From The President’s Desk

(A monthly newsletter published since April 2012 by Dr. Neelima Desai and edited by Kanaka Cadambi on behalf of Navkshitij)

How We Are Using Time During Lockdown

THIS month, we came up with the innovative idea of making educative videos to keep our special friends engaged during the lockdown period. We realised it will also help other organisations to address a wide range of issues concerning mentally challenged persons. It began with a discussion on how to keep our Friends engaged and happy and keep up their level of excitement during this period of quiet. Many things have changed because of the lockdown. Our activities like monthly trekking and Traffic Awareness Program have taken a hit. We are unable to get flowers from temples since the temples are closed. Our Friends love to work with flowers in the workshop. Visits by volunteers from corporates, students and other groups have stopped. Our Friends look forward to this interaction and enjoy doing various activities with the visitors, such as playing cricket and musical chairs, dancing and performing skits for them. These visits are a good and necessary change for our special friends. Family members are unable to visit them and our Friends are unable to go home. So, to keep their morale high, we decided to create small educative videos on topics such as physical cleanliness, how to conduct oneself, keeping the premises clean and on the discipline to be followed to protect oneself from Corona (please visit youtu.be/7QM4WU4AJf0 to view the same). We also decided to get the special friends to perform in all the videos. It has suddenly changed the atmosphere at Navkshitij. My colleagues are busy writing scripts. Those who are performing in the skit are super excited and the others are enjoying watching them. Munde Sir, Ekanath Sir and Mahendra Sir have taken the responsibility of creating these videos. We had always wanted to create such educative videos and this was the god-given opportunity. On April 5, at 9 pm, in response to a call by our Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, our Friends and staff lit diyas at our Marunji and Asawali units as an expression of thanks to the frontline warriors who are selflessly fighting Corona. The lockdown has also given us the chance to look for new avenues to communicate with each other. We have staff meetings twice a week and daily meetings between the managers working from their homes and the resident staff through conference calling. We have regular video calls with special friends. The adversity has given us a chance to learn new coping skills and be happy in the current situation. The workshop activity at our Asawali unit had to be closed down due to unavailability of raw materials. So we now have beautification of the garden and farming as their workshop activity. We always learn more during difficult times. Take care and be happy.*

Words of appreciation from parents

Month’s events

Navkshitij Now Needs

• 50 Kg Sugar
• 24 CFL Bulbs – Approximate cost Rs. 4,800
• One Wall mounting Fan – Approximate cost Rs. 2,400
• Toiletries
• 12 Toilet brushes – Approximate cost Rs. 2,400
• 120 Spoons – Approximate cost Rs. 1,000

Mission of Navkshitij:

The mission of Navkshitij is to create a world that offers mentally challenged friends (MCF) a life filled with happiness, dignity, warmth, excitement and joy and helps them be an ccepted part of society, and where parents of adult MCF have the reassurance of seeing their wards leading their lives happily, and in this way motivate and empower other NGOs and parents to start many centres like Navkshitij, replicating the Navkshitij model.

For more information, please visit: navkshitij.org or call: +91-9850092195