In our endeavour to support children with Cerebral Palsy, we regularly conduct medical assessment camps in association with the medical expertise from a few hospitals in Pune. We provide these children with orthotic devices such as crutches, special shoes and walkers, prescribe therapy or recommend surgery as required, and also conduct reassessment camps to check on their well-being.

We opened our first Cerebral Palsy Rehabilitation Centre at Mirajkar Hospital in Wai on July 15th, 2016, and the second at Nagar Palika School #20 in Satara on December 21st, 2016. We then arranged for a team of physiotherapists from Sancheti Hospital, Pune, to spend two days every fortnight at these centres to conduct physiotherapy sessions for these children.

From here there was no looking back. Therapy centres soon opened across Maharashtra at centralised schools and primary health centres in Patan, Panchgani and Ratnagiri, the latter being at the Finolex Colony in MIDC Zadgaon. We also conducted regular health camps for CP children at Chiplun to assess the needs in the region. As part of our support, we appointed a professional dietician for consultation at the Satara and Ratnagiri centres, and a speech therapist for these children in Chiplun and Ratnagiri.

In collaboration with Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan, Mission Cerebral Palsy expanded to Masar in Gujarat in October 2020 and had 25 enrolments. We provided them with online services of speech therapy and physiotherapy during the pandemic lockdown. In 2021, we began with medical assessment camps in Gujarat and established a centre at Chiplun. We followed up with two more centres in 2022 at Khandala and Tarale in Maharashtra.

In April 2022, we initiated two assessment camps in Ratnagiri where we provided orthotic devices such as crutches, special shoes and walkers as required. These camps were supported by medical expertise from Sancheti Hospital, Bharti Hospital, KEM Hospital and HV Desai Eye Hospital.

Before long, we were supporting more than 1,000 children with Cerebral Palsy across the eight rehabilitation centres in Maharashtra. We established our first Cerebral Palsy Rehabilitation Centre at Padra in Gujarat in June 2023, making it our ninth rehabilitation centre for the CP-afflicted.

We understood that Cerebral Palsy is caused by damage that occurs to the immature, developing brain, most often, before birth. This led to our team organising training sessions for ASHA nurses who work closely with women in remote villages, midwives and ancillary staff to offer better care during pregnancy and labour. Qualified doctors, nurses and other medical team members from the Symbiosis College of Nursing taught them to identify complications and risks during pregnancy and the critical “golden hour” after birth to prevent cases of Cerebral Palsy. Between 2018 and 2023, we have trained 1,162 ASHA nurses in the Satara and Ratnagiri Districts, which aims to reduce complicated cases and referrals from rural areas to Pune hospitals.

During our CP assessment camps across villages of Maharashtra, we arrange for screenings of children by specialists such as neurosurgeons, orthopaedics, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, audiologists, orthoptists and optometrists. We then coordinate with these patients to undergo the relevant orthopaedic surgeries at Sancheti Hospital, Pune, where we sponsor 80 per cent of the costs. We have conducted 75+ surgeries between 2016 and 2023.

It is always heartening to hear that our initiatives have sparked stories of transformation as a constant reminder that while our hearts have been, and will always be, in the right place, our feet will also always be guided by the forces of good. Here’s a glimpse of some of our success stories.