February 4, 2025

Parent Advocacy

Since the last time you heard from team Rise Bionics we have visited a few of Rises partner organizations. On Thursday last week we visited the Abhyudaya Trust for Special Children. Upon arrival it looked as if Rise had just sent us to a random alley. Soon though we were ushered through a metal gate and into the yard of the small one room building housing the Abhyudaya Trust. Already inside were some students and a teacher who rushed to get us chairs as we stood awkwardly not knowing what to do. Eventually more kids and another teacher filed through the gate and into the one room building. From the second teacher we learned that this trust was started by “ma’am” or Radhamani, out of a small room in her home about 5 years ago. Then two years ago they moved to this facility to accommodate more children.

We learned that about 15 children come everyday for school and physical therapy, with more coming later or only a couple times a week just to receive physical therapy. Most of the students have cerebral palsey and cannot speak, walk without braces, or keep up with subjects like we would expect a school to teach. Instead lessons include self help like how to make eye contact, how to not bother others, and lastly how to contribute to society.

As they continued their day, we pulled the first teacher aside to learn more about how she came to work here. Her name was Samitra and she is also the parent of one of the 9 year old students. She told us that she was connected to the Abhyudaya Trust school through the previous school her daughter attended. Before coming to Abhyudaya, she searched for a school that would accept her daughter, and was turned away because schools could not accommodate her daughter’s special needs. It took until her daughter was 7 years old to find a government school that would accept her. It was at this government school set up for children with special needs, that Samitra met Radhamani who came once a week to provide physical therapy.

I soon found out that Samitra’s struggle to find a school that would accept her daughter was not unique. Yesterday, team Rise attended one of Rise’s measurement camps being held about an hour south of the hostel. The partner NGO was AIFO, and Rise had provided assistive devices to this location about 2 months ago. Again we showed up with very little information. At this camp we were able to speak to a few people, but the one that stood out the most to me was another parent.
Her son was paralyzed from the waist down, but mentally he could do everything any other child could do. Despite this, due to his physical disability he was turned away from many schools. As she was talking to me through Shash, our translator, she got emotional explaining how it felt to have her son turned away so many times.

These interactions with parents, NGO leaders, and patients have just barely scratched the surface of what is being done in the prosthetics and orthotics industry. But the ability of these parents to talk to a complete stranger about their struggles has made me see how important what they are doing is to them.

As we start to think about what we are actually going to do for our GCIl project and partner organization. I can only hope that we come up with something that fills the tiniest gap and makes it just a little bit easier for the next people who need help.

By,
Kalli