Share
"I once saw a 16-year-old girl tied to a pillar outside her house - her hands and stomach were tied tight to it. Her parents were daily wage workers and left her tied there as there was no one home to take care of her. She was standing there, with her skirt raised above her waist after soiling herself without knowing what to do. A 16-year-old girl! I was extremely upset at what I'd seen. I immediately felt the need to do something for intellectually disabled children and started this school." - Selvarani Rajaratnam, founder, Sri Selliah Memorial School
Selvarani Rajaratnam founded Sri Selliah Memorial Special School, a school for differently-abled children, in 2009. It has been in operation for 15 years now, and the school has impacted many lives. Today, unfortunately, Selvarani is struggling to continue running the school due to dwindling funds and lack of financial support.
She saw a young intellectually-challenged girl, tied to a pillar in front of her house
In 2009, Selvarani had been a practising lawyer, with a passion for service and worked in drought prone rural areas of Trichy for the development of the rural poor, women, children, and Tribes. It was when she was visiting a village to meet women and self-help groups concentrated there, that she came across the young intellectually-challenged girl, tied to a pillar in front of her house.
This incident not only shocked her, but fueled her to focus her attention towards a new passion. She put her heart and soul into establishing the special school, which she realised was a pressing need in rural areas as there were a number of underpriveledged differently-abled kids who were being heavily neglected by their own parents.
A baseline survey that Selvarani carried out indicated that the parents of intellectually-disabled children were not willing to send their children to school. The villagers would just lock up their intellectually-challenged children at home, as they didn't know how to look after and care for these children. Left without proper care, food and clothes, these children's needs had been disregarded and neglected for a long time.
"That’s why we look after them, bring them to the school and do all that we can do for them just so that they can experience a sense of normalcy as specially-abled children." - Selvarani
At the outset, Selvarani and her support team found it difficult to provide rehabilitation and therapy to these children, as they were not used to going anywhere and mingling with others. Our special educators interacted with the children for months to make them feel comfortable at school.
Now they are taught daily living skills, yoga, games, dance, singing, crafts, gardening, among other activities, and also undergo regular physiotherapy. There has been a lot of improvement after these children started coming to school - they can do things independently, without having to rely on others.
Another problem faced whilst encouraging parents to send their children to school was transportation. The issue herein lied that the parents were labourers and had to go to work everyday. Seeing that the journey to and fro the school was about 390 kms, they found it difficult to send their children by public transport, as they are not accustomed to it.
So Selvarani and her support team personally took it upon themselves to arrange for a transportation service, so these children could be picked up from their homes and dropped back at the end of the day, at no cost to their families.
"Since I am very much involved with the children, I regularly contribute money for their development from my personal fund. Prior to the pandemic, we had regular support from donors and many people from my own networks used to contribute towards the school. But the pandemic put everyone in a very difficult position, in terms of finances. All our benevelont donors found themselves struggling too and so the funds we once used to received stopped coming in. I ended up pooling in all my money and now, even that has been completely utilized. Today, I am unable to provide salaries to my team of special educators, support staff, transport and medical care. They have been working here without pay for awhile now out of the goodness of their heart, but they too need an income to look after their families..." - Selvarani
Despite the huge roadblocks and operational challenges, Selvarani and her staff have kept the school up and running for the sole reason that they can enable these little angels to lead a better life. However, the school is now at risk of complete closure and chances are that these children will go back to living their lives the way they did before Sri Selliah Memorial Special School came into the picture. They will be out on the street, tied to pillars or trees, or locked up at home by themselves.
"When we bring the children to the school, they are happy and healthy. They may not understand much, but the smiles on their faces are a reflection of the joy they feel and love they receive. These children have no other support, besides me, my wonderful team at this special school and most importantly, you. Hence, I am asking for your help. We need you, your love and your support to keep the doors to our school open for differently-abled children, so we can help them lead a happy and normal life within their capacity." - Selvarani
Selvarani and her support team at Sri Selliah Memorial Special School are requesting for your support and help. There are plenty of intellectually-challenged children in need, who face neglect and insufficient care each day. Selvarani wants to dedicate her life uplifting these children. You may even visit the school and see the work they do in the rehabilitation of the kids, for yourselves.
Without your help, Sri Selliah Memorial Special School may be forced to permanently close its doors to specially-abled children in need.
Click here to donate.
Registration Number - AAOCM6666MF20229
EIN 20-5139364
