Little Kalpana arrived at our Centre in 2011. A victim of Down's Syndrome she suffered poor gross and fine motor skills and very weak muscles. She is flat- footed and did not play freely nor jump like other children her age. Inevitably she withdrew into herself, diffident about mixing with her peer group. Naturally, she developed no social skills and her articulation was reluctant, mostly in gestures. Reading and writing were non-starters in her case in this state. 

Our Bal Chetna teamcomprising a Special educator, Occupational, Speech and physiotherapists quickly got into action and worked out a careful sequence of treatment. First Kalpana learnt to breathe through the nose and her drooling stopped. With continuous encouragement and exercises, the child slowly started to respond coherently, albeit in phrases. She obviously comprehended what was being asked. By and by she began to relax in company and today Kalpana even gets passionate about making her point!

Today, we were delighted when Kalpana started attempting her own chores independently. She combs her own hair, walks over to the nearby shops to buy her small needs and even assists her family members at home. Kalpana now plays in a group and is enthused to  accomplish all the prescribed motor exercises. She now reads two-letter words and can write her own name.
How can we hide our pride that Kalpana is happily integrated in class 3 at
Kendriya Vidyalya Central School.  

About us: 

Delhi Council of Child Welfare or DCCW is a non- governmental organisation originally established in 1952 just after the partition of India. At the time, massive populations migrated between what became India and Pakistan, accompanied by mindless and bloody violence.Thousands of children, including infants were lost and abandoned in the melee. It was then that some social workers came together to quickly take the displaced children in their charge. They readily embraced the smarting little souls and offered them shelter, sustenance and solace. And thus the mission was born.  

In over 6 decades since conception we have reached out to over 300,000 children at our 17 centre in and around Delhi. We achieve this through programs in the areas of health, nutrition, education and rehabilitation of physically and mentally challenged children.

About Bal Chetna: Bal Chetna is one of DCCW’s programme for the rehabilitation of mentally challenged children. It was established in 2002 as a residential and day care facility in response to the fact that a growing number of mentally challenged children were being abandoned at our children’s home Palna, who required special care. The day care programme at Bal Chetna grew out of the discovery made by our crèche workers, that there were many children with mental disabilities living in slums and resettlement colonies who were not getting the attention they needed. 

Today Bal Chetna looks after around 35 mentally challenged children in residential care in at Palna ™ and around 150 mentally challenged children in four day care centres, three in Delhi’s poorest neighbourhood slums and resettlement colonies of Delhi Nithari, North-West Delhi,New Seemapuri, East Delhi and Sultanpuri, North-West Delhi.

The objectives of the programme are:

- Rehabilitate through therapies to mentally challenged children to make them as self-reliant as their condition permits (through language, cognitive and social development) in activities of daily living and where possible, to teach them income-generating skills.

- Provide training, guidance and counseling to parents of special needs children regarding the care of their children so as to prevent abandonment of these children

- Initiative on health and nutrition: Monitor health of the children and provide special diet /nutrition as required, with additional medication and supplements where required, to build up their hemoglobin and weight in particular, and monitor this through regular check-ups.

ANNUAL BUDGET FOR THE EACH DAYCARE CENTRE 

We are looking to raise half of the budget through fundraising on Milaap.

We can be reached at
Delhi Council for Child Welfare, Qudsia Bagh, Yamuna Marg, Civil Lines, Delhi 110054, India
Delhi.council@gmail.com Tel: +91 11 2396 8907 www.dccw.org