JeevanGnanodaya Charitable Trust - Helping Children with Hearing Impairment

1. Asha Seattle Chapter Update – April 2014 JeevanGnanodaya Charitable Trust

2. JeevanGnanodaya Charitable Trust- Introduction • Mission : Helping children who have hearing and speech impairment. • Vision : Establish a Valley for the Disabled, whereby physically/mentally challenged persons live in a pro-active society where equality prevails irrespective of physical, mental or other challenged with the rest of the society. It is a futuristic vision whereby JeevanGnanodya plays the role of an enabling agent to get the physically/mentally challenged “equality of status, equality in opportunities and equality in access”. It is a society where people are identified as differentially abled. • Organization: Established in 1989, over the last two decades, the organization has identified children with acute hearing disability whose adversity is compounded by severe economic constraints. While providing hearing aids & other learning materials, the need for formal education at the center is addressed through oral/speech therapy. • Founder: Founded in 1989 by Mr. L. Devarajan, inspired to help his son who had severe speech and hearing disabilities to find him a better education and self-sustaining life, extended his passion to help children similar to his son. • Location: Located in Chengelpet, approx. 30 minutes drive from Chennai Airport, in Tamilnadu. • Core Objectives • With their focus mainly on children with hearing disabilities, most of them (at least 90%) have profound hearing loss, the project's goals are mainly two-fold: • provide formal education to children till Class X, with necessary speech therapy along the way. Preference is given to students hailing from very poor families and to children who have profound hearing losses (meaning a hearing threshold of close to 90dB). • Industrial Training: Skills such as turning, fitting etc. -- achieved via the ITI.

3. JeevanGnanodaya Charitable Trust –Activities • Originally started with a single school namely JeevanGnanodaya High School for the hearing impaired, in the last decade has branched out as ‘Group of Schools’ to several villages around Chengleput and Thirukazhukundram. • As of 2013 they have many branches catering to the needs of the School differently-abled and deprived sections of the rural society. They are: • JeevanGnanodayaHr.Sec for the Hearing Impaired; 1989; 120; boys & girls: 36 • JeevanGnanodaya Industrial Training Center; 2 year study; 20 students;2003; • JeevanGnanodaya Nursery and Primary School, Nenmeli village; 2006; 310 (normal children – paid; 25% free quota; blind, mentally retarted; orphans); upto 5th ; (self finance) • JeevanGnanodaya Counseling Center; Govt. Junivelle center; chengelpet – 25 students; 2.5 years; 3 counselors; • JeevanGnanodaya Day Care Center for children with mental disabilities; mild retarded; main school; Anna Nagar; 13; year – 15 years; • JeevanGnanodaya School, Vallipuram Village, for SC&ST Students; June 2012;students; 200; college – building; primary; upto Hr. Secondary School; (free education) – trust funding;

4. JeevanGnanodaya Charitable Trust –Activities • Most of the students except for the primary school and school in vallipuram, stay in hostel so a full free hostel service is run for the students. The schools shelters and educates speech and hearing impaired kids from poor, rural backgrounds. • When children are admitted their hearing level is determined and they are given the hearing aid equipment necessary for them. They are provided special speech therapy classes in addition to the regular curriculum. All the facilities provided by the school are free, including food and lodging. They started with 5 students (in 1989) and the school now has 147 (~40 day scholars, rest stay in hostel) students and classes up to X std. • In addition, for self-sustaining and find good employment, Jeevan provides providing ITI training to select students. The school has also started an ITI for hearing-impaired children where they will acquire technical and industry-based skills like fitting, turning, carpentry etc. Some vocational skills like chalk making are also being imparted to the children. • JeevanGnanodaya also conducts Medical Camp for their students periodically. • Experienced Teachers are the critical asset for JeevanGnanodaya. There are several ongoing improvement areas: • More trained teachers, improving the children/teacher ratio • Training to teachers in various new and improved methods of teaching • Computer lab / computer based teaching

5. Jeevan Gnanodaya Charitable Trust- Introduction • Strong performance in all of their activities in making the impact to the children that this they serve • Sources of income for the organization include Donors, Bank Loan. Biggest donors for the original school: Asha Chapters; Other public donation; Parents of children (minimum). Continue to have ongoing struggle for income less than much needed expenses in the past 5 years given the increased expenses for all of their activities and donors contributions drying out (specifically donations from some of the Asha USA Chapter) • Asha for Education – JeevanGnanodaya Charitable Trust: http://www.ashanet.org/projects/project-view.php?p=84 • Latest Half-Yearly Report (MUST REVIEW): • Latest (Feb 2014) Site Visit Report (MUST REVIEW):

6. Asha, Seattle Budget • Note, items that were previously supported by other Asha Chapters: • Food Expenses – covered by Atlanta Chapter - ~$12000 per annum • Uniform and teaching materials – covered by Austin - ~4000 per annum • Medical camp/ expenses – covered by Cornell - ~3000 per annum • Chance of covering any of the above to manage the deficit to be considered

7. Examples of videos: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h650SdgQA4I&feature=player_embedded#t=0 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=59umm-LsRpM#t=0 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pJO6dT2CSwE#t=0