Education leads to employment, meaning develop income generating skills either academically or vocationally. What should one expect for a person with special needs who had been to special schools.? This question is in the minds of every parent who has a special child and few have any answers for that.
My husband and I are both accountants and have three children of whom the youngest boy is a person with Downs Syndrome. The elder of the three is a software engineer and the next is a medical doctor.
What should we do for the young lad?
We along with two other parents created a Trust to help such young persons. The Trust trains persons with special needs in activities like making of paper bags, envelopes, screen printing, offset printing, weaving and tailoring .The challenges met in training are instilling work ethics like discipline, endurance of work by the special needs person, peer group interaction and developing of skills all of which requires materials, men and money.Further resources were needed to continue the hands on experience in work to tone up the skills learnt and maintain quality.
The next challenge was to find market for the work that these persons were capable of doing. Thus we had to knock at the doors of Corporates with the samples of work done for soliciting orders. Challenges never seem to end. Getting an order was a herculean task. Maintaining the quality required at a competitive price and to deliver in time for an order posed an uphill task. More time is requested to execute the orders as longer working hours are required to complete the job with special children. Team work was the key to completion of an order which enabled each person to do some part of a job as per his ability. This in turn helped in getting to the finished product in time.
To day we are proud to say that we have a few corporate clients who give us regular orders on in making of their files and hand made paper bags.
Our experience makes us confident to invite more young persons with special needs to participate in our project and benefit.
My husband and I are both accountants and have three children of whom the youngest boy is a person with Downs Syndrome. The elder of the three is a software engineer and the next is a medical doctor.
What should we do for the young lad?
We along with two other parents created a Trust to help such young persons. The Trust trains persons with special needs in activities like making of paper bags, envelopes, screen printing, offset printing, weaving and tailoring .The challenges met in training are instilling work ethics like discipline, endurance of work by the special needs person, peer group interaction and developing of skills all of which requires materials, men and money.Further resources were needed to continue the hands on experience in work to tone up the skills learnt and maintain quality.
The next challenge was to find market for the work that these persons were capable of doing. Thus we had to knock at the doors of Corporates with the samples of work done for soliciting orders. Challenges never seem to end. Getting an order was a herculean task. Maintaining the quality required at a competitive price and to deliver in time for an order posed an uphill task. More time is requested to execute the orders as longer working hours are required to complete the job with special children. Team work was the key to completion of an order which enabled each person to do some part of a job as per his ability. This in turn helped in getting to the finished product in time.
To day we are proud to say that we have a few corporate clients who give us regular orders on in making of their files and hand made paper bags.
Our experience makes us confident to invite more young persons with special needs to participate in our project and benefit.
