History
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SPASTICS SOCIETY OF MIZORAM
(formerly the SOCIETY FOR REHABILITATION OF SPASTIC CHILDREN).
AIZAWL. MIZORAM.
Although Persons with Disabilities have always been with us, their welfare and well-being have never been seriously thought out before. They have always been regarded as incapable of learning.
In 1989 four parents of spastic children decided to form a Society so that they can support each other and help out other parents as well. On the 10th of April 1989, the Society for Rehabilitation of Spastic Children was formally instituted. After drafting the Constitution, by-laws and Memorandum of Association, the Society was duly registered with the Registrar, Firms and Society, Government of Mizoram vide Registration No. SR.13 of 1989 dated the 4th of July 1989.
The Society is affiliated to Spastics Society of Eastern India in Calcutta. The magazine ‘Genesis’ was published to generate general awareness of disabled children, besides bringing in a small income for the Society’s fund. At first, only 100 copies of the magazines were sold and the proceeds went towards sending Miss Chalthanpuii to SSEI Calcutta to train as a Special Educator for C.P. Miss Chalthanpuii became the first Mizo trained to work for the disabled.
After the four members of the Society underwent a short management programme in Calcutta, the Gilead Special School for Multi-Handicapped Children was started on the 1st. February 1990 with the four children of the founder members. We did not intend to take in other handicapped children save the C.P. and M.Rs. However many parents with hearing handicapped children came and asked for inclusion because there were no services for them. As years passed other children with different disabilities were also included and services were provided to them, equipped with Special Educators and attendants. The Society now caters to all types of disabilities except for the blind.
From 1994 the Society went to villages to hold free clinics. Since then we conducted innumerable Outreach Clinics in the East, the West, the North and the South. Since 1998, we have taken up the Community Based Rehabilitation Programme in real earnest, first with funding from Action Aid India for a year and continued to do the programme on our own since then.
Many people ask us how we help these disabled children who come to us. Those who do not know how to hold their head up, learn how to hold them upright, those who drool learn to swallow it, those who are nearly deaf and the profoundly deaf learn to read and write and speak in different ways. The bigger ones are taught some craft that will be of use to them when they become adults.
