Inclusion International
Samadhan India
Mothers (and Fathers) with their disabled Kids
Day-Care Centers run by the Indian NGO Samadhan in Dakshinburi and Dwarka, New Delhi, India
Poverty brings together families surviving on daily wages and caught in the vicious cycle of lack of education, unemployment, malnutrition. This situation coupled with paucity of services, are the main contributors to a disproportionately large number of intellectually disabled persons in low-income communities.
Samadhan, a registered non-profit organization set up in 1981 in New Delhi, India, has a dual approach in the betterment of low-income resettlement communities: children with intellectual disability and their mothers.
Samadhan provides counseling, medical, educational and vocational services to children with intellectual disability. Samadhan's philosophy is that all persons with intellectual disability can be helped, if appropriate and timely services are available.
Besides the services for children, Samadhan runs occupational activity centers (housed in the same buildings) where mothers produce nutrition supplements, spice-mixes and paper-mache art work that are later sold at local markets. The women earn money for their work and are thus able to contribute to the family finances. They also strengthen their social skills and further their education.
The strong focus on women is a strategic part of Samadhan's work as it recognizes the fact that the investment in the development of women constitutes the highest pay-off and highest multiplying factor in terms of social effectiveness compared to any other effort in fighting social disparity.
