India CSR News Network
NOIDA: It’s been 18 years that Mata Bhagwanti Chadha Niketan (MBCN), one of India’s largest schools for specially-abled, has been enabling the ‘children with special needs’. To commemorate the achievement, the school celebrated its 18th Annual Day today.
Mata Bhagwanti Chadha Niketan works under the aegis of The Ponty Chadha Foundation that works towards the social and economic development of the society.
On this momentous occasion, the school also launched Vaakya, a picture based app designed for people who are speech impaired, and/or affected by autism, cerebral palsy and various other mental and physical conditions. The app can be customised by the user according to their special needs and doesn’t rely on internet connectivity. Multiple user accounts can be created by adding multiple students/patients to the application with unique actions and speech specifications as per individual users. The speech associated with actions can be recorded and played back in any language, providing greater flexibility. It is available on Google Play Store for free of cost.
The school also launched a shopping portal, integrated with its website (www.mbcnschool.org), which allows customers to buy hand-made products made by the special children of the school under their programme Swayam. The handmade products are wedding gifts, packaging items, office stationery, paper bags and other gift products which from now will be available online for sale.
Launching the e-commerce portal and the application, Manpreet Singh Chadha, Vice Chairman, Wave Group said, “It was my father’s vision to create an environment where children with special needs could become socially and economically independent; and today taking his dream a step further we have launched an APP and an e-commerce portal. This APP will help the specially-abled in communicating efficiently as it is picture based. It will help people who are speech impaired, affected by autism, cerebral palsy and various other mental and physical conditions. On the other hand, the income generated from the e-commerce portal will be given to students for their skill as an encouragement for their hard work. These initiatives will give an impetus to our on-going efforts in bringing vital changes to the lives of hundreds of children.”
With dance performances and other programmes highlighting the theme – ‘Yaadein Bachpan ki’, the students enthralled the parents and guests. Lively songs and plays made audience relive their childhood memories. The school also felicitated students who found employment with reputed corporate houses.
Speaking on the occasion, Vandana Sharma, Director, Mata Bhagwanti Chadha Niketan said, “We strive hard each day to empower and make our students independent. As we celebrate 18 wonderful years of this great institution, we have undertaken some very innovative methods to bring the specially-abled children into the mainstream. We have successfully facilitated our students to find employment in reputed companies.”
Set up by late Gurdeep (Ponty) Singh Chadha, MBCN is a school for special children. To educate and prepare special children to live within the community the school was set up in 1999 with a mission to make these children self-dependent — physically, socially and financially.
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