UAE: This unique initiative is enabling skill-sharing for children of determination

One goal unites most parents: the need to empower their child; to see them grow, to see them thrive and be the best they can be.

One group of parents is going the extra mile to achieve that dream. The group P2P (Parent to Professional) is made up of parents of Children of Determination. “We are parents of individuals with special needs and we’ve studied and [most of us] are also working in the same field — special education needs (SEN),” explains Sujatha Anandram, who has a child on the autism spectrum.

“My vision in P2P is to utilise the skills I’ve acquired to benefit both children and parents alike,” explains Revathi.

Towards this end, the group holds workshops and teaches children basic skills that can translate into a career. The workshops they’ve held so far are block printing and salad making.

“Initially, we [just] used to hang out with our children. And then we realised that we need to start a workshop, which will benefit other children also. Bringing this thought on table, we thought that there should be an activity which all children can do in spite of the degree of their condition,” explains Shyni Gopal, a mum of two 18-year-olds on the autism spectrum.

“I had suggested block printing, and then a friend’s friend who is an artist trained us with this block printing. We started meeting every month, twice, at different places. And we continued doing this for almost a year,” she says.

It’s paid off — many children of determination now have Instagram pages where they display and sell their work. The workshops also culminated in a showcase of the work they have been doing. On February 18, the group hosted a fashion show. “It was a fashion show of clothes that were upscaled by doing block printing on them. The kids walked the ramp with the parents in clothes and accessories that were block printed,” says a proud Vasanthi Sunder.

The end goal is, explain the mums, independent living. “They should have, we should all have a community, which we have, a proper residential facility with a skill development center,” says Gopal.

The issues of segregation begin at the time of schooling. “So you know usually what happens is when the parents know about the diagnosis when they try to get them into mainstream schools. Some of them manage mainstream schools, some of them are not able to handle their pressure. So they go back to special schools. But still, there should be some skill that we should develop in each one of them and some kind of life skills, something that they can keep themselves occupied with,” says Sunder.

“We are planning to introduce more things like maybe soap-making, or you know, candy-making. It’s deeply satisfying to see that some of them have progressed so well,” she adds.