Apaar
Apaar Thus Far
APAAR was established in March 2014 in a room in a rented house in Model Town, Jalandhar. Few weeks later we moved to a two storeyed shop in Chhoti Baradari which the owner kindly provided us rent free until July 2015. We moved to the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences on 16 July, 2015, thanks to the benevolence of their Director, Dr Kanwaljit Singh and the managing Committee. We are on the fourth floor with a 270-degree view through glass windows that fully cover two sides .
Gardening is therapeutic to us all. We launched an organic fruit orchard with 33 trees in three plots on the back of our building on March 14, 2018, World Sikh Environment Day. We also have a small kitchen garden by windows inside our building- green sacks hold ajwain, palak, matar, and other veggies. Clients water the orchard, mulch, and weed per their preference.
APAAR is a registered NGO, with Section 12A and 80G exemption certification under the Income Tax Act. We are also registered with the Persons with Disability Act. We are registered with the National Trust in September 2018.
Autism is one of the intellectual disabilities among many. Intellectual disability (ID) is the current terminology used for persons affected with mental retardation.
Our major aims are to provide quality skill development for intellectually disabled adults and to enable them to live a quality life out of the isolation often enforced upon them, by removing barriers, whether environmental or attitudinal, that have engendered this.
We do not wish to be an NGO confined to middle-class city dwellers.
There is immense suffering among the rural and urban poor with neglected mental health needs.
We started our community awareness program on Aug 29, 2018, with the DLSA (District Legal Services Authority), Jalandhar in Red Cross Bhavan.
Over 100 paramedical workers attended the event along with the DC, Jalandhar, and disability activists. On Sep 27, 2018, we started working with the primary health center (PHC), Jandiala, under the SMO, Dr. Aruna Kumari. We have reached out to 12 families so far in rural areas, two adults were home-confined for 25 and 12 years respectively.
On World Disability Day 3 Dec 2018, we held a mental health awareness and developmental disability counseling camp in the Jandiala PHC and invited two NGOs with resource rooms for the developmentally disabled to speak about their experiences to motivate families and paramedical workers.
We repeated this World Disability Day Awareness Camp in PHC, Jandiala in Dec 2019. This time it was in collaboration with the District Legal Services Authority, Jalandhar, our new ongoing partner in mental health awareness). We hope to have some awareness activity, even if abbreviated, due to the Covid-19 pandemic in December 2020 to mark World Disability Day.
Starting 2020, we have an established goal of training workers in local ashrams and nursing homes housing the disabled. We have seen that the residents with intellectual disability are provided food, apparel, and shelter but no life skills training (Activities of Daily Living and skill development in handicrafts or paper bag making). They sit idly most of their lives in ward-like bed-lined halls, bereft of much stimulation, leave aside activities for recreation. Human beings need more to make a good quality of life.
In Jan 2020, APAAR visited a rural mental health project in District Mehsana, Gujarat, and a collaboration was formed. Start of work has been delayed due to the pandemic.
During the lockdown to counter Covid-19, APAAR's sheltered workshop was closed from March 20 to July 26th, 2020. On July 27th, we opened for half day to mask-wearing clients with adequate social distancing and the presence of not more than 10 workers in the premises at one time. As of Nov 2020, we have begun outings with our newly donated van. Not more than 5 persons will be in the van including the driver, windows will stay open and only long drives for now: no picnicking or visiting parks. On the first outing in eight months, clients and a staff member did stop impromptu at a village dhaaba, and enjoyed tea and biscuits on a sunny (November 12, 2020) afternoon in Kapurthala district on the road to Sultanpur Lodhi. They lingered awhile. Beautiful moments to treasure in this claustrophobic time!
In the pandemic, we have continued to phone or video call clients confined to home as well as Community-based rehabilitation (CBR) families even before July. We have also been doing 2-hour home visits since early July when families have allowed us. Many are facing mental health challenges that need assistance. We are welcoming all who wish to join us in playground time 45 minutes daily (except Sundays). The playground in front of our building is a green area with trees, flower beds, and scattered benches around basketball and volleyball courts. Outdoors, the risk of transmission is low and nature's salutary effect on mental health is scientifically documented. Here is another link showing positive cognitive health benefits of spending time in nature.
We have also used lockdown time to provide skill development training to staff online.