Rehabilitation of the Challenged
Current students undergoing rehabilitation at the Sri PV Venkatesan Center for the Challenged
BCT Panchadarla
Atchiyyamma
She is thirteen years old from Rajkoduru village with speech and hearing impairedness. Her disability is hereditary as her Grandfather, Father and her siblings all suffer from the same.
She is the only girl in the family who has got an opportunity to get educated. All others are uneducated and working as farm labourers.
Deepika
She is 7 years old from Y. Lova village of Rambilli Mandal. Their family possesses half-an-acre of land and the region’s agriculture is based on rainfall. In addition, her father works as Tractor operator on daily wages. The family consists of three children – two girls and one boy. Deepika is the eldest and was living with her grandparents before she joined the Center.
While at her grandparent’s place Deepika was not disciplined or get educated. Ever smiling Deepika had the habit of putting everything in her mouth. After joining BCT, she started understanding the environment and right and wrong. As a mark of first change except food nothing get into the mouth.
Bhargava
A speech and hearing impaired student from Kothapatnam, a fishermen’s village of Rambilli Mandal. Of the three children, Bhargava, 14 is the eldest. All three used to attend a “convent school” in the neighboring village. Bhargava started exhibiting disinterest in schooling as he was unable to comprehend the lessons. Therefore he was running around the village instead of attending the school.
Then he was admitted in a school for hearing impaired in Vizag city. However he was homesick and his parents then joined him in BCT. Now Bhargava is not only learning reading, writing and getting trained in livelihood but is also learning to speak.
Manikanta
Manikanta is also a 14 years old speech and hearing impaired student and is from Moolajumpa village. His father is a carpenter and has a younger brother. He has attended a Government school and has studied till 7th class but could not understand anything. He was not able to write or count.
His exasperated mother joined him at the Center for rehabilitation. Now Manikanta can read, write, stitch while learning how to grow vegetables and flowers.
P.Devi
Devi is born with speech and hearing impaired disability in a downtrodden family of Dimili village. Her father is a 10th class graduate and is a auto-rickshaw driver while her mother stays back at home. Devi’s brother and sister are pursuing their education in Government Schools.
BCT identified Devi when she was 5 years old and were teaching her at home. Later she was brought to the Center for training in education and livelihood skills and in speech therapy.
Jayababu
A twelve year boy from Penugollu, Dharmavaram, Jayababu is the third of four children, suffering from hearing and speech impaired. His father is a farmer and also works as a para-teacher in Government school. He used to attend the school, but was unable to comprehend what is being taught. He used to sit in a place steadily and copy what is written on the blackboard. Noticing this, Jayababu’s father consulted his relatives and came to know about BCT. Immediately enrolled Jayababu in the Center for education and skills training. When they visited BCT after six months, they were surprised to find the improvement.
Sai
Coming from Y. Lova village, this ten year old like his sister, suffers from hearing and speech impaired. However, their younger brother is a “normal” child and both of them used to attend a convent school in Rambilli. Sai could not understand what is being taught but was able to remember what was written on the board. His parents used to take him to Visakhapatnam once in a week for speech therapy. Given that the frequency was few and far between, the impact was minimalistic.
Sai was then put in BCT for rehabilitation. Like everybody else in the Center, Sai is picking up additional skills like teamwork and living in groups, apart from literacy, numeracy and speech therapy. Sai is extremely methodical and good at accounts and this came to light while handling the Remnant Bag Project, where he is the chief stock incharge.
Srinu
This 12 year old boy belongs to Kotanandur village and his father was a mason. Of the three siblings, Srinu is the youngest. During birth, Doctors declared him stillborn and as a last attempt, they have lifted him off the tray by holding his legs and tapped him several minutes and then he has cried and moved. About 20 days they were in hospital. He lost his father when he was three years old. Then his mother started working but she used to have ailments and could not go out on a daily basis. With lot of difficulty the family survived. The elder children were able to go to school with help from friends and relatives.
Srinu with his disability, was her center of concern and attention. While visiting her sister in Haripuram, the local village head recommended Srinu’s mother to put at the rehabilitation center in BCT. Srinu’s smile says it all about his allround development.
