One year of smiles!!!
Monday, June 15, 2009

So, happy to share that Sakshum has completed one year of its Child Education sponsorship project last month. Sakshum started sponsoring 3 children of a physically challenged roadside sketcher last year.

The information can be found at this link. All these children passed with good marks and we decided to continue to support them for this new academic session as well.

This year we are planning to sponsor one more children and will soon update on that.

Please reply us at info at sakshum dot com or look at contact us page at www.sakshum.com if you want to contribute for this program by paying the educational expenses of one or more children fully or some part.

Posted byUnknown at 6:15 PM 0 comments  

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Tree Plantation drive
Monday, June 8, 2009

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now. ~Chinese Proverb”

Sakshum has celebrated its 1st birth day on 7th June 2009, with tree plantation in a Mandal Parishad School, Siddique Nagar, Kondapur, Hyderabad. According to the founders “we should celebrate our occasion by planting the trees”. The idea was to plant trees and inculcates the planting habit among the school children. The volunteers had given the orientation to the students about the importance of plants, their protection and uses.

GHMC (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation) is running mass initiatives to promote greenery in Hyderabad for last 1 year. GHMC is working with a many NGOs, and other organizations for plantation in and around the city. In the drive volunteers had dug the holes and planted the trees. They involved the students and teachers as well. The students were divided into the batches and a tree was allotted to every batch. The students along with the teachers had taken the responsibility for maintenance of trees. The students were told to submit a monthly report on their trees; this would help in active participation from the students. School children were very excited to participate in the plantation drive. They all cleaned the land and watered the plants with the volunteers. They were happy to see first few trees and plants in their school compound.

According to a volunteer, “Working as a corporate employee, we spend most of the time in the offices; we do regret and feel bad when we see a cut trees or people talking about global warming. Today planting a tree gives me an immense satisfaction”.

Thanks to all volunteers, students and teacher for their efforts and special thanks to Mr. Salman and Mrs. Vijaya for sponsoring the event.

Posted byNeeti at 1:11 PM 0 comments  

Happy birthday Sakshum
Tuesday, June 2, 2009


Sakshum is 1 :)

A ‘Birthday’ is just the first day of another 365-day journey to achieve a new destination. Enjoy the trip!!!

When a child is born he is helpless. Neither he can walk nor can he talk. He is totally in a new world of love, surprises, failure, success, achievements and appreciation. As he grows he achieves his milestones with great effort, practice and help. By the age of 1, he can express, can make his presence loud and struggles to achieve further milestones. During this first year he lays a foundation for his entire life and this progress makes his first birthday special.

“Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. ~Chili Davis”

Sakshum(http://www.sakshum.com) in Hindi means “being capable. With the idea of bringing a change in life of people with special needs, a year back Sakshum was born.”. It was a new world for all of us. Fortunately, we had a team of 5 members who were dedicated and still working for Sakshum. Initially, it was hard for us to streamline ourselves as we wanted to achieve things fast. We were unorganised. But, pursuance helped us to move ahead. Few professionals, mentors and CSIM streamlined our ideas and helped to turn in action.

Today after a year, Sakshum(http://www.sakshum.com) has achieved few milestones. Sakshum is running 4 active projects and 1 is under pipeline. 4 projects are:
  1. Eye care I care: this project focuses on screening school children with vision problems and creating awareness about healthy vision. The screened children with vision problems are provided with spectacles and required treatment. In past 3 months 522 children are being screened in various schools and 59 children are being provided with treatment.
  2. Eye Donation Awareness: In association with EBAI (Eye Bank Association of India) Sakshum(http://www.sakshum.com) is promoting eye donation to reduce the corneal blindness. Till now 250 people have pledge for their eyes. You can pledge your eyes here
  3. Sponsor a child education: Sakshum continues to support the children who can’t study because of poor financial background. Sakshum is sponsoring 3 children education. You can sponsor a child here
  4. Creating awareness about prevention of disability among children: Sakshum(http://www.sakshum.com) actively participates in creating awareness in govt hospital and community during prenatal screening. Sakshum volunteers conduct lectures for parents who have children with special needs for parenting tips. Sakshum maintains a blog(http://sakshum.blogspot.com) and forum(http://forums.sakshum.in) which shares information about disability, and various other treatments available.

Other project is to establish a holistic, Trans-disciplinary and specialised centre for children with special needs and “At risk”. Sakshum(http://www.sakshum.com) envisions enabling every child with special needs to develop to his full potential. This project is still in pipeline.

On the sakshum 1st birthday volunteers are planning to plant 50 trees in a school campus which is a gift for our young generation. Plantation will be done with the children to inculcate the habit of plantation and healthy environment. Sakshum(http://www.sakshum.com) efforts have been appreciated by many people whose lives are changed with the help of sakshum.

Sakshum(http://www.sakshum.com) wants to extend this opportunity to thank all the volunteers and other subscribers and appreciators whose sincere efforts could bring a change for the better world.

Posted byNeeti at 9:00 PM 0 comments  

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Project Eye Care I Care event report from Parvath nagar school
Wednesday, April 22, 2009


On 18th April 2009, with collaboration of Sakshum another event of the project 'Eye Care I Care' was successfully completed at Parvath nagar school, madhapur Hyderabad. There were 10 volunteers who screened 117 children in this govt school. Mr. Veeru from LV Prasad Eye hospital helped in detailed assessment and referral to LVPEI for further diagnosis.
Out of 117 children 7 were found with vision problems varying from visual defect, refractive error and cognitive challenged. The child with visual defect
was directly referred to LVPEI for vision rehabilitation and for disability concession and certificate.

Volunteers found this activity an important event as early detection and treatment can improve the vision and academic learning.
As a matter of fact Sakshum has screened close to 600 children so far and found 58 children with vision problems. Beacuse of dedicated volunteer efforts in this project we have been able to direct these children for proper diagnosis and treatment for a better future.

Please continue to support us....

Posted byUnknown at 12:06 PM 0 comments  

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World Autism Awareness Day
Wednesday, April 15, 2009

On 2nd April 2009, thrusday, Niloufer Hospital for Women and Children, Lakdi ka Pool, celebrated World Autism Awareness Day (WAAD). On the occasion of WAAD, an interaction session among parents and professionals was arranged. Dr Usha gave an inaugural speech and Dr Kalaknatha discussed about the dietary management for the children with Autism.

Dr Neeti took a detailed session on Sensory Integration and use of home activities for sensory issues. Most common problems, like oro motor dysfunction and sensitivity, hyperactivity and attention deficit. Parents asked lots of question regarding the sensory issues and behaviour problems. Some parents shared their experiences for various skills development which could be beneficial for other. One parent discussed the success story of his child who is now mainstreamed in regular school after continuous dedicated efforts for 3 years.

At the end of the programme, a checklist for early signs designed by Department of Child Psychiatry, headed by Dr Usha Naik, was distributed to various other hospital’s Paediatrician, Neurologist and Physicians so that the child is detected at earliest and refer for Early intervention.

These kind of team work and collaborative efforts definitely upgrade the detection of Autism at earliest and helps in social integration.

Posted byNeeti at 12:06 PM 0 comments  

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An appeal from Sakshum
Monday, March 23, 2009


Dear all,



Summer 2009 is in fulll swing , most of the lakes, ponds are showing up the dried earth now. We have our eyebrows raised about stocks of water for our sundry daily uses leave apart for drinking purposes. But have we thought about drinking water availability for birds ?
Newspapers are glut with figures of dying birds due to thirst. That is good enough reason for us to give a thought to this menace for this cute and quiet fraternity.
Request you all to start putting up a small clean pot of water on their terrace at the most visible and cool corner and clean and fill it daily. Sakshum's volunteer Vinay Jain is already practicing this since last couple of days and have personally seen birds sitting on the pot to satiate their thirst..
By watch it's going to cost you 3 minutes but believe me it can save 3 lives...So make your minutes invaluable.. ...

Be Good and make others Good....

Posted byUnknown at 9:06 PM 4 comments  

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Managing a Hyperactive child
Sunday, March 8, 2009


Most of the children with Autism, Learning Disability and ADHD have some or other sensory issues varying from vestibular system to tactile to even oro motor system. Problem with sensory process and modulation results in various clinical outcomes. These symptoms include hyperactivity, attention deficit, poor understanding of verbal cues, preoccupation and poor sitting tolerance and so on. If the sensory issues are not managed they hamper the child learning process. Sensory diet works for the children who are hyperactive, tactile defensive, poor vision coordination, and other sensory issues. The child should be received with sensory information in structured way.

The plan should be designed with the assistance of Early interventionist or Occupational therapist. The children under 3 should get consultation with Early interventionist. The treatment plan includes:
 Physical play like hopping, jumping, running or chasing games, swinging and swimming for the older children.
 Tactile play with sand, paints, water, shaving form or froth and with textured toys
 Symbolic play
 Oro motor strengthening exercise like blowing, sipping smoothes, hard sucking, chewing etc
 Vibration and deep pressure are calming and relaxing
 Hand aerobics for hand fidgety and to reduce preoccupation

Divide the activities and schedule the child’s day according to the child’s need. Before any sitting work, provide for compressions and physical activities. this way the child will be more attentive and learn better.

Posted byNeeti at 10:56 PM 0 comments  

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