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After working as a special educator at various special schools in the national capital, Ms. Arora started her own venture, Upasana Special School, to provide individuals with special education, therapies, and vocational training. The school has a sheltered workshop where children make snacks, handicrafts, and decorative items.
Over the last few years, the school has provided high-quality hearing aids to hearing-impaired children with the help of several MNCs and has been able to place a few hearing-impaired children in the Hotel Industries in various departments like the F & B, and housekeeping.
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A special child from the school has even represented India in the 2017 Winter Special Olympics held in Austria, and Delhi State in the Inter-State Sports Events. Many of them have also cleared their class 10 and class 12 exams through NIOS.
Dealing with the pandemic
In order to take care of the special needs children during the COVID-induced lockdown, the school started online classes on April 1. Special educators sent worksheets daily to the guardians through WhatsApp which they had to send back to the concerned educators by the end of the day.
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Parents were instructed through video conferences about how to take care of their children, and get the work done. They were also requested to send video recordings of their children doing the activities to help the school authorities monitor, and check if the activities are carried out in the right way.
However, many families didn't have access to computers or smartphones. For such parents, the authorities distributed hard copies of the worksheets on a designated day and instructed their parents over telephonic calls.
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Education for the underprivileged
Many people have lost their jobs due to the ongoing pandemic and are finding it difficult to make ends meet, let alone education of their wards. Keeping this in view, Upasana Special School started a new project to educate underprivileged children.
The classes began in October 2021, and 25 children between the ages of 3 to 5 have been taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, all in English. Extracurricular activities such as sports, dance, music, and solving puzzles have also been added to their curriculum. The children have been provided with free uniforms, stationery, and school bags.
Other Achievements
During the testing times, the school has distributed rations to parents of special needs children who were daily wage workers, auto drivers, hawkers, and were not able to get at least one square meal.
The school even distributed snacks to bus drivers, BSF personnel, and over 500 migrant workers who were waiting for their turn to board the bus to go back to their native villages. The underprivileged students are also provided with mid-day meals daily.
Ms. Shilpa Arora is a finalist of the Best Initiative (For Children with Special Needs [CWSN]) because... she is working for children with special needs. Moreover, she has launched an initiative to educate underprivileged children and provide them with mid-day meals daily.
To Reach the Information Dossier Shared by Ms. Shilpa Arora Click Here.