Special Needs education help

Translation

Namaskar, my name is Ms. Meeta Mukherjee, Director of Piyali Foundation, Raipur. The Piyali Foundation is a special needs school started in 2004. Here we do special community-based rehabilitation for the kids. The pandemic has taught all of us many things. The first challenge for special educators was online classes. Regular kids can sit and study properly, but special needs kids are not able to concentrate properly. Due to this, they slowed down a lot. Many kids in our school are poor, and they do not have food to eat. The Piyali Foundation gave dry rations to these kids’ parents.

The second challenge faced by these kids is an increase in behavioral problems. Since these kids require more care, and the coronavirus isolated them from their school, friends at school, etc. Behaviors started changing suddenly, and parents have started getting worried.
 
 
The Story


The Challenges of  kids & teachers in India


In 2020 the whole world changed suddenly. As a result, the public fears being close to each other. In India, significant changes have occurred for children and teachers. Schools are closed, and it’s been a challenge to teach kids virtually, especially the special needs students.


In Nagpur, the special needs school helps the students in the city. The school is ancient, and last year the building fell. Previously teachers were teaching students on open grounds without a proper restroom, blackboard, or other materials. Since the pandemic, teachers had to contact parents to allow students to study in one place. Currently, kids are learning, but they miss friends’ warm atmosphere and their usual study material. The school in Nagpur needs a roof for the students, proper restrooms, and school supplies to study.


On the outskirts of Kolkata, India, there are two elementary and two middle schools in need. Due to the pandemic, the schools closed down, and teachers have had to rely on teaching students virtually. Unfortunately, kids do not have access to smartphones and are sitting at home and bored. Recently a few senior citizens decided to open their front rooms to them, and kids can study together daily at a specific time. In Raipur, Chattisgarh, there’s a special needs kid school. The students love to go there and study with their teachers and volunteers. Due to the pandemic, the school is closed, and the kids are learning virtually by using their parent’s cell phones. Students can review their material, but they cannot touch it and feel it, so they do not pay attention. A few of the students want to listen to the teachers, but they cannot because they have a hearing impairment. For those students, remote learning has been challenging, and vision-impaired students face similar challenges. The parents of these children are at home to explain what is happening while they learn, but the kids get frustrated because they cannot touch the material to study.


Just imagine two or three senior citizens teaching between 50 to 60 kids.


In Maharashtra, there’s an elementary school where teachers are facing problems. The school is on the outskirts of Nagpur, and the Internet services aren’t that good. Teachers have to log in daily in the evening to teach students because the students are dependent on their parent’s smartphones. Unfortunately, the power usually fails at that time.  


Teachers can do lessons for about 40 minutes, but it’s not possible under the current circumstances. Teachers are paying more to Internet companies for virtual classes. Unfortunately, a few schools are not paying teachers for virtual classes because the schools are not getting paid in the form of admission fee and a monthly fee, which would equal $700 or $70 per student. In some cases, teachers give out homework to kids via What’s App, Facebook Messenger on their cell phones. Teachers have to check the assignment on their cellphones. As a result, kids are doing homework on their parents’ phones, and parents complain about missing calls.



The Goal

We need your help to raise $250,000 to provide the students with educational material, and we need to store and house the material. We also need to provide teachers with access to training material and school supplies such as pencils, erasers, crayons, and more.


Please donate to help support these students to advance their learning and receive the products they need with your help. These students are counting on you to help them be educated.