Rachana Prasad started Chiranthana, an organisation to train children and youth with special needs, after she had a child with a rare genetic disorder.
“It was in 2005. Her disorder initially shattered me, but it also gave me a life purpose,” she says. Rachana gradually developed modules to teach her, and children with similar problems.
Rachana had worked as an HR professional prior to starting Chiranthana, which works from an office in Sunder Nagar, Mathikere. Her programmes focus on communication skills, body movement, and fine motor enhancement. “The pedagogy we use are theatre, music and dance,” she told Metrolife.
She started out by mentoring eight children. “About 20,000 children have benefited from our programmes so far,” she says. The vocational skills training is free of cost. As her interest deepened, Rachana took up a course with the Spastics Society of Karnataka.
In 2019, Chiranthana expanded its service to schools and colleges. It has set up remedial rooms in mainstream schools, both in urban and rural areas.
Chiranthana helps comprehensively with rehabilitation, vocational skills and employment. “Once a child joins at six years, a programme takes care of education and livelihood opportunities,” she says. Intellectual disability is the most neglected among all disabilities. There is so much work to do, says Rachana.
“Most job descriptions we get from corporate companies ask for computer proficiency. Children who cannot be educated beyond a point also need to be meaningfully employed. This is where we want to make a difference,” she says.
For more information, visit info@chiranthana.in or contact 81055 64884.
Mission Gubbi
Chiranthana started the Gubbi initiative in April to help children with intellectual disabilities, visual and hearing impairment.
“We have appointed special educators to help with reading, writing, functional math, life skills and computer literacy,” says Rachana.
The initiative also provides physiotherapy, Braille education and sign language training for those between five and 16.