Inclusion - An opportunity to do things together

We congratulate CBSE and HRD ministry for taking this positive step toward inclusion.

The Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) has mandated all its affiliated schools to appoint special educators and to create an evaluation programme for differently abled students, based on their abilities and skill sets. Based on the recommendations of its curriculum committee in August last year, the board issued a circular to all its schools this week, saying admission should not be denied to such students.

Board officials said that they issued the circular after finding that many schools did not have special educators yet, and refused admission to students with special needs. “It is being reiterated to these schools through this circular that if it fails to provide attention to a child with special needs or makes a pretext of denying admission to any category of differently abled children, it henceforth will be liable to stringent action even to the extent of disaffiliation” said a senior official of the board.

Social inclusion as a concept is not sufficiently mainstreamed and institutions who are willing to be inclusive don’t know how to go about it.  This is what we at impART – an initiative of Snehadhara Foundation are set out to do : in the same institution we will work to get more children included and taught (direct focus on inclusion) and second we will work with the schools to prepare the schools and the children in these schools to be more empathetic towards the learning of these children. In doing so we will construct a model of empathetic and inclusive schools which can be replicated readily by any number of other institutions. Methodology and practice of Arts Based Therapy (ABT) needs to occupy a central place in education to bridge the gap. Join us if you are a school, an institution, a teacher, a special educator , a parent in taking this to many schools and changing the inclusion landscape in the State. 

 The consolidated circular by the CBSE board .

Summer School 2016 - Inside Out

At Snehadhara Foundation, we have always looked at learning through the lens of experience and exploration with Arts based creative interventions being the cornerstone of our work. In expanding the scope of experiential learning and having seen the positive effects that nature has on children, we have pioneered a new and exciting programme to offer children with disabilities. Tukio, our adventure and nature-based learning programme. The recent success of the pilot programme with 6 of our children has proven our belief that the assumptions of the physical capabilities of the children are widely off mark and given a challenging receptive environment, they could achieve increased milestones in the physical, cognitive and social domain of learning.  

‘Inside Out’ is a 4 day residential camp from 27 – 30th April, brought to you by Outlife and Snehadhara Foundation for children between 8 -14 years. The intent of the camp is to bring together children with varied abilities and explore learning with each other, from each other and co-create a learning space.

REGISTRATION ARE OPEN FOR ONLY 25 CHILDREN FOR THIS BATCH UNTIL   APRIL 6th. Seats are based on a first-cum-first basis. 

Details of the camp 

Application form

Undertaking form 

Pipilika - 2015-2016

Many times our journey with each other starts way before we actually meet.  This interconnectedness allows each one of us to thread in the answers we are seeking, to raise questions, to explore creative spaces within and create a beautiful weave together. Snehadhara has offered us a space for such meetings and dialogues which has added momentum and direction to our own personal journeys. Holding this thought, prayer and aspiration we started , Pipilika this year.  

Through this program we opened our center and ourselves to children and parents and invited them to co-create a learning space with us. This was our Saturday program where we have had facilitators along with the group explore, experiment and experience multi-art forms like music, drama, dance, play, imagination, story sharing, theatre to examine our beliefs, conditionings, strengths and limitations. Pipilika means ants in Sanskrit and is constant reminder to us that at a macroscopic level our efforts remain small contributions to a larger cause but at a more microscopic level, each of us are capable of much more than we can imagine. 

The focus for us this year across our Pipilika program has been to explore the methodology of working with the arts in manifold ways in diverse spaces. The program had three main parts, the overnight experience, the sessions at the centre and the outdoor visits. The overnighters at the centre were designed to allow each child to exhibit independence in taking care of their belongings, self care needs of eating and dressing, setting up their bedding, packing/ unpacking etc. The sessions at the centre have been focused on the following:

Art: To address group interaction, creative expression, cognition and fine motor skills, visual art sessions such as collage making, Mandala, festival decorations, puppet making, zen painting, making cards, modelling with clay etc. have taken place along with activities such as cooking, pottery, drumming etc.

Story telling: Was used as a means to help the group connect to each other through stories that they either told to each other or developed as a group. Stories were used to convey messages and mind mapping to make associations and enhance creative thinking.

Movement for body awareness: Movement and exercise was inevitably a part of each session. Movement was also used as a means to bring about body awareness. A few sessions on expressing emotions and maintaining personal space were conducted using drama and theatre as a medium of communication.

Animal farm play: A very significant experience for the children this year was the exposure to theatre techniques at the centre and then the presentation of the play at Ranga Shankara. The intent was to see how they receive the practices on a regular basis, how they respond to the rigor of a production and how they carry themselves in a social setting.

Outdoor visits: Many outdoor visits were planned when the children stayed over with us on Fridays to expose them to unfamiliar space and situations as a group, adjust to environments that are new and increase independence in managing oneself especially when staying away from home or the centre. We visited many places as a group from parks, temples, overnight houses visits ( Kengeri) to one out of town overnighter (Wedding in Mandya).

We believe that Pipilika has achieved its purpose of providing us a space to explore and develop our own interests and strengths. We intend to take this a step further by collectively bringing these together and taking our many learnings many more children and parents. 

inside Out - our 4 day residential adventure based summer camp

Tukio - our weekend camping is actually an experiment by Hyderabad’s Outlife and city’s Snehadhara Foundation to test how ‘experiential education’ can enhance the motor, social and emotional skills of autistic children. 

We bring to you our first ever residential adventure based summer camp from Apr 27th- Apr 30th .

Keep watching this space for more on registrations and updates for the summer camp.

Seats on a first-cum-first basis only. 

Mail us on: insideout@snehadharafoundation.org 

Snehadhara just took its first step towards realizing its larger vision! Today was the Bhoomi Pooja at Gunina Farms, that will help us in setting up a Direct Care and Intervention facility in a more holistic manner! There are myriad possibilities a place like that offers and we are excited to begin the process of planning for it. We will be able to take arts based experiential learning to a new level that will include the huge potential of outdoor learning and nature exploration. Looking forward to this journey with excitement, optimism and hope! 

Someone once said, "One finds limits by pushing them" and no one demonstrates that more, than our children. They take the challenges they face and just push on and show us that, that clearly was not their limit and there is lots more to go. From having kids hesitatingly traversing the terrain in the initial stages, we now have them boldly stepping out with their buddies, even leading the trek in parts.

That was just one part of what went on at Gunina Farms this weekend. Along with that, there bubble bursting, some gardening, obstacle course and of course the all-time favourite fall back, the trampoline! While we had outlined the beneficial effects of the use of a trampoline and what it does to the human body, at the end of the day, what it is, is awesome fun! We can exaggerate to say, one hasn't lived if one hasn't jumped on a trampoline! Here are some snapshots of the two days.

Snehadhara children are really going places! We took our overnighter programme to yet another level with a visit to the Musical Fountain this Friday. The children and adults had a lovely time at the Fountain, including a picnic dinner in the park before returning to the Centre, triumphant and tired! Here are some of the snapshots of how the visit went. 

Sahana, Toorna and Keerthi or the TIGER group as they called themselves, ready as ever to be photographed!

Emil's first outdoor and overnighter with Snehadhara. Took to it like a veteran!

Buddy pair of Rahul and Aarav. Rahul, pondering  a quicker way for Aarav to finish his snack!