The Vadodara District Collectorate is creating an online platform to bring together institutions working for children with disabilities. The same is being done to channelize education and create a list of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for those associated with care giving for children with disabilities amid coronavirus lockdown in India.
The team, under the District Social Defense Department, will bring together individual NGOs and institutions working for children to an interactive platform that will enable the latter’s parents to deal with the situation at hand better, reported the Indian Express.
“We will be materializing the project within two days. We are preparing SOPs for parents, guardians and children who are physically challenged, destitute or orphans. We are creating a platform of about 100 such institutions that will be able to give online training. Many people have taken to the online route, but not everyone has a streamlined process. Many children, who were living in institutions, have now gone back home and their parents do not know what to do. Similarly, those children who are still living in institutions also need a different set of SOPs.” said District Collector Shalini Agarwal.
Two video tutorials created have already been made available on social media platforms of the Social Defense Department. One video by Akshar Trust, that works with children with hearing and vision disability, shows a lady instructor speaking about Covid-19 in Gujarati as well as sign language. Another video shows a lady instructor explaining an activity of tracing shapes and patterns on paper. Agarwal said that the projects will include joint activities for parents and children.
“For the next few months during this outbreak, the focus is going to be on online learning as it appears unlikely that institutions might open. We have to be prepared and take into consideration the different needs of children with disabilities. For instance, the deaf and mute have needs that are different from the visually impaired. Different institutes have made different modules. So, we have asked them to share their notes and make it a common platform that everyone can use,” Agarwal said.
