Arvind Saurabh -Residential Home for Intellectually Challenged

Every parent’s main worry is what will happen to their child after they are there no more. The siblings have a life of their own and it becomes difficult for them to take care of their intellectually challenged persons. There is dire need for residential homes.

I had privilege to visit one such home at Pune called Arvind Saurabh, also known as Umed Pariwar.  Founded in 1990, Arvind Saurabh is Pune based Parent’s organisation that works for the specialised needs and betterment of Mentally Challenged and Cerebral Palsy persons. This home is located at Wadaki Nala, on Hadapsar Saswad Road on the foothills of Kanifnath temple. It is located at 25kms from Pune.

We drove through barren land, through the mud path to arrive at beautiful 10-acres wide campus in the midst of large open landscape.

We were greeted by Jyoti Nahar, one of the parents, who is the resident at the campus. She took us around showing us the facilities at the home.

At the vocational room, lots of activities are carried out such as paper bag making, making office files, envelops, handmade paper articles, gift articles and many such activities.

The building is very neat with a large courtyard in the centre where children can play outdoor activities, surrounded on all sides with large bright rooms. The dormitory had 6-8 beds in a room, fairly distant with beds and cupboards. The bathrooms are large enough to accommodate a wheelchair and designed to cater to their special needs. There are smaller private rooms upstairs for children who are independent or wish to stay with their live-in parents.

We were then invited for lunch. The campus has in-house vegetable gardening and diary facility. The food was nutritious and very tasty.

I was quite impressed with the facilities at this place. There was solar and windmill energy, a swimming pool with hydrotherapy, modern kitchen facility with dinning hall, polyclinic facility for health check up, gymnasium facilities and guest house for parents, so that they can come and stay with their children.

The intellectually challenged adults looked quite content and cheerful and were quite happy to meet us and click pictures with us.

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