Dear Sir/Madam,

SAARATHY-PAMMAC, an association of parents of children with mental challenges formed in 2000, is involved in providing need based services for persons with mental challenges and their parents in addressing the issues related to the mentally challenged in Coimbatore. It is affiliated to the national body PARIVAAR.

The parents of persons with mental retardation are confronted with so many challenges including “What will happen to the children after their life?”. Though this issue is being addressed in public platforms, no solution has evolved so far. As persons with mental challenges are not able to speak for themselves like other disability groups, the parents have to address their issues.

Moreover, by the time the Mentally Challenged children become adult plus, the parents become old enough and they themselves need to be taken care by others; hence, taking care of these persons become all the more difficult.

SAARATHY-PAMMAC is a leading parents group in the country and the members belong to all social walks of life. One of the long-term goals of the Association is to develop a mechanism which will give protection for the mentally challenged adults, in particular the women who have multiple problems. Since it is going to be an expensive affair for creating such a facility, the parents’ body is looking at a mechanism to ensure sustainability of whatever activities undertaken. After much of deliberations, with the contribution made by the parents, a land of about 5.43 acres in Mallegoundanpalayam, near Karadivavi, has been procured at a very nominal price. This land serves as a kind of buffer for the association to start any kind of activities. In the proposed project, SAARATHY-PAMMAC is getting ready a few vital units – one is the terminal home for the severely disabled (mentally challenged) persons and the admission for this will be meant only for the children/adults who do not have any kind of source of help. It is estimated that about 10 to 15 percent of the persons with mental challenges belong to this category. Assuming that in Coimbatore district alone there are about 10000 mentally challenged persons, there will be at least 1000 of these who need terminal care.

The other thing is to empower persons with mental challenges through employment. About 5% of the population may be trained to get mainstream employment. The ILLAM project will also address the issue of finding placement for people with mental challenges in whatever Industries that are having jobs which suit them, and for this purpose there would be a vocational training centre as well. About 40% of the population is a trainable lot who could be engaged in a meaningful vocation. So whatever income that they can generate through the products would be a kind of life support for them as well as for the centre.

The third component of the ILLAM project is to have homes where parents can live with their children with intellectual disabilities. For this, a number of residences would be built and would be leased out to the parents who prefer to stay on campus along with children. These homes would also be used by parents who want to come from other places and give their children Life Skills Training, Vocational Training etc. So those parents who opt for this shall provide necessary financial resources to the centre. In addition to that some organizations which are willing to train parents and mentally challenged persons can also sponsor their training and thereby help generate income for running the ILLAM.

Out of the 5.43 acres of land that has been purchased, 2 to 3 acres would be earmarked for agriculture and it will be used for organic plantation that has medicinal values. A Professional Trainer would be employed to train those who are interested in this plantation. The Trainees would be provided with Hostel facilities. Towards sustainability of the ILLAM Project, the trainees would be charged nominally. Running a Terminal Home and a Rehabilitation Center would be an expensive affair. To take care of the expenses, income would be generated through renting of Shopping Complexes, Meeting Halls, Conference Rooms, and Auditorium.

Moreover, a onetime corpus would be required to create this infrastructure that will not only address the future problems of individuals with intellectual disability in Coimbatore, but also would be serving as a centre for addressing the problems of thousands of people with intellectual challenges who need this kind of comprehensive services. Not only that, this would serve as a model for the entire country as there is no such comprehensive home available.

For this ILLAM Project which SAARATHY-PAMMAC calls as Inclusive Life, Long After Me, a unique initiative of the parents, the parents have made a nominal contribution of Rs.10000, though they have lot of financial requirements to take care of their challenged children etc. This ILLAM would be managed by the Office Bearers of the Association.

No doubt, it is a kind of gigantic task and this can be completed only with the contributions from Philanthropists, Industrialists, NGOs, Service Organizations, Individuals etc. As this is a very special project needing support from across the world, SAARATHY-PAMMAC is trying to get FCRA License with MHA, Government of India.

SAARATHY-PAMMAC humbly requests you to consider contributing to this project, and that will be a contribution to the welfare of the society, particularly to the intellectually disabled who are not able to speak for themselves. Contributions have been broken into different types. Details of these can be obtained by visiting our website at www.saarathy-pammac.org and these donations are eligible for IT Exemption under 80G. Contributions can be in the form of a Demand Draft/Cheque drawn in favour of SAARATHY PAMMAC, Coimbatore or transferred online through NEFT :