Pratidhwani WB's Family Day 2018

Family Day 2018

“FAMILY DAY” was celebrated with great fervour by “Pratidhwani WB” - a state level federation of parents associations of children and persons with deafness on 15th December, Saturday, 2018 at Bishop’s College, Kolkata. 

Around 400 people, deaf children, young adults and their families from  various districts of West Bengal like Bankura, Purulia, Howrah, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Midnapore, Hooghly, Nadia, Kolkata etc. actively participated in the event along with guests participated in the programme.

We all gathered in the college premise at 10.00 a.m. sharp. Post completion of the registration formality and breakfast, we moved to the adjacent playground for the inauguration programme. The programme began with March Past by all participants enlivened by Kolkata Police band who were with us from beginning to end. Then, the programme was inaugurated by lighting diyas in a flower filled water container by Mr. Debabrata Chattaraj, IAS, State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Dr Anamika Sinha -Director Manovikas Kendra,  Ms. Supriya Sen Gupta, former special educator from National Institute for Speech and Hearing Disability, Mr. Saumen Upadhyay General Secretary Parivaar Bengal along with a member from each of the groups and  member from the police band. 

Around 11:30 A.M, the guests and parents were requested to take their seats in a well decorated class room in the vicinity of the playground. The programme was started with presentation on Pratidhwani WB and its ongoing activities by Ms. Snigdha Sarkar, Secretary, Pratidhwani. Then Mr. Soumen Upadhyay was requested to come on stage and speak on mental disabilities related issues. Ms. Koushani Ghatak, Md.Fahim, Ms.Debopriya Ghosh and Mr. Antik Kumar Dewani - four young adults with deafness shared their experiences and the audiences mainly parents of deaf children and young adults from various districts were quite enthused and probably got a ray of hope while looking at the confidence level of the young deaf persons to deal with life.

A session on “Ear care & Hearing Health” as a part of World Hearing Day celebration. Ms. Mita Bandyopadhyay, Ex- Commissioner Disabilities, Smt Sankari Ghosh, Dr Ruma Chatterjee joined us at the seminar. Sharing of experiences by parents, young role models and guests motivated everyone sitting in the hall. Few noteworthy excerpts from guests’ speech are given below:

Ms. Mita Bandyopadhyay: “The concept of Family Day is unique and the leadership of Ms. Snigdha Sarkar is praiseworthy”.

Ms. Supriya Sen Gupta: “Pratidhwani WB’s Family Day is a wonderful platform and the parents should maintain the spirit of togetherness. The strength of the society lies in the family and it was important for families to come under a platform to feel the strength of togetherness and solidarity. Besides, as parents, we should not impose their expectation on children or young adults with disability. There is a pressing need of psychologists for tackling the psychological issues.”

At the same time, a sit and draw event was organized where all the children took part spontaneously. While the young children took part in sit and draw, resource person and actor Abhijit Ghosh prepared older children with presentation for the afternoon programme. All sports related things were timely set up and the equipment was arranged by the sports team under the guidance of our parent members. All games were conducted aptly and every one of us enjoyed. After the sports activity; we came back to the dining hall where delicious lunch was served at 1.30 p.m.

Post lunch, the attractions were magic show, mime, police band performance and group dance by all deaf children & young adults. Everyone enjoyed the tricks of the magician Mr. Rajat Mallick. The Police Band presented a beautiful show for the children after the magic show. The children immensely enjoyed both the programmes. The next attraction of the day was mime show by three deaf adults from SILENCE. All children and young adults beautifully performed dances to the tune of popular songs under the guidance Mr. Abhijit Ghosh.

Our friends Sharmila Bhattacharya, Kuhu Das, Aditi Basu, Sudipto Banerjee, and Tulika Das joined us after lunch. At the end, everyone was given a gift as a token of love. It was indeed a great day for the children, young adults, their parents and family members and teachers as well, as it strengthened the bond between all of us.

We thank Deaf Child Worldwide (UK), Arambagh, Bigbazaar, Bishop's College, Kolkata Police Band, special guests, friends, members and well wishers of Pratidhwani West Bengal for their contribution in making the programme a grand success.

Key Insights

No. of Participants: 240 ( 2016- 2017), 315 ( 2017-2018) and 400 ( 2018-2019)
No. of Children and Young Adults: 120 ( 2016- 2017), 160 ( 2017-2018) and 149 ( 2018-2019)
No. of Parents Groups participated: 12 ( 2016- 2017), 14 ( 2017-2018) and 13 ( 2018-2019)
No. of people involved to execute the assigned tasks in programme: 25 ( 2016- 2017), 20 ( 2017-2018) and 23 ( 2018-2019)
No. of Sponsors: 1 ( 2016- 2017), Deaf Child Worldwide
                               3 ( 2017-2018)  ITC, Arambagh and Big Bazaar
                               3 ( 2018-2019)  Deaf Child Worldwide, Arambagh and Big Bazaar
No. of Activities: 7 ( 2016- 2017), 8 ( 2017-2018) and 8 ( 2018-2019)

Activities*

1.    March Past

2.    Session on Ear Care and Hearing Health

3.    Experience sharing by Parents, Role Models

4.    Sit and Draw

5.    Games

6.    Magic

7.    Mime

8.    Group Dance

For more photos: pls visit the facebook page of Pratidhwani WB 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1508404379328717&type=1&l=b67fc86361