading to a Bachelor of Education.
Planned Facilities: A new school will be constructed with sufficient space to house current students. This facility will include separate rooms for each class, so that students can be more appropriately grouped according to ability. In addition to classroom space, a dining hall, physical education room, outdoor play area, resource centre, physiotherapy room, and adequate washroom facilities will be constructed. The facility will be appropriately equipped with a variety of educational tools and learning aids.
For more detailed information about this project, please click here.