This one of a kind café in Mumbai provides employment opportunities to adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities and is full of yummy snacks. Read trustee Ashaita Mahajan’s interview for full story.
In the last few years, a handful of restaurants and eateries have opened across India that are creating opportunities for the differently abled. Café Arpan is the latest addition. Could you tell us how Café Arpan was envisaged and what is its mission?
Cafe Arpan is the second supported…
Autism
I Support Foundation tries to make cafes and restaurant visits a hurdle-free experience for families of persons with disabilities. We speak to co-founder Juhi Ramani on how they are going about it. This initiative is to create awareness and provide hassle free service to persons with disabilities. We, the I Support Foundation (NGO), started this initiative for achieving universal accessibility that will enable persons with disabilities to gain access for equal opportunity and live independently…
Chinnappa Mathanda, a parent of a child with special needs and one of the people behind aSpecialWorld talks to PatientsEngage on the amazing experience of youth on the autism spectrum riding the waves in Chennai. Don't miss the videos below 1. Tell us how and why you thought of getting kids with autism to go surfing I came across some really exciting videos of children with special needs, not just autistic children, learning surfing in the US. This sowed the idea in our minds. 2. How did you go…
Minu Budhia and daughter Preeyam Budhia, co-founders of Café ICanFlyy in Kolkata, a café which employs individuals with disabilities and empowers them to chart out their course in life, talk about the vision behind setting up this one-of-a-kind café in the country. Tell us about Cafe ICanFlyy. How did it take shape? Cosy, quirky, and certainly a labour of love, Cafe ICanFlyy is a 50-seater cafe run by individuals with special needs. Whether you’re making a quick stop for a cuppa, a short…
Raviraj Shetty, a lead Therapist, Supervisor and Project Manager at Ummeed Child Development Center talks about his work using Narrative Psychology. He has published a paper in the Indian Journal of Occupational Therapy in the context of handwriting training using Narrative Therapy. 1. What is Narrative psychology? Narrative therapy is a respectful and a non-blaming approach of counselling used for children, individuals, families, couples and communities. Narrative therapy is based…
Writer’s Cafe, Chennai, in association with Madras Dyslexia Association (MDA) have come up with a unique way of creating awareness for Dyslexia by changing the spelling on their menus. For the entire month of April Writer's Cafe they were serving “vejetarien and non-vejetarian fare — grild chkein, grik caled, and flammenkuchen, for starters.” This is an awareness campaign to show how a person with dyslexia views the world, and how difficult it is for them to “navigate in a world that does…
Shivani Maheshwari brings you a list of 10 movies and documentaries on health released in 2017. It is a random selection, with no preference or bias. They were picked up because they featured prominently on social media. The dominance of American staple probably makes a telling statement that more work needs to be done in the health sector in India, in terms of films, features, docudramas, narratives, and motion pictures. Hopefully, 2018 will be better. Watch them if you can. Many are available…
Tripura Kashyap, founder-director of Apoorva Dance Theatre in Bangalore and one of the pioneers of Creative Movement Therapy in India writes about her weekly dance therapy sessions for a group of 8 to 12 year olds with learning disabilities, Down's Syndrome, Autism and Intellectual Disabilities. On my return to Bangalore after my training in Dance Therapy in the US, Iwas approached by the Baldwin Opportunity School to hold weekly dance therapy sessions for their children in the age group…
The recent incident of a mother in Bengaluru causing the death of her disabled child has stirred many reactions and caused a lot of introspection in families with disabled children. But what of the larger community? Did we give it a moment? What can we do? What should we do? During a conversation in a little cafe in Chennai with some of the early contributors of PatientsEngage, people associated with VidyaSagar, an organisation for children and adults with special needs, the commonly held…
