Full fledged centre for deafblind to be set up in Goa

PANAJI: Director of Caritas Goa Fr Maverick Fernandes on Tuesday announced Caritas’ plans to start a full-fledged centre for children and adults diagnosed with deafblindness. The resource centre set up in 2012 at St Inez is getting crowded to accommodate the increasing number of children being diagnosed with deafblindness.
Fernandes said it will be a one of its kind centre in the country for the deafblind with an entire spectrum of services provided under a single roof.
Set up according to international standards, it will be equipped with sensory rooms, a sensory garden, separate classrooms for different levels of children and young adults, facilities for physiotherapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, water therapy and medical support to help their overall development.
The hunt for a premises has almost come to an end and if all goes well, Caritas will be set up at the centre at Duler, Mapusa by December this year.
Fernandes was speaking at the state level training on deafblindness ‘Imagine a World without Light, Sound, Colour and Music. This is the World of the Deafblind’ organised for government doctors and anganwadi workers.
Caritas Goa together with Sense International India began identifying deafblind in the state in 2012. Special educators presently work with 39 children and young adults at their homes and at a special resource centre at Caritas Holiday Home at St Inez.
In some cases, children and young adults were found to be confined to their beds and rooms for a number of years. The young adults who have been engaged in making candles and various artefacts are now preparing to launch a tiffin service run exclusively by them and their parents in the capital city.
Reflino Fernandes project coordinator said this new project will provide a steady income to deafblind young adults and their parents from the lower economic strata by providing them with a fixed income.