Integrated Education Programme (IED)

• Why integrated education? Before the inception of the IED program the disabled children from poor families never had the opportunity to go to school. For example, a poor blind child would normally be tied to a pole and would locked inside the house while their parents are busy earning daily wages for a meal for the family. Through this program such children with disability are identified by field workers and placed into the local school system. Blind, polio, deaf and mild mental retardation children are given total care and are sent to school to study with normal children, integrating them in the school and community. As well providing an opportunity for an education, the children develop social skills, making friends in their village.
• Resource Rooms - These are additional classrooms that are added to the existing government schools, providing all the facilities that are required for providing for the special needs of children with disabilities such as blindness, polio deformities, hearing impairments, and mild mental retardation. Staffing these rooms are teachers who are specialised in the teaching of disabled children.
• IED Training for employment - To provide the special teachers, KOGS finds educated but unemployed local women to train in the education of disabled children. These women are sponsored to attend many training certification sessions for teaching children with special disabilities and are then placed in a school. This provides employment, income, and independence for the women as well as giving the children the special needs to facilitate their education.
• The children are involved in the village as they partake in all the social activities such as festivals, religious gatherings, arts and other entertainment.

This program is being implemented in the districts of Kancheepuram and Thiruvellore ( about 5 million people ). Special education services to 162 disabled children in ten different schools are being carried out.

SSA Programme (Education For All)

For children whose disabilities render them unable to attend school, KOGS in cooperation with the Tamil Nadu government sponsors the SSA programme, which sends special educators to the children's homes. These teachers give education lessons as well as instruction for the parents of how to give home-based speech and physiotherapy. Over 1,600 children are covered in this project in Kanchipuram District alone.

Day Care Centre for Cerebral Palsy Children (CP)

Our CBR (Community based rehabilitation) workers have identified 40 cerebral palsy children in the target area of the 110 villages. The severe nature of their disability makes the children a burden to their parents who must perform all functions for their children as well as make a living. In some situations the parents just tie the child with a rope at their huts. To rehabilitate them we have created two-day care centres, one in Kancheepuram city and one in the village of Keel Ottivakkam. The children receive education, speech and physiotherapy, and instruction of how to perform basic living skills, enabling the children to be more self-proficient as well as easing the burden of the parents. For the village day-care centre a van provides free transportation for the children.