A mile long smile breaks out on her face, the moment you ask her, her name! “Shristhi,” she says, but it’s a bit tough to comprehend! You ask her name again and this time, her smile gets even wider. With a relish she says “Shrishti”. As one gradually puts together what the eight-year-old just said, she runs off with her friends giggling.
Her joyful countenance is infectious and makes everybody smile.
Shrishti is happy because she is now able to understand what people are saying to her. She is happy because she is now able to respond to what others have to say.
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This was not the case a year-ago when she was admitted to Ashray Akruti, all the way from Jharkhand, her home-State.
“We took it as a challenge to train her in hearing and speech. We also decided to give her moral support because she had lost her father and her family was struggling to eke out a living. A good samaritan in Jharkhand contacted us online and then we got in touch with the child’s family and admitted her in our school,” says Director, D.P.K. Babu.
The hi-tech hearing clinic, which was recently started by Ashray Akruti at Srinagar Colony, has sort of become a second home for children like Shrishti (hearing and speech impaired), who spend a large chunk of their day time with audiologists and other specialists. “Today is a holiday, but we came to wish the doctor. We were getting bored in our hostel,” declares, an enthusiastic nine-year-old Radha, whose family is from Mahabubnagar.
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After a while, the youngsters go back to their teacher and surround her. “We are like anchors for them. They are yet to develop speaking skills fully and depend on us to communicate. But, there is a lot of change because they are improving and are happy now,” says A. Kalpana, the vice-president of Ashray Akruti Residential School for Deaf Children.
The trek towards a normal life is not easy. “A majority come to us at a stage where cochlear implants can’t be done. So, we put them through a series of tests and then start the long journey of rehabilitation,” says R. Venkatraman of Ashray Akruti.