Site Visit Report:
Sankalp Day Care Kanpur
Date: January 20th 2016
I visited Sankalp Day Care Center this year with my parents and uncle during my trip to India. The center just opened back on 15th Jan after Christmas break but due to cold weather the number of students present was slightly less. Dr. Dipti informed Kanpur city had announced closure of schools the coming week due to weather.
Dr. Iyer (from Asha Kanpur) and Dr.Dipti had made really good arrangement for us in terms of visiting Kanpur and the center. We arrived at the center by 10:30 am. Currently there are 48 students in the center and 7 teachers. Apart from these, there is a speech therapist, a physiotherapist and a psychologist. Also there are 5 staff members including 2 drivers. All of them were very friendly and gave us a warm welcome.
The building has 7 classrooms including a small front office area. Students are divided into these classes based on the degree of their learning disability. The center timings are 10 am to 2 pm. We visited different classrooms and briefly interacted with children. Children for most part seemed happy and engaged in their activities.
Children were taught different activities based on their capability such as reading, writing, counting, drawing, painting, speaking, etc. Each classroom has a dedicated teacher. There is a small kitchen area were kids are sometimes taught very basic kitchen work like filling water, storing food, etc. There is a small area dedicated for physiotherapy and speech therapy. There is a small area outside the building that is used as a play area and students play cricket and other few games there.
There were few kids who were really enthusiastic and were doing some creative work like painting diyas, singing (along with playing tabla on table), some craft work, etc. There was a Diwali sale that they organized were all these students prepared beautiful decorative things such as lamps, lightings, torans, diyas, etc. They distribute any money earned through these sales among the students and that gives them a sense of self-earning. There was some stuff I bought as well that was remaining from the sale.
It was really amazing to meet all the students and we were amazed by their learning skills. They all seemed enjoying the classes and were involved in their activities. All the teachers introduced me to every student in their class and were kind enough to explain me their daily activities with students. They all were very enthusiastic to tell me success stories of some of the students under them. The ambience was warm and loving. Everyone was very welcoming and full of energy.
Dr. Dipti walked me through some of the student’s files and how they do the accessement and track progress of each student (pics attached). I got a chance to meet Dr. Dipti’s son as well. He is a talented boy and was very welcoming.
One concern that I discussed with Dr. Dipti is about the place. The building looked bit old and not an ideal place for students to study and grow. Dr. Dipti with daily schedule with students is not able to dedicate much time to find a better location to lease. Due to the space issue, she does have to say no to some of the new students trying to get admissions.
Overall the trip was very productive and I enjoyed meeting everyone – all kids, teachers, aaya, helper, admin staff, van drivers and Dr. Dipti. It felt really good to see these kids taking a step towards being self reliant and managing to learn some skills that help them accomplish basic amenities of their life.
We all left the place around 12:30 pm.