Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: The Special students of New Dawn Ashadeep school on Thursday tied Rakhi to Mormugao and Vasco MLA s and the staff of Vasco and Mormugao police stations on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan.
While the legislators who were touched by the gesture have assured the school and special children of all help, the school management has requested the Government to be more disabled-friendly and provide many schools with disabled-friendly vehicles to accommodate students confined to wheelchairs.
The raksha bandhan festival for the students began after around 20 students tied Rakhi to the staff of Mormugao police and later to Mormugao MLA Sankalp Amonkar in his Sada constituency office.
Speaking to the media, Amonkar said that it was a very emotional feeling for him as the children arrived at his office to tie a Rakhi to him
“I am indeed very touched by the gesture, and I cannot express the joy of celebrating the festival with the special children. Raksha Bandhan itself signifies the love of the brother towards his sister and also how a brother will do all it takes to protect his sisters. I want to assure the school and the special children of all the help as individuals and as the MLA. I will be available for the school at any given time whenever they may need me,” said Amonkar
Later in the day, the students went to Vasco police station and tied Rakhi to the staff and finally arrived at the Vasco constituency office of BJP MLA Krishna Salkar.
The students later tied a Rakhi to Salkar and other BJP members and left back for the school
Speaking to the media , Salkar said that society must support the special children and help them all along
“This is an emotional moment for me as these special children tied me a Rakhi. These children need our support, and these children have no expectations of any kind in return from us. The least we can do is change our mindset, and we must take care of their needs, and society must unite to help them and give them moral support. We must ensure that we stand in their support for their education, and I assure to be of all the help to the children from my side,” said Salkar.
Meanwhile, City ward councillor Shami Salkar said that she would allow a stall for the Saptah festival for the sale of products made by Special Children
“While we can take up any tasks, it is extremely different for special children, and they have to put in a lot of effort, and besides that, they have made the Rakhi and tied it to the police and MLAs, which is a special feeling in itself. I am a member of the PTA member, and these children do an excellent job and make beautiful paper bags, cloth bags, and deepavali diya and while we usually buy from the market, the people must buy the products made by these children so that it can offer them support. The staff of the school also encourage the children with small tasks of making some beautiful products, and we plan to allot a big stall for the sale of the product made by them because it takes a lot of efforts for these special children to make it. The public must buy products made by these children during festivals to encourage and support them,” said Salkar
Jacinta De Silva, the manager of New Dawn Ashadeep particular school
requested the Government to be more disabled friendly
“I also want the people to reach out to these special children and support them in all ways. Our children make these Rakhis, which have taken them at least three months. Each task is broken into parts, from sorting the items to putting them together, and finally, it takes as much as three months for one Rakhi, and some of them can’t even do it in the end, and we have to hold their hand to make it happen. This is a social skill for our children where they learn how to come out, meet people, know how to sit on a bus, knowing how to go in a line, go to a place, meet and greet people and these are all things that have to be taught to special children. One of the skills they are learning today is doing pooja for somebody special and honour them. It is an appeal that if they see special children, reach out to them and tell their families that there are around 40 schools all over Goa and they will learn to live in a society and become independent, and we can help them find schools all over. ” said, De Silva
“The Government can be more disabled friendly and provide disable friendly buses because some children in wheelchairs cannot get into a bus. It would be nice to get a bus with a lift and a ramp for special children. We have got students who can walk, but we could not bring other children who are in wheelchairs. The government must make the whole surrounding disabled friendly for the special children,” said De Silva.
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