Mother Theresa Society for the Handicapped

Introduction

Mother Theresa Society for the Handicapped-Udumalpet is a small voluntary organization providing care and rehabilitation for rural poor children with disabilities since 1998. We are located at Udumalpet, a rural region in Tamilnadu State, India.

Currently there are 65 children in our care. We enable them to lead a meaningful life through the use of systematic methods provided by our dedicated team of caregivers. 22 of the children stay with us for full-time residential care. They come from remote villages with irregular transport access.

In rural areas like ours, the disabled child is treated as curse to families and many of them are unwanted. Social stigma means that many of the parents hide these children by sending them to us.

Project Director

Rexraj Lucas is the director and founder of the organisation. He is qualified as a special educator in Mental Retardation as well as holds a degree in Sociology.

Rexraj grew up in a Catholic household in a small rural village. He followed in his father's footsteps, in choosing to work with the disabled.

Who do we need?

We prefer female volunteers who have some experience and knowledge related to disability issues - especially developmental disabilities.

We also welcome occupational therapists, neuro developmental therapists, and physiotherapists to come to help train our staff.

What would you do?

- Help to train the staff
- Help the children to be assessed
- Write proposals and find funding agencies
- Experience with us the lives of special needs children and the issues surrounding families who have such kids.

The children:

The children admitted in our center have the following types of disabilities:

Mental Retardation : 35%
Cerebral Palsy : 20%
Autism : 15%
Hearing Impaired : 12%
Multiple disabilities: 18%

The majority are aged between 3 and 18 years old. During admission, the functional ability of the child is assessed and individual training programs are prepared based on their functional level and age.

The training areas include:
- Motor development (fine and gross motor skills)
- Activities related to daily living (eating, toiletting, dressing and grooming)
- Communication (receptive and expressive)
- Functional academics (Reading, Writing and Numbers)
- Social Interaction, Community Orientation
- Pre-vocational skills

Accomodation

We are able to accomodate two volunteers in a neat and clean building of our own. We ensure volunteers' safety and convenience.

Read a recent volunteer's experience here