Sense International India

Project Brief: Deafblindness is a unique disability with extreme challenges of communication and mobility. AfE will help provide rehabilitation services to 35 children with deafblindness and multiple disabilities in the greater Vadodara area.
Project Type: Special Needs (description)
Primary Focus: children with disabilities (description)

Secondary Focus: children with disabilities

Area: Rural
Supporting Chapter Contact: Silicon Valley
Status: current / ongoing
Project Steward: Siddharth Deshpande
Project Partner(s): Moushumi Banerjee
Other Contacts: Aparna Deshmukh
Project Address: , 2nd Floor, Administrative Block Andhajan Mandal Campus,Opp. IIM, Vastrapur,Ahmedabad,
GUJARAT  380015
Tel: 011 91 079 26301282
Stewarding Chapter: Silicon Valley
Feb 2023Silicon ValleyUSD 1016
Mar 2022Silicon ValleyUSD 1129
Jul 2021Silicon ValleyUSD 1077
Dec 2020Silicon ValleyUSD 1090

Total = $4312

Currently, in Vadodara city, Sense India is reaching out to 20 children with deaf-blindness and multiple disabilities. Through the project, it would like to expand the reach and include an additional 15 children with deaf-blindness and multiple disabilities and provide them with the required needs-based individualized education and rehabilitation support services. The centre will be developed as model centre for children with deaf-blindness and multiple disabilities where their specific needs will be addressed and supported to become an independent and contributing member of their society. CSOs associated with disability work will also be trained towards the needs of persons with deaf-blindness. Sense India will provide capacity building training to Disha and project staff for better quality care and services to children with deaf-blindness and multiple disabilities. Training will be provided to parents as well to support the education of their children and advocate for their rights with the government. An integral part of the project will be training the government’s Samagara Shiksha (SMSA) Abhiyan teachers for identification and inclusion of children with deaf-blindness and multiple disabilities in mainstream schools.

The long-term impact envisaged by Sense India for the project is for the centre to be well-known in Vadodara district for any children diagnosed with deafblindness to be referred there. The children provided education and allied services at the centre will become functionally independent and certain children through Sense India’s training initiatives with government’s Samagara Shiksha teachers will be able to enroll in mainstream schools and complete their education in inclusive setups. The parents/family members provide training through the project, will work on spreading awareness in the community on deafblindness and become a self-sustainable group advocating for the rights of their children and persons with deafblindness in general. The children who otherwise would have completely missed out on education will get educated through their centre and will look forward to becoming micro-entrepreneurs through Sense India’s vocational training project for young adults with deafblindness and multiple disabilities or find other meaningful employment opportunities and become productive members of the society.
Sense International India's vision is of a world in which all deafblind children and adults can be full and active members of society. Their purpose is to work in partnership with others - deafblind people, their families, carers and professionals - to ensure that everyone facing challenges because of deafblindness has access to advice, opportunities and support.

The project is implemented with the partnership of a local NGO, Disha Special School and Autism centre. The capacity of Disha will be built on deafblindness and related issues. 4 project staff members will be provided with the capacity-building support, ensuring the long-term sustainability of the work. Sense India will provide training and capacity building of 10 government teachers associated with the Inclusive Education for All initiative, for identification and inclusion of children with deafblindness and multiple disabilities in mainstream schools. A support group of parents and teachers will be formed at each of the project locations to advocate for the rights of persons with deafblindness and multiple disabilities.
Sense International India (also known as Sense India) is the only national-level organization supporting specialized educational and rehabilitation services which enable children and adults with deaf-blindness to overcome the challenges caused by deaf-blindness and become an integral part of their society. Sense India’s key objective is to provide the information, guidance, support, and training needed along with being committed to helping people with deaf-blindness and multiple disabilities and their families by raising awareness and campaigning for rights, opportunities, and services throughout the nation. Sense India has specialized expertise in domains of communication, mobility, accessible information, assistive devices and rehabilitation building capacity of persons with deaf-blindness. With its unique technical know-how of the last 23 years in the field of deaf-blindness and multiple disabilities, Sense India uses a multi-pronged approach. This includes technical assistance to its partner NGOs and direct training of their staff to work with children and adults with deaf-blindness and multiple disabilities in the community.

These well planned consistent efforts of expanding services with the help of a network of grass-roots organizations and building their capacity on deaf-blindness have enabled Sense India to reach out to more than 78,000 individuals with deaf-blindness in the last twenty-three years. The partnership approach of directly working with local organizations has resulted in the setting of 59 projects in 23 states and is one of the most cost-effective and innovative models of service delivery.

Due to its nation-wide initiatives, Sense India is accredited to the United Nations and has consultative status on deaf-blindness. Sense India has started to assist in South-Asian countries based on expertise in the field of deaf-blindness in India. Their vision is of a world in which all children and adults with deafblindness can be full and active members of society.
Disha and Sense India are working on the same project for deafblind children. However, they are registered as two separate projects under ashanet.org because of the new FCRA requirements by the Govt. of India. As per the new norms, neither Sense India can transfer any FCRA money to Disha nor Disha can transfer any FCRA money to Sense India. To support the project, Asha for Education has to bifurcate funds to Sense India and Disha.