Educating young blind children for a better future

Sarv is six years old; he lives at home with his mother, an elder brother and a younger sister.  He was born 26 weeks premature with not only stage 1 Bilateral ROP which led to low vision but also physical problems like twisted legs which do not allow him to walk. Due to the lack of exercise his muscles have not developed properly and have become stiff. Unfortunately Sarv comes from a broken home. His father, an unemployed abusive alcoholic who rarely comes home and does not support his family in any way.

When we first met Sarv, he was living in a two bedroom apartment which lacked basic necessities like chairs, tables and beds. His diet was mostly liquid and thus lead to his malnutrition, which was a major contributing factor to the lack of physical development. Due to his mother’s financial situation and with two other children to take care of, she did not have access to any form of transportation to take Sarv to any of his doctor’s appointment. As a result Sarv had not received any medical attention prior to our visit. We immediately sent some basic food and rations to his home in order to help improve his standard of living whilst we helped formulated a plan to help him get back onto the road to recovery and sourced some secondary sources of income and support through organisations like JKM and NOG.

In the short time we have worked with Sarv we have seen tremendous improvement, through the physiotherapy training we have seen better movement of the legs, arms and hips and with the help of the teachers at St. Nicholas he is now learning how to interact with the outside world.  In our most recent visit we are happy to report that Sarvethiran can not only balance himself and is now able to recognise alphabets, everyday objects and familiar faces.

His trainer said that, “ When I started to help Sarv he was not very responsive and quite often resisted and cried during the exercises but over time he has been able to recognize me and smiles when I come for our sessions. It is great to see that he is improving so quickly and is much healthier than when I first came to visit him, I believe that soon enough he will be learning how to read and write.”

Since his last session with our teachers and trainers, we have begun working on being able to read, write, count and draw.This would not have been possible without the loving support we receive from all of you through your generous donations. To maximize the impact of your donation, donate on the 15th of june. Global giving will match your donation dollar for dollar on this day. 

This is Ari, she is one of the youngest members of our family here at St. Nicholas Home at just 5 years old. When Ari was born she was diagnosed with congenital Hydrocephalus which lead to cortical blindness, she was referred to St. Nicholas at the tender age of 1 year and 5 months. She wasn’t able to turn her body on her own, lacked the motor skills needed for sucking and swallowing and wasn’t responding to stimuli in her environment. Her age also meant that she lacked some basic development, such as control and function of head, arms and legs.

Her condition made it more challenging for our instructors to prioritize which activities would be more critical for her growth and development as a child. Our instructors decided to focus first on motor skills. With the patient guidance of our skilled trainers and Ari’s supportive family we were able to help her improve her motor functions. At our latest visit she was able to sit up, balance herself while standing up and had no redness or swelling in any part of her body as a result of stress on the muscles near the joints. After her training in motor skill got going, we began to work on her social and communication skills. Recently she has been able to recognize not only her teachers but also been able to communicate through gestures and is slowly beginning to comprehend words. This is a huge step forward, as we can begin to show her how she can express how she feels to those around her.

Ari’s journey has not been an easy one; she lives at home with her family in another state, quite a distance from St. Nicholas. We were not able to visit her as often as we’d like but by teaching her family members the exercises and periodically checking in, in-between sessions with the trainer we have been able to help her consistently improve over the years.

We at St. Nicholas Home are very proud of Ari’s progress and it has only been possible because of the donations we are receiving from Global Giving, thank you all for your very generous contributions and support. This support is what allows us to continue to help children like Ari significantly improve their chances for a more independent lives and brighter future.