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Reaching out to parents of the intellectually challenged

KIDSET PAIR Kerala comes out with some initiatives The organisation brings out a magazine, `Parents Voice,' to cater to the needs of parents of such children.

How will the parents of intellectually challenged children take care of them when the parents themselves become old? This is a question that baffles most of the parents of such children. It is this thinking that brought together parents of several such children to form KIDSET PAIR Kerala (KIDSET Parents Association for Intellectually Retarded, Kerala). They also brought out a magazine, `Parents Voice', to cater to the parents of such children.

K.V. Jayadevan, chairman of KIDSET PAIR Kerala, says that now since the joint family system has given way to nuclear families, parents of these children will find the going tough when they become old. "It will be very difficult to keep these children in schools beyond 20 years of age. Even when they become grown-ups they find it difficult to do things for themselves. It is in this context that we thought of forming `eco villages,' where a collective of parents of such children can reside in a common area and avail themselves of professional help to train the children. We prepared a report in this regard last year. But it is difficult to get funds for making it a reality," says Mr. Jayadevan.

According to him, it is found that the mothers of these children often feel depressed following `taunts' by others. "So, some even do not venture out for fear of facing such taunts." The magazine addresses some of these issues.

In order to reach out to the parents of these children spread across the district, KIDSET is sending the magazine to all the libraries in the district. They also send it to special schools in the State. The magazine claims to have one lakh exclusive readers. "Since it is sent to the libraries in the district, we think such a large number of readers might have read it," says Mr. Jayadevan.

The magazine has articles that spread the awareness on various topics. Take for example, one of the articles that demolishes the belief that intellectually challenged children are born due to the sin committed by their parents, by telling a success story of a couple of such children.

The response to the article was very encouraging. Mr. Jayadevan says that a parent of intellectually challenged child told him that they changed the doctor they had been consulting for their child after reading one of the articles in `Parents Voice'. The condition of this child had improved considerably after changing the doctor. Most of the articles are voluntary contributions by doctors and parents of intellectually challenged children.

"We brought out our first issue in September 2003. So far we had brought out three of them. Since we do not have the funds to put in place a proper editorial team, it takes time to bring out one issue," Mr. Jayadevan points out.

According to him, the Government is not caring for these children. The Government should help voluntary organisations working in this area, he feels.

J.S. Bablu

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