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Ravi Sriniwasan : “ Give me a chance – I can do it “  |
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Ravi Sriniwasan – The young lad who is 34yrs old and whose name means “The Sun” in Hindi , proved the world what the world had not expected him to do. He rose like a rising sun ,full of strength and brilliance, spreading it to the world . . When he joined Muskaan in 1993, he was 22 yrs old and would only crawl on his fours. The only world he spoke was Amma – means mother .The institution he A physiotherapist was engaged for his exercises and Ravi followed the exercise routine diligently. The rest of the inputs were provided by Muskaan team. The team also felt responsible for this challenge and worked hard with Ravi .They gave him self confidence and unending support. Soon Ravi started showing the changes .He was filled with determination and every new step he took was with renewed self confidence. Whenever there was a group discussion Ravi ‘s hand used to the first one to shoot out. This hand of confidence narrated another story that “Give me chance & have confidence in me .I can Do it”. The undaunting spirit of Ravi and his mother made Ravi walk with a stick and he can now express himself in three languages. He won the prestigious award at Muskaan of “I Can” in 2006 which is given to those who exhibit un wavering spirit. Ravi’s father was transferred to Bangolore in 2008. Not a single day goes by when the team of Muskaan doesn't’t remember him. The special moments are when they drink the tea and coffee prepared by the vending machine, gifted by Ravi and his family as the parting gift. Though he is not physically present, but his unrelenting spirit will always remain with Muskaan encouraging Muskaan team to have faith in human determination, capability and effort. Today , Ravi is in Bangalore and has joined a centre which looks after the needs of the differently abled. |
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Sumati Bhatia
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went to earlier and the doctors who treated him had totally given up on him and labeled him as incapable of ever walking or speaking.His mother who always had ‘never say die’ spirit challenged the institution that she would prove them wrong. She had 100% faith that he would walk. This resilience of his mother somewhere filtered to Ravi and he also felt the need to prove his mother right.
She joined the Pre-Vocational Unit, and is one consistent feature of the programme. She has fulfilled her duties diligently and A difficult class to manage! Sumati taking sessions with young adolescents
She has worked hard on behavior management skills and with consistent facilitation she will have more success. Most importantly she will succeed because she really really wants to. A Difficult Class To Manage. |
earnestly in the assigned role. She has a good understanding of the programme and the needs of each of the trainees, but managing group sessions is challenging for her mainly because the group she deals with is heterogeneous and has young adolescents with a high need to rebel, this tends to lead to confrontations.
She has joined the Library. She is particular about rules and is someone who enjoys reading, values books a perfect match for a library assistant. She has proved to be a very effective assistant under the guidance of her facilitator the unit in-charge Ms Devgan.
They plan sessions based on the requirements of each unit, Sumita actively researches the topics, finds pictures or other relevant material, maintains beautiful |
records of 
each session which are reference books for future sessions. Sumita helping students during their leisure. You have to put all the beads on the other side.She also maintains book records and is persistent and confident.
In fact if Muskaan library books have survived, are not lost, the credit is a
ll hers, as she never forgets and rests only when the book is back to where it belongs!!
Manoj Bhatia -The gym trainer! 
So unlike other placements this was not the best ‘matched’, but proved to be one of our most successful placements; due to patient and consistent facilitation and belief o Manoj is well versed with all the gym equipment including the purpose, proper usage and precautions to be taken. He conducts sessions independently in the gym.
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f our sports teacher, Mr Akhilesh Kumar in Manoj.
Manoj - The self advocate ; wants to share his concerns. I want to work hard. I want to learn one new work for this year. My salary should increase by Rs 2000/- per month.Neeru Ahuja --The computer wizard!
Neeru is a 33 years old girl, who loves to get responsibility and is very particular about her duties. She is placed in the Computer Unit . Her duties includes, up keeping computer records, making arrangement for sessions, bringing students for the session, helping the teacher in conducting the session.
Above all she is a very helpful person who lends her hands to her peers and makes herself available for any work. |
She exactly knows that which student follows what program and what is his/ her need. It doesn't’t matter if the teacher is not available for any reason. She makes it a point that session will happen on time.
Journey of Mayank… from VT4 to Office Assistant
Success begets Success 
Mayank Manigi is the charming, efficient office assistant cum receptionist to the administration staff and the visitors to Muskaan and the super cool ‘dude’ to his friends and colleagues at Muskaan. He has a natural easy charm that makes all visitors feel important and special. His telephone etiquette and skills are superlative he talks to people as they were long lost friends and is especially attentive and helpful to young ladies on the phone or otherwise.
He is a self assured, empowered young person who is a prime example of what all can be possibly achieved by any individual if faith, appropriate training and opportunities are provided. Mayank has studied till 12th standard, and has a diploma in
Baking from the prestigious Pusa Institute of Hotel Management, New 
Delhi. He has also worked at some of the famous bakeries in Delhi like India Habitat Centre and Claridges Hotel.
However, his ‘challenges’ made it difficult for him to sustain his jobs. He joined Muskaan in the bakery unit but given the fact that he was not experiencing as much success at baking as he did when he was ‘chatting and mingling’ we mutually decided to try the reception as a placement which would suite his personality and the good academic and verbal skills he had He was definitely more comfortable at the reception but the challenges also became more apparent to us. He had issues prioritizing the demands made by the Hey! You all listen to me. Mayank, proving a point.
6 people he was working with. Wastage was high for the equipment he was using like photocopy machine. In his eagerness to be efficient he was not listening to complete instructions and therefore was being inefficient; he was capable of planning but would not plan. The most disturbing was he was unable to deal with any negative feedback at all and worst was he loved to gossip.
However, like for any colleagues these were the joining jitters, once his challenges were clear, appropriate training in working with equipment, systems in the office to give a prioritized assignment of work through a single person rather than all 6, most importantly slight facilitation based on self reflection and his innate desire to succeed saw him blossom in to super efficient, resourceful and indispensable member of the Muskaan team. He has had a few job offers too from the people impressed with his work, with better pay package, which has made us very very proud !! He has chosen to stay but we are pretty sure not for long, in fact we hope not for long !
Mayank Maingi - The self Advocate My name is Mayank Maingi. I am 24 years old and working in Muskaan for two and half years at reception in the office. I do lot of work in the office. In Muskaan I am happy and feel it is our family. Every body is ready to help each other. I have learnt lot of things here and I want to grow more and improve myself. Some times I feel laid down by new comers who have just joined us and do not know about the organization. We keep quiet and feel bad. Some times I have problem in handling the situation and I need help in it. I get less money for my work that I do here. I want to earn more money like my brother. We can also do better if not totally given up by parents & service providers. Provide us the opportunities! |
Ira Mathur & Divya Bakshi are two such examples!!
“Count my Weakness as my Strength”
Three years back when I had come to Muskaan, I had spent some time in assessing the special unit trainees. I took a lot of interest in Ira and Divya due to their severe I found Ira and Divya to be unique people; working with them gave me a positive vibe. During that time we Ira had a habit of throwing things and screaming due to lack of communication and structured environment, she did not sit in one place. Work with her helped us to change this habit of throwing things to transferring them from one place to another. We used commands like “start” and “finish” with her and now she is using the same skill in the candle unit. Divya also had severe behavioural issues which were self injurious (peeling her skin and pinching others), she also had a habit of hitting others, had limited attention span along with limited communication. She was then exposed to the cooking unit where she was made to peel pees, clean methi, dhaniya and palak etc. They were given a structured environment through proper foundations using wooden dividers to ensure that they understood their structure and the expectations from them. We discovered and provided sensory stimulation which was also used as teaching aids for them. We provided them with appropriate material and skills as intellectually They were exposed to alternative and augmentative communication methods, as some major issues persisted due to communication difficulties in receptive and expressive language. Ira was given “PECS” and Divya was exposed to American sigh language through which most of their issues had resolved. They were given a structure and a functional routine touching every area of learning. Behaviour management approach was given where proper structure was used to increase their attention and understanding and provide various coping strategies. Some basic rules were followed by clarifying expectations visually and at the concrete level. They soon understood permission and prohibition. Other specialized professional inputs like rehabilitation therapy, sports etc made their program more effective and progressive. Today both Ira and Divya have been placed in vocational setup; they do not have behavioural issues and now actively participate in a variety of activities. They are able to work in a group as well as with whole of Muskaan trainees. They have a long way to go…this is only the beginning…!!
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Read the Siblings Perspective of Bringing a Change. |
behaviour and limited participation to activities. They were an enigma for all. I was lucky to get a chance to work with them.
needed to concretize goals and objectives for them. I continued to feel motivated towards them, the inputs generated helped provide a better quality of life for them. 
challenged too require behaving and adapting to their environment. Thus it was important that Ira and Divya were exposed to age appropriate material and teaching aids like transferring blocks had been replaced with daily use objects like
vegetables, utensils, cloth etc. Divya and Ira got an opportunity to learn skills directly, all aids prepared were multipurpose for motor co-ordination, independence in daily living, developing appropriate social behaviour and most importantly it helped in easy transfer into vocational activity.