Foreword

Greetings from Swabodhini!

The month of September progressed jubilantly with two great events – The inauguration of our third centre at Tondiarpet and our Annual Sports Day.

We are happy to announce that we have started our third centre at Tondiarpet to cater to children with special needs in North Chennai. This centre is supported by Chennai Port Trust and Kamarajar Port Limited. The inauguration ceremony took place on the 29th of September in Chennai Port and Dock Educational Trust Higher Secondary School, Tondiarpet. The chief guest was Mr Sunil Paliwal IAS, Chairperson Chennai Port Authority and Chairman – Kamarajar Port Limited and the Guests of Honour were Mr S. Viswanathan IAS,Deputy Chairperson, Chennai Port Authority and Mr S.Muralikrishnan IDAS, Chief Vigilance Officer, Chennai Port Authority.

This year marks the 35th year of Swabodhini and we are glad to have the children of the third centre also participating with full vigour in our Annual Sports Meet conducted on the 9th of September 2023. The chief guest for the event was Mr.Selvarajan Principal, Guru Nanak Matriculation School. The parents and siblings participated in the fun games conducted for them with great enthusiasm and won many prizes.

The Lions Club International and The Inner Wheel Club honoured Swabodhini by felicitating the Principal and two teachers – Ms Nirmala and Ms Kalaiselvi for their invaluable service in the field of Education.

Grundfos Pumps India Pvt Ltd has embarked on a new Employee Engagement programme with Swabodhini where the employees would visit us in batches and work with our students to help them with their school activities. The first batch of employees were led into the sensory room blindfolded and were assisted to walk on the sensory path to understand the students’ sensory needs which ultimately made them aware of the issues that the students face in their day-to-day life. The employees taught our students to make healthy salads and our students taught them craft work with great enthusiasm. Both the employees and the students enjoyed each other’s company.

We had Krishna Jayanthi, Vinayagar Chaturthi, Teachers’ Day and Birthday Celebrations at all three centres.

With the end of the first term around the corner, we are gearing up for the Progress Review Report meeting with parents.

Meet you with fresh updates next month! Best Regards,

Ms Nandini Priyakumari
Principal
Swabodhini School and Vocational Center for Special Children

We are very happy and proud that our principal Ms.Nandini Priyakumari received an award at Lions International Teachers Day Celebrations & Award Function held on 8th September, for her outstanding service rendered to the cause of education.

On 9th  September,  2023  we  celebrated  our  35th  year  Annual  Sports  day  at  Guru Nanak School. The day was graced by our Chief Guest Mr. Selvarajan (Principal, Guru Nanak School) and Ms.Manjit Kaur Anand (Admin in charge,Guru Nanak School).We were extremely glad to have the students and parents of our third centre as well for the event.

All students participated with great enthusiasm in various events such as March past, lighting the Olympic torch, running, shot put and the parents and siblings won prizes in the fun games conducted for them. Students rejoiced their triumph with certificates, medals and prizes and shared their joy with parents.

We are grateful to the students of Guru Nanak college for helping us in making the event a grand success. Volunteers from Acqueon Technology (our corporate Sponsor) helped our students during all the events and encouraged them to excel. We are also thankful to the volunteers of NSS, Guru Nanak College for their immense help during the Sports Day celebrations.

We are very happy to share that our special educators Ms.Nirmala and Ms.Kalaiselvi received “Best Teacher“awards by Inner Wheel Club of Madras Central for their valuable contribution to children with special needs.

Our alumnus received a “Grundfos Culture Ambassador Award” at the annual ceremony in Denmark for stepping up to meet production demand during covid.

On 15th September 8 of our students participated in the preliminary round of Quizabled.

Out of them, Mohan and Adrian were selected for the final round held at The Spastics Society of Tamil Nadu and won the fourth place.

Intern from Guru Nanak College pursuing MSW conducted a Community Outreach program on the topic Healthy Food Habits by Dr.Manikandan, MBBS.

On Fri 29th Sep 2023, Swabodhini’s 3rd center was inaugurated within the premises of Chennai Port and Dock Educational Trust Higher Secondary School, Port Trust Housing Colony, Tondiarpet, Chennai- 600081. The Chief Guest for the event was Mr. Sunil Paliwal, IAS, Chairperson Chennai Port Authority and Chairman – Kamarajar Port Limited and the Guests of Honor were Mr. S. Viswanathan, IAS, Deputy Chairperson, Chennai Port Authority and Mr.S.Muralikrishnan, IDAS, Chief Vigilance Officer, Chennai Port Authority. The center has been established in order to reach out to individuals with special needs in and around North Chennai.

The Center, which is supported by Chennai Port Authority and Kamarajar Port Limited, provides Special Education, Therapy (Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy & Physiotherapy) and Vocational training to students with Autism and other related challenges between the age groups of 5 and 30 years. The Center is fully equipped with qualified Special Educators, Therapists and Support Staff and modern infrastructure like Multi-sensory room, well-equipped therapy rooms and classrooms with Computers. 18 students have been enrolled and are benefitting from this initiative.