Samarpan is one of the first organization of it’s kind with a focus on people with disability (pwd) in the Indian/South Asian community and with a focus on supporting pwd and their families.
Samarpan has a threefold purpose:
Information and Support- to create a supportive network of families dealing with a family member with a disability.
Background:
Parents of children with disabilities are rarely equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to cope with a child’s disability as in most cases their child’s disability is their first encounter with disability. Added to this is the issue of cultural difference and all of it’s accompanying consequences.
Families need practical assistance and emotional support through the years to cope with the stresses of caring for a pwd. Families need the reassurance that they are not alone, that there are other families out there who share their concerns.
In our experience families feel heartened by the knowledge that their fears and aspirations for their family member with disability are shared by other families. When they join Samarpan they feel that they have found common cause with other families with similar issues and similar cultural and other needs.
Samarpan’s support group of families is known as Aadhaar. Aadhaar aims to meet at least once a month. Aadhaar organizes a number of activities mainly recreational in nature. Aadhar’s aim is to sustain this network of families and to empower its members. Notwithstanding the low key manner of Aadhar’s functioning, at no time do members’ lose sight of their advocacy role in their children’s lives. Aadhaar has celebrated carer’s week for a number of years.
Samarpan runs a supported social club for pwds. We call the social club Mitralay. We have met once a month for the last 18 months. We have run activities such as bowling, field games, picnics and excursions. We have received support from Hornsby Council this year to continue to operate Mitralay.
In every forum that we have ever attended we have heard parents speak with anguish and urgency about the need to plan for their son or daughter with disability to ensure that they are well cared for, that they are happy and safe when their parents are not around to support them. We cannot insure against the uncertainties of life, but we would like to do everything we can to plan for the long term care of our family member.
It is the aim of Samarpan to advocate and act to develop an accommodation model that will meet the long term care needs of our disabled family member. The accommodation project of Samarpan goes by the name of Aashray.
SAMARPAN was registered as an association on 4 June 2012.
For inquiries please contact Uday Shah on 0438272023.
We are also on Face Book at https://www.facebook.com/SamarpanInc
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