About us
Prabhat serves children and adults with mental and physical challenges, helping them to achieve their full potential.
Who we are
We are committed to the national effort to help children with special needs to find their way to independent adulthood working in and around Ahmedabad. We work to bridge the gap between mainstream society and those with special needs. Our mission is to build the capacities of people with special needs to live with dignity and hope as productive and confident citizens.
The Prabhat Education Foundation reflects a journey that began in 2003 through the identification and nurturing of children with learning difficulties struggling in mainstream schools. In time, the widespread reality of physically and mentally challenged children in and around Ahmedabad became apparent, and Prabhat moved into serving special children, as well as their families affected by stigma, ignorance and denial. Realizing the need for access to care, education and learning of this group, Prabhat conceptualized an institutional facility to provide systematic rehabilitation services that could be accessible for those challenged by poverty and mobility. Working with and through local communities became Prabhat’s hallmark.
News of Prabhat spread, and children with a range of disabilities started arriving at its door,
seeking assistance. Prabhat responded in 2003 with a summer workshop for special children and their families in cooperation with the Ahmedabad Education Society. The workshop provided an opportunity for exchanging experiences and ideas, and also revealed the extent and range of special needs within the city of Ahmedabad. There was also a deep realization of stigma and discrimination affecting the future of these children and their families. Prabhat realized the need for robust steps to make children with special needs visible, and to fight for their inclusion into mainstream society. Prabhat began work with one child and today its outreach touches more than 3000 persons with special needs in Ahmedabad as well as to their families, neighbours and communities.
Prabhat programmes
Prabhat’s programmes encompasses a range of activities and services targeted to help bring succor to children with special needs, their families and the communities they belong to. Activities edging towards an inclusive society are conducted through three main channels – Prabhat Centre’s, Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) and Advocacy.
Prabhat Centres
The Centre’s are located close to those in need of services. Prabhat’s Centre’s are located in some of Ahmedabad’s most deprived slums. The Centre’s are designed as welcoming, cheerful and safe spaces for counselling, assessment, therapy, learning-by- doing and for joy.
Prabhat’s pedagogy uses a multiple intelligence approach. The Centre’s support Prabhat’s CBR and Advocacy programs, constituting the core of Prabhat’s efforts to create spaces in which the needs, abilities and challenges of children with special needs are respected and opportunities created for them to learn and grow as citizens.
The Centre’s constitute the core Prabhat’s programmes – creating an environment in which the needs, abilities and challenges of children with special needs are respected and opportunities created for them to learn and to grow as citizens. Centres are designed as ‘welcoming and cheerful’ spaces for therapy, play and learning by doing. The team of Prabhat’s special educators is supported by assessment and therapy processes conducted and guided by experts. Occupational training opportunities provide direction toward future livelihoods and productive citizenship for children with special needs. The Centre’s help create and expand opportunities for inclusion of children with special needs within the mainstream society, most importantly by working with local schools.
Community Based Rehabilitation program (CBR)
The goal of Prabhat’s CBR is to create enabling environments and capacities within the communities and homes to support and encourage those children with special needs and their families who cannot access Prabhat Centres due to barriers of mobility, distance or awareness. This programme is the outcome of field observations, home visits and discussions with other experienced institutions and activists. CBR is directed toward generating the awareness, knowledge and capacity within homes and neighborhoods that can mobilize them to support and nurture children with special needs. The Home-based Programme within CBR provides support through training and learning opportunities organized in and through the neighborhood. Surveys generate base-level data to identify priority needs.
Prabhat’s team pays regular visits to identified areas to help build and facilitate a supportive environment for the child and her family. The CBR Programme also reaches out to those who cannot come to the Centre’s because of mobility constraints or distance. Towards this end, Prabhat strives to recruit team members from the community, or those familiar with the communities it serves.
Advocacy
Advocacy for Prabhat means utilizing all its activities and resources toward greater opportunities for children with special needs and their families. Its aim is – removal of stigma and fear so that the children are included as equals within the Indian society.
Advocacy through networking strengthens each of these services and creates a more enabling environment for children with special needs in society. Its main aim is to develop like-minded partnerships that can enable special children to grow and flourish as equal citizens, building networks of support, awareness and action for inclusion and against stigma, fear and discrimination. We do this by focusing on demonstrating success stories and work towards attitudinal changes among people/ community with the help and support from local leaders, institutions and by the community itself.
As part of the advocacy efforts, Prabhat conducts regular awareness and sensitization workshops with anganwadi staff, students, teachers and other administrative members from mainstream schools and colleges. Advocacy efforts are also aimed at the public at large creating awareness and bringing them closer to an inclusive society. Apart from this a detailed assessment of students is also conducted by specialists in order to identify any disabilities among the children. If any disability is detected, appropriate support is extended under the Early Intervention (EI) programme of Prabhat. Regular awareness activities also include workshops, street plays, events and baithaks.