In 2010, Maanas approached us with a proposal of hosting in-house training of our staff whose primary focus was to work on female issues. We selected our team of various field workers, community workers, different strata of psychological counselors and legal counselors depending on their experience in terms of number of working years, kind of issues they handled and their education in this field. However, the common aspect among all these members was that they dealt with women related issues such as Domestic violence, Metal health, Economic empowerment. After the training, we found a profound change in the team considering their technique and dealing with women who came with their problems, their approach and attitude towards them, their level of empathy towards their problem and an overall maturity to the understanding of the problem. The training helped AWAG's employees is several ways and even today, the learning has cascaded to new employees thereafter.
We are grateful to Maanas for the strong technical support received in strengthening the initial screening procedure which will certainly have a far reaching impact on the educational attainment of the Visamokids in the years to come.
Maanas was introduced to Visamo Kids Foundation (VKF) in the year 2013. VKF is a shelter home in Ahmedabad and we work towards empowering lives to ensure that children from underprivileged families in Gujarat gain access to quality K-12 education in the finest English Medium schools of the city. In the quest to reach out to the meritorious kids from marginalized sections of the society, VKF conducts screening tests/assessments. Maanas has recommended remedial steps in the on-going screening procedure at Visamo by developing a comprehensive tool inclusive of checklists for physical examination, psychological testing, timing of the bridge-in programme, tests to assess fine/gross motor cells and initial tests indicative of learning disabilities.
Blind People's Association is working with all categories of persons with disabilities including persons with severe mental disorders through community based rehabilitation approach (CBR). BPA has reached to remote areas of Gujarat and has provided services to more than 5000 persons with mental illness.
The team of CBR workers execute the program like identification, certification, creating awareness in the community. The CBR workers are XII class pass and are provided 6 weeks hands on training. We are thankful to Ms. Sarita Shah from Manas the inside story for training our CBR workers in rapport building, basic counseling skills and understanding the person with mental illness. she conducted two training programs for CBR workers and one training program for group of special educators who work with children with mental retardation and multiple disabilities. both the groups benefited a lot from her training sessions.
Once again we are grateful for her services for the cause. We hope that in future also we will continue having such collaboration for providing quality services.
