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....................................................................................................Profile
Celebration
of the senses
 If
you can repair a road – fine, but if you can make a road- even better”,
says Behroz Vacha, honorary director and founder of the Helen Keller
Institute for Deaf and Deaf Blind in Byculla. A two time National
award winner and the winner of the Anne Sullivan medal for pioneering
work among the deaf and deaf blind in India, Vacha is the first
Indian and Asian to be so honoured.
The Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation has contributed
one acre of land at Thane- Belapur to the Helen Keller Institute
to expand its range of services for the handicapped on a national
level. The project is nearing completion. The school has also received
a donation of Rs one crore from the G D Birla Medical Research and
Education Foundation in memory of the late Aditya Birla.
 The
institute was formed on 11 July 1977 by Vacha and her two companions
with a capital of only Rs 150. Today it is one of the leading institutes
and one of its kind in India.
Sense International India (an NGO) has announced the first teacher
training course for teachers of deaf blind people in the country.
It has been approved by the Rehabilitation Council of India and
will be run by the Helen Keller Institute as a pilot programme from
this academic year.
The aim of the school is to teach the children self expression,
to build their self esteem and self worth and to make them independent
so that they feel
that they contribute to and are a part of society. As in the case
of Mary Amsa. A congenitally deaf blind young girl, she was brought
to the institute at the age of 8. With no communication skills to
interact with the outside world, she had very little awareness of
herself and her environment. Today she is a confident young lady
capable of looking after herself. She stays in the Borivli hostel
of the institute along with other similarly handicapped students.
She enjoys craft work and looking after young deaf blind children.
She makes beautiful necklaces but hasn’t seen one. She likes to
dance but hasn’t heard a melody in her life. Warm and affectionate
in her behaviour, she enjoys meeting people, but too much physical
activity or a sudden change in her routine makes her nervous.
 Vacha
recalls instances from her childhood that were to influence her
commitment to the deaf and deaf blind in her adult years. “ As a
young school girl in Bulsar, I had a deaf boy in my class and I
noticed that people and other students picked on him only because
he was so timid and handicapped.” Years later when she revisited
Bulsar she noticed a grave in front of the school and was told that
it was the resting place of the same boy. To Vacha , the grave
was a symbol of a muted spirit denied the right to education for
no fault of his own. 
“ Anyone whose grey cells are ticking can be treated as a normal child
no matter what his or her handicap. It is often the way that we, the
society think and feel about them which is the real handicap,” says
Vacha, adding that every child should have a right to education according
to his or her ability.
By : Latika Sidana
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