Introduction:
- Akshar Trust, Vadodara, Gujarat, has been working as a charitable trust for hearing impaired children and is completing 30 years on July 18, 2018. After 16 years of efforts, the new campus was inaugurated on April 29, 2016, by Dr. J. N. Singh, now Chief Secretary, Govt. of Gujarat. Ms. Avantika Singh, Collector, Vadodara came to grace the function.
- Provide education and care to hearing impaired children and guidance to their families.
- Conduct research, investigation and experiments in education of hearing impaired children.
- Train teachers of the hearing impaired.
MISSION STATEMENT:
- The endeavour of Akshar Trust is to enable children with hearing impairment have access to an academic environment which will prove to be their opportunity, perhaps their only opportunity, for a life of self-reliance and dignity.
VISION STATEMENT:
- To make an individual with deafness lead a useful, happy and fulfilling life.
Programs:
- From the first day of the pandemic, Akshar ensured that there was no loss of learning. Teachers attended Workshops and Webinars on Social Role Valorization, Audiology and Challenges for Teaching Online, Digital Access for Children with Disability etc.
- For std.12 Gujarati, worksheets for Accounts, Statistics, Business Organization, Economics, English, Gujarati and Computers started to be sent to the students on a Whatsapp group from May 7, 2020. Online classes started from July 29 and remained till January 22, 2021.Online Preliminary exams were conducted from March 30 to April 5.
- Math, Language, Social Studies, Art, Science, Computers English, were sent to the students on WhatsApp groups in the first phase. From July 25, 2021, teachers made videos of lessons of the Gujarat Board curriculum. These lessons included a PPT and the teacher communicating from the classroom in ‘Total Communication’. These lessons were accompanied by worksheets .The videos were sent to all the students on a private Akshar YouTube Channel. The students completed their home-work and sent it back by WhatsApp. Attendance was also maintained. A total of 554 educational videos were made by the teachers till May 2021.
Services:
- EARLY INTERVENTION PROGRAMME
- PRE-SCHOOL
- CLASSES FROM 1-12
- MAINSTREAMING
- TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAMME:
- D.Ed. Spl. Ed. (DHH) (Deaf & Hard of Hearing) under RCI
- B.Ed (SEDE) (HI) (Special Education Distance Education ) ( Hearing Impairment ) under Baba Saheb Ambedkar Open University
- CAPACITY BUILDING
OUR ACHIEVEMENTS:
- Akshar Trust received an ‘Award for Excellence 2011’ from Federation of Gujarat Industries and ‘True Impact Awards, 2016’ of the Vadodara District CSR Cell under the Chairperson ship of Mrs. A. Singh, Collector . Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) has given ‘Permanent Recognition’ to the Teacher Training and the Trust was given Accredited Status by RCI for ‘Very Good Performance’, 2009. Akshar has been accredited by Credibility Alliance in February, 2016 and Empanelled with the National CSR Hub of Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
OUR MOTIVATIONS:
- As the new campus is beyond the city limits,3 new buses donated by ONGC, Kotch Glitch and State Bank of India transport the students, trainees and staff. This has added to the costs. For 28 years the children have paid less than 50% for transport.
- In 30 years no student has paid what it costs Akshar for their education. There is no funding provided, till date, by the Govt. of Gujarat. Donations to the Trust are exempted under section 80-G of Income Tax Act 1961. No hearing-impaired child is refused admission and children with problems additional to deafness are also admitted.
