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Showing posts from November, 2012
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ALFAA:  Recently attended the inauguration of AlFAA-Assisted living for autistic male adults. Ruby Singh the founder of ALFAA has taken on this initiative single handedly and that in itself is commendable. As a pilot project, she is taking in 5 kids in a smaller set up. She is planning to move in sometime next year around, to the proposed residential campus on 2.25 acres of land in North Bangalore (near Chikkaballapur).The campus would include • Residential cottages • One storey flats • 24hrs security and health care services. Currently she has a team of physiotherapists, spl educators and music therapists. She would be focusing on life skills. The neighboring villages would serve as a pool of employable care givers and in the bargain create job opportunities for the people of nearby villages. As part of the pilot project she plans to take on the laundry work for the neighboring houses. This will be some of the vocational activities she plans to introduce.(Did I mention

By default

I had written this article for the newspapers, post the movie Barfi. It never got published. One paper was kind enought to send me a reply stating that articles written only by the staff are published. So here it is , by default for my discerning readers :)-. It may be a little outdated , but what with the kids hols and everything else , I just got busy. There you go....                        Autism is back in news, grabbing eyeballs. Thanks to Barfi, the disability is garnering the attention that has been overdue to it. The movie has stuck an emotional chord with most viewers. It has received its fair share of brickbats and bouquets. What has Barfi given us? It has given the parents, caregivers, professionals belonging to this ever increasing community of autism, a captive audience.                         Unlike many disabilities recognized by the government of India, autism has yet to be recognized. It is not even mentioned in the census. Such is the terrible plight of childr