As we met as members of the board of trustees of ASHIRVAD, a initiative for child development, for a meeting this week, we took time to have an overview of its story since its beginning in 1983. Its cavities began by starting a Child Development Centre at Chennai in 1983.
Since then, the activities included starting a day care centre at St Andrews Church at Chennai in 1989, which later became ASHA school for developmentally challenged children. The Early learning Centre started in Nagpur in 1991 has now become a Learning Resource Centre for pre-school children. The Developmental Paediatrics Unit started in 1997 at the Christian Medical College, Vellore became the first academic department in this speciality in India, which offered the first post doctoral fellowship and PhD programme in this specialty. The developmental paediatrics and child neurology services started at Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences in 2010 now offers support for children who are developmentally challenged. The developmental Paediatrics and child Neurology department started at MOSC Medical College, Kolencherry, in 2012 continues to be a resource facility.
Some of the publications brought out for initiating parents for developmental monitoring of children at home, have opened a new pathway for parents.
The first in the series was Parenting your Child, to help parents consider different dimensions of parent-child relationships, published in 1999.
The next was the two publications below in 2000, which were an attempt to introduce to professionals and parents some perspectives on child development and developmental monitoring.
The publication below in 2002 was an attempt to bring an academic awareness among professionals. about some Neuro-developmental concerns we encounter in children in India. It helped to introduce the specialty of Developmental Paediatrics in India to promote child development perspectives of developmentally challenged children.
The two publications below in 2020 were attempts to help parents observe their children and monitor the child development process in order to be actively involved in making the home child friendly for developmental prospects of children.
The reflections of ASHIRVAD on its forty years of mission, led us to summarise our learning experiences in the book in 2022, Bird movements-our inner responses.
The weekly on-line clinical meeting for professionals in child development and rehabilitation is a platform for dialogue in advances in this specialty, going on for three years now.
Forty years and still continuing to offer support for children and families!
The recent initiative is to support some professionals in clinical mentoring in this specialty through an interactive learning forum.
Anna and I feel grateful to the board of trustees, Friends of ASHIRVAD and the different institutions who enabled us to pursue opportunities to support developmentally challenged children and their families.
Some friends, who walked with us in the initial years of this journey, when we were still exploring the way forward, have also moved on from among us. They were Dr A.K.Tharien, Ms Margaret Parkinson, Ms Hedwig Buchi, Ms Christiane Osburg and Dr Frank Garlick. Rev Eva Marie Koch, who visited us in 1983, although advanced in age now, still remembers her first visit to a single room facility we had for the Child Development Centre at Chennai. It was Mr Arthur Pont of INTERSERVE, London, whom we had not even met, who hearing about our interest to develop the child development and rehabilitation service, who offered to support us for our training overseas in this discipline. Ms Gisela Jahner of Berlin leads a group of women who through their creative skills contribute towards the support of children who need hand holding in their developmental journey. Dr Raju Abraham, facilitated a grant from South Asia Concern, which helped in starting the Developmental Paediatrics Unit at the Christian Medical College, Vellore in 1997 through a memorandum of Understanding. Mr and Mrs Peter and Katharine Makeower are friends, whom we remember for their steadfast interest in ASIRVAD that, Katharine summarised the story of our initial years at Chennai in the book, Beginnings.
Dr Hans Burke invited Anna and me for retreats he conducted, which were formative experiences in our personal lives and professional envisioning.
It was at the initiative of Dr V.I.Mathan, the director of CMC Vellore, ASHIRVAD was invited to partner with CMC Vellore in 1997, to start the Developmental Paediatrics Unit, which contributed to the establishment of the speciality in India.
We also remember many professionals and support team, involved in the activities of child development from the time we started in 1983. They helped us to move forward in evolving the parent centred and home based developmental monitoring programme for developmentally challenged pre-school children. Ms Premila John, who moved with us from Chennai to the Christian Medical College, Vellore in 1997, inspires us even now, with her enthusiasm to care for developmentally challenged children. I want to remember the efforts of Ms Shalini Saji in compiling the draft of the recent publications, uploading videos on home based developmental monitoring and promoting the campaign for creating a child's corner at home. Dr. Vinitha Varghese, consultant in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation from Bangalore Baptist Hospital, anchors the weekly on-line clinical meeting in child development and rehabilitation, which was started in 2019 during the COVID pandemic.
To recall stories associated with each of them is refreshing. Anna and I feel touched by the generosity and thoughtfulness of such friends and many others. The story of ASHIRVAD in the last forty years is formed by people who saw an opportunity, for making a difference in the lives of developmentally challenged children.
The children and families were our primary source of learning and understanding about life and challenges, which children who have developmental constraints, face in their lives.. They schooled us in enlarging our experiences and orienting us to develop a fraternal attitude towards them.
Here we are, looking back and looking forward !
The above two photographs are of the room, where the story of ASHIRVAD of forty years, is summarised in different symbolic ways. It is also the official location of the charitable trust ASHIRVAD, from July, 2023.
I have feathered friends visiting us in the garden facing this quiet room above, in the morning and evening hours, with bird calls to tell us of their fondness for the garden!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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