Today, ASHIRVAD remembers the founding day of the Developmental Paediatrics Unit at the Christian Medical College, Vellore on February 24, 1997. The Unit started at the invitation of CMC, Vellore to ASHIRVAD to sign a Memorandum Understanding to begin a new speciality service at CMC hospital.
The decision to relocate at CMC Vellore took two years of consideration for Anna and myself and the board of Trustees of ASHIRVAD. We remember how late Dr Frank Garlick and Dr A K Tharien encouraged us to take this opportunity to bring this specialty as an academic discipline in a Medical college, when such a speciality did not exist anywhere else. Dr Willian Cutting facilitated the process by holding conversation with the administration at CMC Vellore. That is how the shift to CMC Vellore took place in February, 1997.
The beginning of this Unit was made possible by ASHIRVAD's Board of Trustees offering to incorporate its Child Development Centre functioning at Chennai from 1983 and transferring all its assets and facilities to begin the department. The staff at the Child Development Centre consisting of Premila, Annie, Sekhar and me formed the team to start the Unit. Now this Unit completes 25 years.
The then director of CMC Vellore Dr V I Mathan in acknowledgement of ASHIRVAD's contribution to start the Unit, offered to name the floor where the department is currently located in the Ida Scudder Centenary building, as ASHIRVAD floor.
The Director who followed, Dr Joyce Ponniah, the Medical Superintendent, Dr Chacko Korula, and the Principal, Dr Ravi Korula, were the leaders who allowed the Developmental Paediatrics Unit at CMC to take off to develop it into an academic speciality. It had the distinction of being the first Developmental Paediatrics Unit in a Medical College in India.
I remember Dr Joyce on hearing that, the Out Patient services of the Unit finished late, even after midnight, took the initiative to post the first resident to the department. Dr Mathulla, the resident, was inclined towards neurology and that helped a lot to lay the foundations in the perspectives and approach to Neuro-developmental needs of children.
I recall special occasions such as the award ceremonies where the Developmental Pediatrics OP service area, the Hall of Residence, its in-patient facility and the Office area received awards from CMC as the 'best' areas of service in the Hospital for a few years in succession. The three professional conferences were held on child development and Neuro-developmental issues in children, with participants from India and overseas.
The three publications, in a book form, published between 2000 and 2004 of Neuro-developmental monitoring of Infants and Pre-school children, Review in Developmental Paediatrics and Child Neurology and Vellore Experiences were contributions to highlight the ethos, content and contours of the practice of speciality of Developmental Paediatrics in an Indian context.
To have been able to start the post-doctoral Fellowship in Developmental Paediatrics and the research programme leading towards the PhD of the TN Dr MGR Medical University were special events in the story of the last 25 years of the Developmental Paediatrics Unit at CMC. The beginning of a Sleep Monitoring suite with an EEG facility for developmentally challenged children at the Hall of Residence, the first of its kind in India at that time in 2003, embarked Anna and me on a long journey to study and publish different aspects of sleep morphology even after our retirement from CMC. That has thus far resulted in seven research studies, four publications and ten presentations in conferences.
The Christian Osburg Terrace for children adjacent to the Hall of Residence came through the legacy she bequeathed to ASHIRVAD on her home call. Her Friend, Gisela Jahner from Berlin led the team of Friends of ASHIRVAD associated with EV Schule, to make regular financial contributions for the development of the Unit during this period. The large gift that came from Christmas Cracker through Dr Raju Abraham and BMMF (now INTERSERVE) helped ASHIRVAD to make a large contribution to build the ASHIRVAD floor, where the Developmental Paediatrics Unit is located.
It was during our time at CMC, Ms Katharine Makower published the book narrating the
The two consultants Dr Samuel P Oommen and Dr Beena Kurien were the first to finish the post doctoral Fellowship started in the Unit, who since my retirement in 2008, have taken the Developmental Pediatrics Unit, CMC, Vellore to new heights in this specialty in India. The team of professionals in the Unit is an assortment of specialists drawn from different disciplines. I feel enthused by them because they make the Unit academically and professionally sound. I remember the support staff in the Unit who have a sense of keen involvement in the affairs of the Unit making the place friendly and hospitable.
Anna and I, on behalf of the Board of Trustees of ASHiRVAD send greetings to all those who worked in the Unit since its inception till I retired. They helped in defining the content, ethos and scope of this specialty in India. Since 2008, the professionals and support staff have made this place a sought after service for children and parents from different parts of India and the neighboring countries.
We view this Developmental Paediatrics Unit as a an expression of ASHIRVAD's logo, 'Taking Sides'!
Well done friends in Developmental Paediatrics Unit, for your contribution to make the place a home of hope for those who come to visit you!
We at ASHIRVAD celebrate with gratitude and gladness this story of twenty five years of service to children with neuro-developmental challenges! The publications, Buds to Blossom, and Accompany your Child are efforts of the recent years to enable parents to provide a home based and parent involved developmental support for children, the ideas of which actually originated
The 11 years at the Developmental Paediatrics Unit at CMC and the life in the community of CMC residential campus were blessed years of discoveries, insights, new clinical perspectives and reflective experiences, which formed most of who Anna and I are becoming. A significant accompaniment Anna and I received during this time was from Drs Hans and Ago Burke, who by introducing us to the spirituality of Life, Living, Learning pointed us to a experiencing living by revising frames of thinking, beliefs and practices. The two publications mentioned below, have arisen out of this growing and enlarging experiences begun during our time at CMC Vellore and the accompanying pastoral care we received. The Bird Movements-our inner response and Flowers for the year, 2023 are therefore for remembering the story of ASHIRVAD for the last forty years.
It was our baby, Anita Susan's birth and home call in 1981 and the question which Rev. A C Oommen posed to Anna and me at Anita's funeral service, 'For what reason was this life taken away from our midst at only three months of age', which sowed the seeds of this calling, leading to our life-long journey of taking the sides of children who were neuro-developmentally challenged! God was our path-finder in this journey on a less travelled terrain in health care! We found to our surprise and much comfort that neuro-developmentally challenged children and their parents are often 'wounded healers', who keep bringing new horizons in life and meaning and depth into the interior of our being.
We look back over forty years of ASHIRVAD's mission as God's work in our lives and in our midst!
The trail that ASHIRVAD leaves behind at St Andrew's church at Chennai in its school of developmentally challenged children, at the Early Learning Centre at Nagpur, the Developmental Paediatrics Unit at the CMC Hospital at Vellore, and at the Developmental Paediatrics department at MOSC Medical College, Kolenchery is story that surprises us beyond measure! 'This is God's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes'!
We stay in wonder and amazement at God's work in our midst!
We feel moved when we remember all the professionals at Chennai and Vellore, from the time we started at Child Development Centre at Chennai in 1883.
The team at the Developmental Paediatrics Unit at CMC Vellore created this history of 25 years of the speciality of developmental Paediatrics in India! They worked with devotion and commitment and what lives on today is a tribute to their sense of purpose and pursuit of service!
On behalf of ASHIRVAD and Anna and myself, we offer them greetings of warm rewards, appreciation and gratefulness, with flowers and fruits. In as much as they do what they do, for the children in need, they do make an offering of love to God, from whom we receive the call and will to serve!
M C Mathew (photo and text)
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