SPECIAL NEEDS SCHOOL

A NEW HOPE FOR DIFFERENTLY ABLED IN KANDY

Parents and disabled adults will be provided with paid staff positions after complete training. Myriad of awareness programmes will be carried out at this centre to eradicate the social stigma attached to physical and mental disabilities

Taking inspiration from his son Shivan, who suffers from cerebral palsy and is autistic and blind, Ganesh Velautham has set forth to reach out to disabled children and their parents through Special Needs Schools for local students. The Kandy-Theldeniya Special Needs School and Ayurveda Centre of Shivan Foundation for Disabled Children will be opened on Saturday, July 20.

Established in 2008, Shivan Foundation is a non-profiting organization whose mission is to watch over the establishment and management of free-to-use health and educational retreats of disabled children and help for their parents. The Foundation offers permanent accommodation for disabled children in Sri Lanka as well as temporary facilities for families with disabled children in the United Kingdom.

The Kandy-Theldeniya Centre is expected to add more glitter to this, as a role model for future health and education facilities across Sri Lanka for the benefit of disabled children.

Parents and disabled adults will be provided with paid staff positions after complete training. Myriad of awareness programmes will be carried out at this centre to eradicate the social stigma attached to physical and mental disabilities.

Set on ten acres surrounded by a mighty 3,000 ft. hill range and located several miles away from the heart of Kandy, the Special Needs School in Theldeniya covering 15000 sq. ft. is the very first centre of its kind and is the fruit of enormous planning and preparation.

Equipped with health, educational and leisure facilities including a swimming pool, a hydrotherapy pool, a music therapy room, an Ayurveda centre and a herbal therapeutic centre, it also grants children, the opportunity to grow with sprinklings of nature through the organic farm land and freerange animal enclosures.

Presently operating as a day school, the Shivan Foundation for Disabled Children aims to offer full residential services through round-the-clock care and accommodation in the near future. Currently, staff and volunteers are being prepared for the transition of the Special Needs School into a residential school with the support from medical professionals and external experts. Special Education Specialist and Founding Principal Sally Evans is presently engaged in the task of putting together a team of caring individuals and teachers for this humanitarian project.

By training parents and the local workforce, Shivan Foundation for Disabled Children is expected to be the symbolic crest of excellence, run by Sri Lankans.

The families, friends, the staff, volunteers, the members of the first Shivan Foundation, parents’ committee and well-wishers who have helped make this project a reality, will participate in the opening.

Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage will attend the opening ceremony along with Traditional Industries and Small Enterprises Development Minister Douglas Devananda, Northern Province Governor G.A.Chandrasiri and Founder of Shivan Foundation, Ganeswaran Velautham.

Set on ten acres surrounded by a mighty 3,000 ft. hill range and located several miles away from the heart of Kandy, the Special Needs School in Theldeniya covering 15000 sq. ft. is the very first centre of its kind