SERC
( Special Education and Rehabilitation Centre) was established in
1993, with few members and with the support of the Government
Sectors like Social Justice, Empowerment &Welfare
and Health & Family Welfare Department and NGOs Like
Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy (IICP),
Calcutta
, and State Council for Child Welfare. The SERC was affiliated to
the IICP Calcutta in the year 1994. the Government has been
continuously supporting it with transport facility and regular
grant in aid of Rs 2 Lakh per annum since 2001.
The Sikkim State Council for Child Welfare was running Special
Education & Rehabilitation Centre before it was taken over by
the the Spastics Society of Sikkim on 27th February, 1997.
The
Founder members of Spastic Society of Sikkim comprised of Dr.Bela
Cintury, Dr. Henrimit Lepcha, Dr. B.P.Dhakal, Shri
G.M.Gurung,Mrs.Ganga Pradhan, Mrs.Yashoda Bhandari and Mr.Sonam
Sangdarpa.
The society has been playing the role of the Disables’ Rights
Group in
Sikkim
for implementation of the Sikkim people With Disability
Rules,2001, an extension of the People With Disability (
Protection of Rights, Equal Opportunity, Full Participation) Act
1995 and the National Trust Act 1999.
It began with seven members, which has grown up to seventy.
The SERC which is a Day Care Centre established for need based
service by the founder
members in 1993 with two Special Educators has grown up to seven
who look after Special Education for Cerbral Palsy, Mental
Retardation, Autism and Multiple Disabilities and it also has a
Physiotharapist to look after the children who are in need of
early rehabilitation.
Initially,
extensive technical support was provided by presently Spastics Society
of Eastern India, Inidan Institute of Cerebral palsy, Kolkata and
the center affiliated to IICP Kolkata since 1994. Later on it was
necessitated that a society is formed exclusively for spastic children
to focus the need for better facilities, technical and managerial
support to education, rehabilitation and to create awareness among
the Govt. Public, Society at large for the rights and responsibilities
towards those children who are born with such condition like cerebral
palsy and associated multiple disability.
The SERC is now equipped with some gazettes and software for
teaching and training Special Children. The number of
beneficiaries has grown up from ten to one hundred forty at
present.
State Nodal Agency Centre registered with National Trust of India
in 2003 has started outreach activities to serve the Persons with
Disabilities (PWD) and their families in the remote villages
through Rural Awareness Programme and Training of Parents and
Siblings (TOPS). This has generated awareness about the rights of
the PWD and the welfare schemes of the National Trust of India.
The
SNAC Sikkim has successfully completed the first batch of
Community Based Caregivers Training on
19th October 2005
with ten trainees which was started w.e.f
19th April 2005
with an aim of meeting its Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR)
and Respite Care requirements. It is on the verge of completion of
the 2nd Batch of 8 trainees this year for the Community Based
Caregivers Training.
Networking has been the great strength of Spastics Cociety of
Sikkim in expanding its services for the disabled. We have been
networking with both Government and Non Government Organizations
inside and outside the state.
We have been working with Rehabilitation Council of India since
2003 and have organized various workshops (Regional workshop for
Disability Management in April 2003), seminars, meetings in
collaboration with RCI. We have undertaken Projects on national
programme for Prevention and Control of deafness and Diploma on
Community based caregivers training of rehabilitation Council of
India and the National trust of
India
.
A meeting of executive body was organized at the office of the
chairperson, State Commission for women, Gangtok on 2nd
August 2005 for the formulation of special Olympics Bharat, Sikkim
chapter and thus the special Olympics Bharat, Sikkim chapter was
born on 2nf August 2005
