Chennai
To be held on March 17, at the ITC Grand Chola, the night will witness India’s leading stand-up comedians, Kanan Gill, Jonathan Atherton, Kartik Iyer and Sundeep Rao. Ahead of the event, director of SPASTN, Jayashree and Ashwin Santhanam of MRT1 talk about the need to empower and enable disabled people.
“SPASTN’s vision is to create an inclusive society which respects and values diversity and participation of people with disabilities. We empower and enable disabled people to reach their full potential through education, training and employment. SPASTN always wanted a space for rehabilitation communities. But we didn’t have enough funds for this and thus decided to hold a fund-raising event,” says Jayashree, director of SPASTN.
She believes that the therapeutic activity hall would be a space for members of SPASTN to engage in extra-curricular activities like dance, drama, yoga etc. “We are also planning to conduct workshops and seminars for our students. This is not an exclusive space for us, but also for members from other rehabilitation communities in the city. We hope this space will bring joy to thousands of underprivileged children with cerebral palsy and neurological disabilities,” she adds.
Explaining their mission, Ashwin Santhanam, community service convenor of MRT1 Madras Round Table 1 (MRT1), says, “Our mission is to raise resources for community service initiatives that focus mainly on children’s education and healthcare. When we visited the Spastic Society in Chennai, we were amazed to see the kind of work done by the management. We came to know that they were struggling to raise funds for a therapeutic enrichment hall. In fact, the work of the hall has already started but was finding it difficult to continue the work because they were running short of funds. That’s when I decided to join hands with SPASTN.”
Visit news.dtnext.in to explore our interactive epaper!
Download the DT Next app for more exciting features!
Click here for iOS
Click here for Android