The tragic news of a differently abled 13-year-old girl shackled and confined to her dingy room almost all day for her safety; while her mother, a daily wage laborer was out working led to the inception of Satya Special School in 2003. This is not an isolated incident, it sadly mirrors the condition of many differently abled children and adults across India, and people with disabilities are the most ignored section of our society today.

Fueled by the desire to reach the unreached, Satya was set up to serve as an integrated center for disability rehabilitation in Puducherry. Apart from providing free and quality rehabilitation services to the underprivileged, Satya has been working tirelessly toward making children with special needs (CWSN) as self-sufficient as possible in order to alleviate the social stigma that is prevalent among the public at large.

Satya also runs a New Born High Risk clinic at the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (JIPMER) where at-risk children susceptible to developmental delay are identified. This is the only such facility in this part of the world. In the last two years more than 2500 new-born babies have been identified out of which 50% have been provided rehabilitation and counselling services. All of Satya’s services are free for children from Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. About 75% of Satya’s residents come from BPL families.

Satya Today:

Satya Special School is a day care center catering to 1029 children and providing rehabilitation and intervention services for children Mental Retardation, Cerebral Palsy, Autism, Multiple disabilities, Down’s syndrome, Learning disability, slow learners and muscular dystrophy.

Satya is working on various aspects in the field of disability such as Early intervention Centre in collaboration with JIPMER, Therapeutic intervention such physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, sensory integration therapy, alternative therapy, neuro-developmental therapy through 3 urban centers. Apart from that Satya has 3 Village rehabilitation centres catering to the rural children, and mobile therapy unit providing home based intervention to children covers 44 villages across 5 municipal Communes.

Satya’s academic intervention comprises of open schooling (NIOS), Alternative Inclusive Centre for Education and Remedial Education and A skill training unit for vocational training of adults with disability.

Mission

Work for the upliftment of any individual with special needs, regardless of the type or severity of their disability, socio-economic status, or age

Satya Special School has a proven track record of excellent services to the disabled along with professional partnerships with corporate entities and foundations. Every year, Satya Special School works with and educates around 1000 children with special needs in campuses in Pondicherry, as well as rural centres around Pondicherry. They are able to create special projects for People with Intellectual Disabilities, depending on need. Because their projects are well designed, they are able to adapt projects for various geographies, in association with their multiple partners. Satya’s advocacy on inclusion and disability rights have reached tens of thousands of people in Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu. Their rigorous reporting and evaluation processes ensures that corporate partners are assured of timely, transparent, and accurate reporting. Satya considers funders as partners, and therefore, invites corporate partners to join hands in ideation and execution of social and inclusion projects.