When Mumbra resident Parvez Farid discovered that his nephew, a differently abled child, was growing up with challenges—such as being transferred out of a regular school due to the lack of inclusivity in society—it moved him deeply. This prompted Farid to educate himself about disabilities, children with special needs and special schools.
Padma Shri Dr Zahir I Kazi, president, Anjuman-I-Islam |
“Surprisingly, I couldn’t find a single special school even in a 15 km radius of Mumbra. And the schools that were far off had a waiting period of a few years,” says Farid, who is an IT engineer.
This got him thinking about how many other children in and around Mumbra may be facing similar issues and the need for a sustainable solution. “That’s when I decided to start the Ummeed Foundation in 2011 and set up Ummeed The Hope Free Special School under it,” says the founder and the CEO.
Since then, the NGO, through various other projects on health, livelihood, women empowerment, emergency relief and other activities has supported 1.7 million people. These include kids who are differently abled, special children and women.
Though well established now, when Farid started with this work, he faced resistance. “I needed data to understand the number of people who have disabilities or are specially abled, in the neighbourhood. There is a lot of stigma attached around this topic and so parents were reluctant to share the information. These kids were socially secluded, in a sense,” he says. But he started creating awareness amongst parents about the needs of these children and the necessity to mainstream them. Since then, there has been no looking back.
Currently, there are more than 400 students registered in this free special school, which also has a rehabilitation centre. This centre aims to help children below the age of 14 with low muscle strength and low bone density. The school has a holistic approach—education, physiotherapy, speech therapy, occupation therapy, etc.
Students from the age of five to 18 can get admission and they are assessed here. “This helps them learn and grow in every way. For students beyond 18 years, we provide them with vocational training. I can proudly say that a lot of children are working in various organisations.” he shares.
Padma Shri Dr Zahir I Kazi, president, Anjuman-I-Islam who has known of Farid’s work, says, “Parvez is doing a phenomenal work at empowering and enabling people with disabilities and who have special needs. His work has brought hope and help in Mumbra. This kind of work should be encouraged and more people should take inspiration from him and spread the work.”
