Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Life Skill Planning & Education for Underprivileged Special Needs Children

statusNot funded

Wikimedia Community Fund

Life Skill Planning & Education for Underprivileged Special Needs Children

start date2024-06-04

end date2026-06-10

budget (local currency)3374000 INR

amount requested (USD)41230.28 USD

grant typeNonprofit organization with Wikimedia mission

funding regionSA

decision fiscal year2023-24

funding program roundRound 2

organization (if applicable)People’s Participation

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• Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Life Skill Planning & Education for Underprivileged Special Needs Children

This is an automatically generated Meta-Wiki page. The page was copied from Fluxx, the grantmaking web service of Wikimedia Foundation where the user has submitted their application. Please do not make any changes to this page because all changes will be removed after the next update. Use the discussion page for your feedback. The page was created by CR-FluxxBot.

Applicant information

Organization name or Wikimedia Username for individuals. (required)

People’s Participation

Do you have any approved General Support Fund requests? (required)

No, it is my first time applying for a General Support Fund

You are applying as a(n). (required)

Nonprofit organization with Wikimedia mission

Are your group or organization legally registered in your country? (required)

Yes

Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

No

Fiscal organization name.

N/A

Main proposal

1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be a title for the Meta-Wiki page. (required)

Life Skill Planning & Education for Underprivileged Special Needs Children

2. Do you want to apply for the multi-year funding or renewal process? (required)

N/A

2.1. For how many years of multi-year funding are you applying? (required)

N/A

2.2. Provide a brief overview of Year 2 and Year 3 of the proposed plan and how this relates to the current proposal and your strategic plan? (required)

N/A

3. Proposed start date. (required)

2024-06-04

4. Proposed end date. (required)

2026-06-10

5. Does your organization or group have an Affiliate or Organizational Annual Plan that can help us understand your proposal? If yes, please provide it. (required)

No

6. Does your affiliate, organization or group have a Strategic Plan that can help us understand your proposal? If yes, please provide it. (required)

Yes

http://www.peoplesparticipation.org

7. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)

India

8. What are your programs, approaches, and strategies? What are the challenges that you are trying to address and how will your strategies support you in addressing these challenges? (required)

Children with disabilities and their families constantly experience barriers to the enjoyment of their basic human rights and to their inclusion in society. Their abilities are overlooked, their capacities are underestimated and their needs are given low priority. Yet, the barriers they face are more frequently as a result of the environment in which they live than as a result of their impairment. The social model of disability acknowledges that obstacles to participation in society and its institutions reside in the environment rather than in the individual, and that such barriers can and must be prevented, reduced or eliminated. Environmental obstacles come in many guises and are found at all levels of society. They are reflected in policies and regulations created by governments.

Such obstacles may be physical – for example barriers in public buildings, transportation and recreational facilities. They may also be attitudinal – widespread underestimation of the abilities and potential of children with disabilities creates a vicious cycle of under expectation, under-achievement and low priority in the allocation of resources. Human rights have provided both the inspiration and the foundation for the movement towards inclusion for children with disabilities. Inclusion requires the recognition of all children as full members of society and the respect of all of their rights, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, language, poverty or impairment. Inclusion involves the removal of barriers that might prevent the enjoyment of these rights, and requires the creation of appropriate supportive and protective environments. The human rights approach to disability has led to a shift in focus from a child’s limitations arising from impairments, to the barriers within society that prevent the child from having access to basic social services, developing to the fullest potential and from enjoying her or his rights. This is the essence of the social model of disability. “Governments everywhere can no longer overlook the hundreds of millions of people with disabilities who are denied access to health, rehabilitation, support, education, and employment—and never get the chance to shine.” : ‘Stephen Hawking’

The project objectives and anticipated impact::: 1. The Right to Education (RTE) must apply to all citizens of India. State and central Governments as well as all the other social actors should recognize the importance of a broadened concept of inclusive education that addresses the diverse needs of all learners.

2. A policy of inclusion needs to be implemented in all schools and throughout Indian education system (NCF, 2005). Schools need to become centres that prepare children for life and ensure that all children, especially the differently abled children from marginalized sections, and children in difficult circumstances get the maximum benefit of this critical area of education.

3. The preparation of teachers for rural special education programmes should be planned differently, as the aim of these programmes would be to integrate disabled persons in their own environment and community.

4. As a system, inclusive education should be flexible. Its flexibility must be reflected in the methods and materials used to give these children the widest possible access to the regular curriculum.

5. A school-based support team should develop strategies for the whole school to meet the needs of learners with special educational needs. This team should also be a resource for teachers experiencing problems in their classrooms.

6. The school has the primary responsibility for helping children learn alongside their typically developing peers. An inclusive school must enable education structures, systems and methodologies to meet the needs of all children, particularly those who face the greatest barriers to achieving their right to education.

7. Parents have a right to be involved in all decision-making concerning their child. They should be seen as partners in the education process. Where there is such co-operation, parents have been found to be very important resources for the teachers and the schools.

8. Bringing special children into mainstream requires adjustments that schools need to make in advance. Transport facilities should be altered, so that these children can move around with relative ease. Architecturally, there should be ramps and wheelchair access constructed in service areas such as toilets.

9. Student-oriented components, such as medical and educational assessment, books and stationery, uniforms, transport allowance, reader allowance and stipend for girls, support services, assistive devices, boarding the lodging facility, therapeutic services, teaching learning materials, etc should provide according to need of the students.

10. Differently abled children should be treated equally as the normal children and instead of looking them in sympathy their talents and abilities should be recognised for their self-respect and welfare of the society.

11. Necessary school supplies such as audio learning or textbooks in Braille should be made available. Suitable modification to examination system may be required, so as to eliminate pure mathematical and logical assessments.

12. Teachers‟ attitudes towards inclusive education could be formed and developed in the context of an educational system which can provide some specific conditions in order to have a good practice in this field.

13. Families with children without disabilities should develop relationships with families with children with disabilities and be able to make a contribution.

14. In-service training programmes of two to three weeks' duration for general educators and special educators in all the disabilities and in specific areas of disability should arrange to effectively teach children with disabilities.

15. Those schools that are committed to taking in children with special needs, then teachers must attend workshops in order to be adjusted to the child's needs. 16. Periodic evaluation of the training programmes and constant updating to meet the challenges of changing trends in special education should be part of the planning of teacher preparation.

17. Inclusion should not be the sole responsibility of the specific class teacher. Everybody should be involved and take responsibility. Training for teachers should be sustained and ongoing. It should most importantly focus on attitudinal change.

18. The reform of the curriculum should be made in parallel with a proper training for teachers regarding their knowledge of inclusion and its principles. The curriculum for each of the above programmes should be carefully developed by an expert group which includes practising special teachers.

Detailed description of project activities and how these activities will contribute to the project objectives and anticipated impact:::  Mass Campaign for a disable friendly policy- IEC, Talking doll shows, street theatres, public address systems.

 Workshops with Parents/Guardians- Small workshops with parents to let them understand the present Govt Policies’ and the need of modify the policies towards disable children.

 Stake Holder Meeting- Local level, State Level and Central Level Govt Departments to participate to understand our demand and loophole of the existing policies.

 State Level Seminars- Stake holders, interest groups, media houses, and policy makers will be participate to understand the present status and impact of the existing policies.

 Media Advocacy- General people, stake holders, interest groups, care givers, NGOs- CBOs and political leaders will be aware.

 Working as pressure group to modify ‘disable policies’- Mass Petition, submission of different reports, our survey report, loopholes of existing policy will be present to those Policy Makers’ to update the existing policies towards ‘Disable’ children-adolescent-Youth’.

 Inclusive Education for Children with Special Needs (CWSN): through which various provisions are made available for the educational needs of differently abled children.

 Financial support: A Separate provision for financial support of Special Educators has been made under Samagra Shiksha (Inclusive Education) in order to appropriately address the educational requirements of children with special needs from elementary to higher secondary levels.

 The focus of Samagra Shiksha (Inclusive Education) is on providing inclusive education to children with disability wherein, children regardless of their abilities/disabilities participate and learn together in the same class, thus creating an enabling educational environment for all students.

Outputs::: In this project we will try to solve some problems by update Govt policies towards ‘Special Needs Children & Disability’ issue. The probable outputs will be as follows:

	No. 10- Stake Holders meeting will be organise to motivate those Govt departments related to look after the issue; such as : State Social welfare Dept.,  Districts Social welfare Dept., Block Development Office, Municipal Offices, Police, School Management Committees, State Education Department and associates, State Disability Commission, Central Disability Commission, Central Social Justice & Empowerment and others.

	No. 04- State Level Seminar to be conducted with the participation of different stake holders and policy makers only.

	No.40 -Meeting in schools with School Management Committee (SME) to take care of Special Needs Children and disable students; train them with special care, disable friendly school building and class room, mainstreaming them with handle in care’ policy; training to their teachers in workshops.

	No. 10- Meeting and workshop with Parents/Care Givers to train them how to take care their children, the existing Rights for CWSN & Guardians, how to avail those Rights and motivate them to protest against  present Govt Policies.

	No. 20- Awareness building among general people on CWSN issue through talking doll shows, street plays, uses of public addressed system et.
	No. 02- Media coverage through Press Conference/Social Media campaign to aware people and other stake holders and Govt’ to motivate to look after the issue and to modify the ‘Policies’ towards Disable children.

	10000 pcs- IEC preparation and distribution among general people to receive a public support to campaign.

	Working as pressure group to change present Govt policies towards CWSN and Disability to motivate Govt’ to change, update the present policies towards ‘disable children’. 

The applicant’s specific experience and expertise related to the activities covered in the proposal::: Last 5 years People’s Participation is working for the development of Special Needs Children in Hooghly, West Bengal, India voluntarily with more than 60 CWSN and their families. People’s Participation received W.B State Award on ‘Persons With Disability’ based on our programme activity in 2020 and 2021.

Our Activities towards ‘Special Needs Children’ and ‘Mental Health of Homeless/beggars:

	E- learning Training-
	Community Based Rehabilitation-
	Workshops with guardians-
	Formation parents committee as trainers-
	Day Care Center for Special Needs Children - 
	Mental health of homeless people-

9. What categories are your main programs and related activities under? Please select all that apply. (required)

Category	Yes/No
Education	Yes
Culture, heritage or GLAM	No
Gender and diversity	Yes
Community support and engagement	Yes
Participation in campaigns and contests	Yes
Public policy advocacy	Yes
Other	No

Education

9.1.1. Select all your programs and activities for Education. (required)

Wiki Club, Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom or other Reading/Evaluating Wikipedia Training

Other programs and activities if any: N/A

9.1.2. Select all relevant audience groups for Education. (required)

Primary school students, Secondary school students, Vocational, tertiary, or higher education, Teachers or professors, Senior citizens, Other groups

Other groups if any: Village youth, Social departments of Governments, Police, Child Line, Child Protection Committee, Municipalities, Hospitals, Block Development Officers and others.

Gender and diversity

9.3. Select all your programs and activities for Gender and diversity.

Bringing in women and/or gender diverse participants and editors, Focusing on creating content about women and/or gender diverse groups, including biographies, intersectional topic areas and/or adding images, Focusing on creating content about marginalized (underrepresented) communities and their knowledge, Focusing on knowledge equity by bringing in contributors from underrepresented communities, Building organizer skills in women and diversity groups, Fomenting female leadership within the movement (either staff, members or boards), Sensitize and educate for gender perspective among Wikimedia projects stewards and editors, Other

Other programs and activities if any: Establish peoples' rights by their own capacities to build a dignified society

Community support and engagement

9.4. Select all your programs and activities for Community support and engagement.

Off-wiki training of community members, Organizing meetups, conferences, and community events, Supporting community members' participation in events and conferences, Offering non financial support and services to community members (equipment, space, books, etc.), Other

Other programs and activities if any: Training of trainers (ToT), engagement of local youth as barefoot special educators, training to guardians

Participation in campaigns and contests

9.5. Select all campaigns that apply. (required)

1Lib1Ref, Wikipedia Asian Month, WikiForHumanRights, Other

Other programs and activities if any: Peace building,human rights, Special children, social movements, children & youth development, women rights, livelihood etc.

Social movements to protect larger environment, against political killings, libraries, support people's rights etc

Public policy advocacy

9.6.1. What specific laws, or legislative topics, are you targeting with your advocacy plans? Please be as specific as possible. (required)

Disability Rights: (Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act & National Trust Act) and Mental Healthcare Act

9.6.2. What are the main methods and tactics via which you plan to advocate for this public policy change? Please be as specific as possible. (required)

‘People’s Participation’ is guided by the faith of human rights. ‘People’s Participation’ believes that there is a close relationship between poverty and the denial of human rights and fundamental freedom, where lack of human rights and fundamental freedom can be both a cause and consequence of poverty. Since its inception in 2005, People’s Participation’ has been unique in its strategic responsiveness to emerging social challenges in local, national and international levels by engaging with people and the policy makers. In order to facilitate creation of a just society, ‘People’s Participation’ progressively moved from Charity Model to Welfare/Needs Model to the present day Rights Based Model. Now, ‘PP’ strives to simultaneously address immediate conditions of poverty and deprivation, while working towards securing rights of the people for a dignified life.

We are committed to social justice, sustainable development and human rights. The right to communicate freely is a basic human right and a necessity for sustainable development. Access to information is essential to informed decision-making at all levels. We are committed to the dissemination of information and promotion of sustainable development initiatives, in response to the needs of underrepresented and marginalized sectors of society.

For bridging the data gap and improving information availability we are committed to develop and establish an ideal medium for the Participation and exchange of a trusted and accurate source of quality information. Empowerment of the vulnerable section of the disadvantaged section; to provide basic Education, Health, Training, Recreation to the down trodden people and empowerment of women and adolescent girls of the Society. To secure “Food-Shelter- Livelihood” for all’ is our dream. Our mission is to utilize the available resources in such a way that their uses can lead to substantial improvement in the quality of life of the people with whom work is being done.

Project Management Approach: People’s Participation’ has introduced and mainstreamed the Results Based Management approach in its initiatives, emphasizing on on-going learning and accountability to various stakeholders. We are here to building a social movement by those guardians of special children as a catalyst as well as a facilitator.

The work of People’s Participation’ is guided by the following values:

• We are pro-poor.
• We are inclusive, impartial and non-discriminatory.
• We work in partnership with others to achieve results.
• We respect fundamental human rights and listen to the people we work with.
• We value objectivity, integrity, professionalism and openness.
• We value transparency and accountability.
• We esteem entrepreneurship and innovation.
• We share all knowledge about the work we do

9.6.3. Approximately, how much of the requested budget will you dedicate to public policy advocacy (local currency)?

200000

10. Please include a link to or upload a timeline (operational calendar) for your programs and activities. (required)

Uploaded here with

11. Describe your team. (required)

 Dipankar Mitra- In-charge of the project  Samita Goswami- Field Worker/Counsellor  Debasis Goswami- Special Educator  Amit Dhar- Accountant  Santoshi Pandit- Massager  Mitali Ghosh Debnath- Consultant Special Educator  Himanshu Das- Consultant Counsellor  Nandadulal Manna- Consultant Special Educator  Paramita Guha- Consultant Psycho-Social Counseling  Biplab Hait- Computer Consultant

12. Will you be working with any internal (Wikimedia) or external partners? Describe the characteristics of these partnerships and bring a few examples of the most significant partnerships. (required)

We did not get any scope to get partnership with such organisations till date. But we will be happy if we get chances to work with such institutions to upgrade our social movements for the betterment of deprived communities.

13. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select all that apply. (required)

Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement, Improve User Experience, Provide for Safety and Inclusion, Ensure Equity in Decision-making, Coordinate Across Stakeholders, Invest in Skills and Leadership Development, Manage Internal Knowledge, Identify Topics for Impact, Innovate in Free Knowledge, Evaluate, Iterate, and Adapt

Metrics

Wikimedia Metrics

14. Please select and fill out Wikimedia Metrics for your proposal. (recommended)

14.1. Number of participants, editors, and organizers.

All metrics provided are optional, please fill them out if they are aligned with your programs and activities.

Participants, editors, and organizers

Metrics name	Target	Description
Number of all participants	600	Primarily 40 special needs children will be engage with this programme; slowly more 20+ special children will be involve with this program
Number of all editors	10	 Dipankar Mitra-  Samita Goswami-  Biplab Hait-  Arpita Mukherjee-  Suman Hela-  Tanusree Sarkar-  Santoshi Pandit- New editors:  Manas Mukherjee-  Udayshankar Mondal-  Pradip Bhowmik-
Number of new editors	3
Number of retained editors	7
Number of all organizers	6	 Mompapa Foundation-  State Disability Commission-  District Social Welfare Office-  Block Development Office-  Sarva Siksha Avijaan Project-  Others- But we will try to engage more and more organizations as stake holders and network supporters to make success the program.
Number of new organizers	4

14.2. Number of new content contributions to Wikimedia projects. (recommended)

Contributions to Wikimedia projects

Wikimedia project	Created	Edited or improved
Wikipedia
Wikimedia Commons	0	0
Wikidata
Wiktionary
Wikisource
Wikimedia Incubator
Translatewiki
MediaWiki
Wikiquote
Wikivoyage
Wikibooks
Wikiversity
Wikinews
Wikispecies
Wikifunctions / Abstract Wikipedia

Description for Wikimedia projects contributions metrics. (optional)

We wish to publish our social movement activities in 'Wikimedia'; but do not have much knowledge how to upload such documents in Wikimedia.

Other Metrics

15. Do you have other quantitative and qualitative targets for your project (other metrics)? (required)

Yes

Other Metrics	Description	Target
E- learning Training	Many guardians could not maintain regularity to join special children therapy classes, then this 'E- learning Training/ will assist them to learn from home.	40
Community Based Rehabilitation	The community-based rehabilitation (CBR) is a dynamic program globally for supporting differently abled children to lead better quality of life and lead life with dignity, where in their rights are respected and guarded within their own communities and it creates platform for addressing the discriminatory practices in the community.	60
Workshops with guardians	There is huge shortage of special educators and institutes for their training. States are also reluctant to recruit special educators due to the lack of funds. Comprehensive need-based planning, budgeting, and monitoring are required for ensuring inclusive education with quality. Community mobilisation and active participation of community members in school education is critical, not only for effective planning and implementation of interventions in schools, but also for effective monitoring and ownership of government programmes by the community.	60
Networking	Networking with different Govt Departments, Hospitals, Disability Commission, Police, others to strengthen this social movement.	11
Formation parents committee as trainers	Formation parents committee as trainers' are another initiative to train their special children in home with other supports	4

Budget

16. Will you have any other revenue sources when implementing this proposal (e.g. other funding, membership contributions, donations)? (required)

Yes

16.1. List other revenue sources. (required)

Members Subscription- NGO Consultancy- Other funding - Individual donations- Govt grants-

16.2. Approximately how much revenue will you have from other sources in your local currency? (required)

110000

17. Your local currency. (required)

INR

18. What is the total requested amount in your local currency? (required)

3374000 INR

Multi-year funding request summary

Year	Amount (local currency)
Year 1	N/A INR
Year 2	N/A INR
Year 3	N/A INR

Requested amount in USD

41230.28 USD

Multi-year funding request summary in USD

Year	Amount USD
Year 1	N/A USD
Year 2	N/A USD
Year 3	N/A USD

19. Does this proposal include compensation for staff or contractors? (required)

Yes

19.1. How many paid staff members do you plan to have? (required)

Include the number of staff and contractors during the proposal period. If you have short-term contractors or staff, please include them separately and mention their terms.

 Dipankar Mitra- In-charge of the project

 Samita Goswami- Field Worker/Counsellor  Debasis Goswami- Special Educator  Amit Dhar- Accountant  Santoshi Pandit- Massager  Mitali Ghosh Debnath- Consultant Special Educator  Himanshu Das- Consultant Counsellor  Nandadulal Manna- Consultant Special Educator  Paramita Guha- Consultant Psycho-Social Counseling  Biplab Hait- Computer Consultant

19.2. How many FTEs (full-time equivalents) in total? (required)

Include the total FTE of staff and contractors during the proposal period. If you have short-term contractors or staff, please include their FTEs with the terms separately.

Not applicable

19.3. Describe any staff or contractor changes compared to the current year / ongoing General Support Fund if any. (required only for returning grantees)

N/A

20. Please provide an overview of your overall budget categories in your local currency. The budget breakdown should include only the amount requested with this General Support Fund (required).

Budget category	Amount in local currency
Staff and contactor costs	1608000 INR
Operational costs	1766000 INR
Programmatic costs	3374000 INR

21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)

Additional information

22. In this optional space you can add any other additional information about your proposal or organization that you think can help us when reviewing your proposal. (optional)

Based on our previous activities towards the cause we have received State Awards.

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By submitting your proposal/funding request you agree that you are in agreement with the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and the Universal Code of Conduct.

We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.

Yes

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