| Shilpa's Story |
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| Shilpa attending her first assessment conducted by the ELO Rehabilitation team who recommended that Shilpa be provided with a wheelchair and be fitted with callipers that will help her to stand |
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| Heggotra – a typical village in Chmarajnagar |
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Shilpa is one of the children benefiting from the DDP’s Education and Livelihood Opportunities programme. When Mobility India’s fieldworkers found Shilpa in 2006, in a village called Heggottara, she was 6 years old, and clearly suffering from polio. But Shilpa had never seen a doctor and so her condition was untreated, despite the fact that her parents had known that Shilpa was not developing in the same way as other children.
Every morning, on his way to work in the fields, Shilpa’s father, Nagraj, would carry his daughter to school and put her down on the floor of the classroom (they do not have desks and chairs) where she stayed until he collected her on his way home. During the day, because she could not move anywhere unless she crawled, Shilpa sat separated from the other children and was unable to mix with them. The class teacher did not know how to respond to Shilpa's needs and so was not learning to read or write. And because her father was finding it increasingly difficult to carry Shilpa as she grew he was planning to withdraw her from school altogether, meaning that she would have to spent every day alone in her house as her mother, Mangalamma, was also working full time in the fields.
The MI rehabilitation team quickly assessed Shilpa’s condition and provided her with a wheelchair and callipers so that she can stand, and they built a toilet outside her home that she can access – the family’s first toilet. The team sees her every month to check her progress and she is assured of new callipers whenever she needs them as she grows up. The fieldworkers see Shilpa every week when they visit her school.
The fieldworkers are people recruited from the villages in which they work. Nearly half are women and the programme actively seeks to employ disabled people – over a quarter are disabled, and they provide role models in their communities showing not only that disabled people can work in responsible jobs but also that all children benefit – disabled and non disabled alike. This is one of the ways that ELO is combating the stigma and discrimination that disabled people face.
In the last eighteen months, Shilpa has really thrived. She is now reading and writing at the same level as her classmates, she has many new friends and her favourite pastime is singing nursery rhymes with them. She has already decided she wants to be a teacher. Thanks to ELO, Shilpa has the chance for a fulfilled and dignified life with a job and family of her own.
Meanwhile Shilpa’s parents have joined the village Self Help Group (SHG) that the programme has helped to set up. They pay a few rupees every week into the group’s savings scheme which will eventually entitle them to take out a small loan to help them grow crops to sell at market. This will help them pay the costs involved in Shilpa’s education and also meet her needs at home. Working with self help groups is a very important aspect of ELO as we found that many children who are not disabled do not go to school as they are required to contribute to their family’s income and this is also a major cause of children being removed from education or having it interrupted. Therefore, if ELO can work with parents to secure their livelihoods, then children can remain in school, complete their education and achieve so much more in life. |
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