Akshar Trust, Baroda, was established in 1988 to:

1. provide education and care to hearing impaired children and guidance to their families,
2. conduct research, investigation and experiments in education of hearing impaired children, and
3. train teachers of the hearing impaired.

Akshar Trust runs Akshar Centre for Hearing Impaired Children and Teacher Training Programme D. Ed. SE (HI).

Many of our earliest children have gone on to finish their graduate and post-graduate studies from the MS University of Baroda. Manisha Sindkar got 53 % in M.Com and has been absorbed in the ONGC as Accountant while Kanaka Bhatt has recently finished her M.Com with 58 % and worked with an export house. Presently she is married and the mother of a hearing daughter.

The Centre started with 5 children and has now expanded to a regular school with 146 children, who are taught in 2 mediums - Gujarati and Hindi. Our curriculum follows that of the Gujarat Board but we are adapting the text books since our children's needs are different. We take in children as young as possible. Our youngest child has been 12 months old.

No hearing impaired child is refused admission. Even children with problems in addition to hearing impairment are admitted. We deal extensively and daily with amplification devices like hearing aids, group hearing aids, and speech trainers.

Teacher Training Programme

The Trust initiated this Programme since there is a dearth of trained teachers for hearing impaired children. The two-year Programme awards a Diploma and is recognised by the Rehabilitation Council of India. Seminars and Workshops are also regularly organised for teachers of the hearing impaired.

• Classrooms designed for the hearing impaired programme,
• An Audiology Clinic for impairment assessment and fitting of hearing aids,
• Private Spaces for the Infant-Parent Programme and Counseling, Classrooms for the Teacher Training Programme,
• A Hall or Auditorium for Conferences/School Programmes,
• A Laboratory,
• Proper Games facilities,
• A Dining Hall for the Mid-Day Meal.

One of the Trust's long-range plans is to extend our work to rural areas where the need is even more acute. This would include identification of hearing impairment, fitting of low-cost hearing aids, and the training of mothers with hearing impaired children.

Donor Opportunities

There are several opportunities for individuals and corporates interested in supporting us. While we work hard at fund raising, money is always short and the needs keep increasing. Donations have largely supported the activities since its inception. Assistance in kind, such as books, CDs, VCDs, information material for children and teachers are always welcome. Since more than 80 % of our students come from economically weak families, several opportunities exist to help such children and the Centre. Some of these are:

• Adopt-A-Child Programme: Rs. 12,000 per year
  (Expenses per Child per Year including fees, bus fees, hearing equipment consumables, notebooks, drawing paper, sketch books, pencils, colours, erasers)
• Adopt-Our-School Bus Programme: Rs. 150,000 per year
  (Expenses for regular running and maintenance)
• Mid-Day Meal for the Children: Rs. 12,000 per month

Well wishers of the centre regularly donate snacks, stationery and furniture for the children.

With the new campus planned for Akshar Trust on the land given by the Government, generous donors will be acknowledged at the building. This will be in the shape of nameplates at the entrance of the particular facility.

The Akshar Trust is a not-for-profit, voluntary, secular organisation. It is registered with the Charity Commissioner, Baroda , under the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950. It is also recognised by the Director of Social Defence, Government of Gujarat. All donations to the Trust are exempted under section 80 (G) of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

With prior appointment, you are most welcome to visit our Centre.

Two of our senior students completed M.Com from the M.S. University of Baroda many years ago. At the moment, out of the two students in the Fine Arts Faculty, one has cleared and the other is in the fourth year, two are in B.Com. and one has joined the Department of Family and Community Sciences, M.S. University of Baroda. Almost all these children have been with us since their childhood.

ALUMNI EMPLOYMENT

Sr. No.	Name	Occupation
1	Fenil Parekh	Software Company & Art Graphics
2	Jaya Chaudhary	Toothpaste Company
3	Vandana Rohra	Paul Mason Consulting (Software Company)
4	Zainab Lokhanwala	Beauty Salon
5	Akshita Bhrahambhatt	Beauty Salon
6	Reema Choksi	Beauty Salon
7	Sonu Shukla	Telephone Repairing & Army
8	Nilesh Pillai	Grocery store
9	Payal Kayasth	Awaiting Bank Exam Results
10	Vivek Vadhera	Tailoring
11	Pradeep Kashyap	Working in the Railways
12	Mohammad Pathan	Electrician
13	Gayatri Prasad	Transpek Silox
14	Rushibha Patel	Apprentice (GEB), M.G.V.C.L. & Computer
15	Manisha Sindkar	Accountant ONGC
16	Amit Jha	Contacare Ophthalmic (Lance Company)

Picnics

Children go for Picnics every year with the staff and the teacher trainees. This is the time when the children get a chance to explore the world around them!

Journey of Vandana Rohra – Ex-student of Early Intervention Programme at Akshar
By HR Manager of Paul Mason Consulting, (PMC, UK based software Company) Vadodara:

Vandana Rohra is with us for more than a year now. Vandana has been a part of Akshar Trust since she was 3 years old. She joined the school at the age of 3 and there were only 5 children and 2 teachers at that time. Today the school has around 200 children.

Since these kids are differently abled, the teachers do not start with studies directly. The first things they work on these children are on their hearing ability. Its mandatory for all the kids to wear hearing aid to school. Vandana tells me that the children who do not wear it or forget to wear it are punished. Later they start with speech therapy for the children. Its after they ensure that the child is able to hear and speak, they start with the studies. Vandana started speaking when she was 10 years old. She explained how the teachers teach words by touch, drawings, actions and sometimes even dance.

She remembers her days in Akshar Trust where they used to have prayers in sign language. They used to have Annual Day celebration every year with kids and their parents joining in. Vandana says that its because of Akshar Trust that she is able to speak today. They are the reason why she understands each and every word today.

Vandana studied in Akshar Trust till 10th Std. Later she moved on to regular school for completing her 11th & 12th standard. In Akshar Trust they emphasize on teaching only 1 language to the children as their mind would be able to grasp only one language. Vandana completed her 12th board with 63% with English as one of her subject which she learnt after leaving Akshar Trust. She considers this as a very big achievement for her.
         
Vandana has had come work experience before joining PMC. She worked in a Stamp Paper Office for 1 year. Later she also taught tuitions to children till 5th standard. It was then she received an interview call from PMC. She still remembers the day when Xavier and Robbins had come to Akshar Trust for the interview and she got selected. She was very happy when she got this job.

She recalls, when she joined PMC she had no idea what Testing is, or what testing methods are? She didn’t know what is IMS or Tracker. But she had the inclination to learn and work. And slowly she picked up things and started working. She was initially guided by Ashish & Prayas. Later Sunprit, Bhupendra, Kishan, Harshil & Srimanth helped her. Now Vishal has been allotting lots of work to her. So she is happy.

One thing she wants to highlight here is that, before she joined PMC she used to speak only in Gujarati. But now she can speak in English too, though she is still learning and improving. She says that she would always be indebted to Akshar Trust & PMC for whatever she is today.

Results From Akshar Trust

Along with Anshu Jha, Rahul Kanojia & Reema Choksi also sat for Std. XII Gujarat State Board exams. They had been mainstreamed earlier.

Pratik Shah & Vishal Badgujar appeared for First Year B.Com examination from Piparia College, while Ruchit Shithole has finished B.Com from M. S .University. Shrenik Shah has appeared for the Third Year B.Com Exam from Vidhyanagar. In 2010 Dhara Panchamiya passed Std. XII with very good results, standing first in Statistics, from St. Kabir School. She is doing B.Com from M. S. University, has appeared for the First Year exam and is awaiting results.

Two other Akshar students, who joined young, Shwetal Parekh and Aditya Bhalerao appeared for the final Fourth Year and Third Year exams of Fine Arts Faculty, M. S. University respectively.

Teena Thomas sat for Final Year Bachelors in Family and Community Studies, a 3 year degree course, specializing in Fashion Design from M. S. University.

Vibhav Simlote, the youngest child to join Akshar at 12 months, is going to U.S.A., Houston, in August, 2011 to study ‘Communication & Media Studies in Computers’.

Ankit Simlot is pursuing a course in Network Application. Leena Bendale and Pinal Pilojpara are doing a Computer course at ITI.

Profile of the occupation of parents

Occupation	Percentage	Occupation	Percentage
Vegetable vendors	3.00%	Jobs in small Companies	33.97%
Garage workers	3.00%	Lawyers, Teachers, LIC agents & Accountants	4.49%
Peons	0.64%	Government jobs	7.69%
Labourers	9.61%	Unemployed	3.20%
Domestic workers	1.28%	Parent deceased	1.92%
Drivers	8.33%	Small Business	11.54%
Shopkeepers	10.90%

Annual Events

Annual Days and Sports Days are also celebrated annually.

• Classes for parents on Finger Spelling and Signs have also been started.
• Audiograms of the children are taken by an ENT Surgeon regularly. The Trust does not charge for these audiograms.

In-Service Training

• Dr. Prabha Ghate, a specialist in deaf education visited the centre on 5th, 6th February 2010. She demonstrated the use of Total Communication to the teachers and teacher trainees.
• Ms. Mandira Banerjee, a well-known educationist from Pune, visited the centre on 5th March 2010. She gave a Lecture to teachers and teacher trainees on 'Learning and the Brain'. Ms. K Thakkar translated the lecture for the teachers & trainees in Gujarati.

Results for the year 2008-10 Batch:
2nd Year: First Class: 8, Second Class: 4.

Teacher Training Activities

• Akshar Trust was selected by RCI and Manipal University to conduct the theory exam of both D.Ed. SE (HI) and D.Ed. SE (MR) course as an examination centre at Vadodara. Exams were held from 14th to 24th December, 2010.
• Akshar Trust has got approval for B.Ed. SE (HI) from the Rehabilitation Council of India.
• Mrs. Nisha Grover was invited to be a Resource Person at the Workshop on Communication Options and Course Coordinators meet from November 28 to December 2, 2011 at Chennai. The 3 Communication Options were presented & Mrs. N Grover made a presentation on Total Communucation supported by a film.
• Mr. Rajendra Pandya, Core Faculty, participated in the National workshop on ‘Communication Options to Teach The Deaf’ on November 28 to December 2, 2011

Admission Procedure
For the first time Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) is conducting 'All India Online Aptitude Test'.

Visits made by Trainees
Regular visits are made by the trainees to other institutes with other disabilities.

CORE AND VISITING FACULTY

• There are 25 candidates admitted in the academic year 2011-12.

Contact us: Phone no. 0265- 6458117, 9879455868.

Email Address: akshartrust@gmail.com