This Bengaluru NGO leaves a good message to society

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‘Sandesh’ in Hindi means message. This NGO in Bengaluru truly has a message to society, a message about compassion, empathy and care. Sandesh empowers children and youngsters, mainly with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The NGO was founded in by a group of four passionate social workers from across Bengaluru. Since they had ample experience in the field of social work and empowering children with disabilities, they realised that the time has arrived to do their bit for disabled children.

Sandesh hosts early intervention programmes, day care centre and pre-vocational and vocational training for children and adults with disabilities. Their main motive is to empower people from disabled community make them stand on their own feet. Inmates make handmade products from paper, recycled cloth bags, wall and door hangings, notebooks, photo frames, floor mats and so on. Last couple of weeks was super hectic for Sandesh inmates because they were busy making beautiful hand painted diyas for Diwali!

We want to make our children independent. They must be able to manage things on their own. There is so much of social stigma attached to disabilities. I would say that things have got better, but we still have a long way to go. Parents refuse to even take their disabled child outdoors because they fear that society will reject them. Some of them even blame it on their ‘karma’- Jenny D’Souza, Co-founder, Sandesh.

Currently, Sandesh has over 70 inmates including children and adults with various disabilities. The next five years is going to be super busy for staff and children at this NGO because they have a lot of plans to be implemented. Their main agenda is to have an exclusive home for people with disabilities.

According to Jenny, Sandesh has been shifting buildings because of various reasons. This has affected their functioning, and they even lost many children who were not able to come to new premises. Jenny says that once they have their own building and premises, they can function without any hassles.

“Our children are extremely talented and skilled. Just that they need the right opportunity to showcase their talents. They deserve a chance, and we aim to provide them that. Every person is born to be a winner, and we want our children to be the best in whatever they do”, says Jenny.

Without any government support, Sandesh has already created their mark in Bengaluru city. The passionate bunch of founders is aiming for nothing but the best for their children. They have the support of a bunch of sponsors, well-wishers and volunteers who have been standing with them through thick and thin.

Prachi Mehra has been an active volunteer with Sandesh for the past few years. Prachi points out that what makes Sandesh so unique is that they take cases of those with severe disabilities only.

“It is quite difficult to toilet train, feed and teach new things to children with severe disabilities. But the crew at Sandesh does it with a lot of passion and dedication. Personally, I have learnt a lot of things after being part of them. The main one is, do not take life for granted!”, says Prachi.

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