Chaya Foundation: Humanity is Equality

In Sri Lankan sociocultural context, Down syndrome, Autism & other disabilities are the topics which are not spoken out openly. This has led to the discrimination of special needs children among society & commonly labelled these kids as bringing misfortune to the families. Most of the occasions they are bullied & cornered in the society. Acceptance from own family is low due to the less awareness of these health & mental conditions of special needs children. Further, most of the parents intentionally giving a low focus on the development & other requirements of these special needs children with the perception that they are under-privileged from birth itself. Key focus of Chaya will be on three main categories i.e. special needs children, parents and society. Proposed structured mechanism will cover the entire life cycle of special needs children and different programs are designed to carry out to develop them within their capacity & capability in different segments of life. Parents, who are integral part of the development of these children will under-go various sessions from preparing mentally to accept their children to support them to develop them as an improved individual. Chaya will create awareness in the society to change the current sociocultural context mentioned above which will make a drastic impact on the lives of the special needs children. This proposal will discuss in detail how Chaya will work for a sustained mechanism for the betterment of the special needs children in Sri Lanka.