Like other students in the State, mentally challenged children in BUDS institutions run by Kudumbashree and local self-government institutions can now look forward to online videos for their personal and social development amid the crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Closure of schools has affected differently abled students the most. Frustrated by being homebound for months, they are also severely impacted by the disruptions in their academic and skill training activities. Now, to keep the more than 9,000 mentally challenged children who attend 138 BUDS schools and 151 BUDS rehabilitation centres engaged, online videos are being prepared for them by their teachers.
The videos will cover the children’s curriculum, skill training, and social and health awareness, besides counselling for their parents. Activities of daily life, knowledge of nature, mathematical skills, and domestic skills will be covered.
Arun P. Rajan, State Programme Manager, Social Development, Kudumbashree says that during the lockdown, the 430 teachers of BUDS institutions and 351 helpers kept in touch with the children through phone calls and WhatsApp. Now, as a follow-up, all the teachers have been asked to prepare videos on activities that the children can undertake with their parents’ support.
Teachers in each district will prepare the videos and put them up on the YouTube channels for their districts and Facebook too.
The first video at the State-level by Jilsha Raj of Thrikkadeeri BUDS in Palakkad on shapes was posted on Wednesday. The plan is to upload 10 videos this week. The district-level initiatives will get going from next week. These will be monitored by district programme managers for ensuring quality, and then sent to the State mission for vetting, before being uploaded.
Mr. Arun Rajan says the objective of asking all the teachers to put up videos is to ensure that the rapport the children had with teachers with continues uninterrupted. It will also help identify teachers best suited to the online teaching mode so that videos by them can be put up in the next phases of the initiative.
Kudumbashree will prepare videos of livelihood activities such as manufacture of paper bags. Also on the cards are videos of health exercises for children that will be prepared with the help of therapists, Kudumbashree executive director Harikishore S. says in a Facebook post.
