Respite Week-Ends
- Annual respite week-ends are organised for beneficiaries and accompanying parents at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Recreation Centre/Dr James Burty David Recreational Centre. Parents of intellectually disabled people have to cope with very high levels of stress, even more those parents having children with severe and profound disabilities. Respite from the daily routine is in fact needed for both parents and their intellectually disabled ward.
Day Out
- Seaside / Botanical Garden / Waterpark / La Croisette/ Circus
Given the nature of intellectual disability, many parents find it difficult to take out their wards. Also, we have found out that there is at least one parent in all families of beneficiaries who is also living the life of a person with disability and is having a very restricted quality of life. Very often, the main carer, (in most cases the mother) stays at home whenever there are social / religious gatherings or outings to enable the rest of the family members to participate in these gatherings. Our association regularly organises outings for beneficiaries and accompanying parents to improve their quality of life.
Parents also feel more confident about taking out their wards to public places when in group. They support one another and get to learn more about intellectual disability and possible coping strategies.
Drawing and Painting Workshop for Beneficiaries
- People with intellectual disabilities may find themselves with limited opportunities to fully enjoy leisure time.
Moreover, many of our beneficiaries have speech problems; painting and drawing is a very good way for them to express their emotions and ideas. Behaviour change, social integration and skill learning can be positive outcomes of participation in such activities. Resource persons and non-disabled volunteers who give a hand to conduct the workshop also get the opportunity to spend time with the beneficiaries, become more aware of their disability and contribute to their social development.
Parent Counselling and Workshops with Parents by Professionals in the Disability Field
- With the birth of an intellectually disabled child, parents must learn to accept that their child will not be able to live the life they may have dreamt of for them. In addition, there are many challenges that they have to face such as interactive family issues, emotional crises, disrupted schedules and additional expenses among others. Siblings also need support and parents have to give them attention and know how to deal with them. As the intellectually disabled child grows up, parents need counselling about other issues such as sexuality of their ward.
So far, Society for Living Angels has only been able to organise group counselling for parents, but we hope to be able to offer better counselling services in the future. Our association also organises talks for beneficiaries and parents by professionals such as psychiatrists and nutritionists among others.
Promoting Talent and Abilities of Intellectually Disabled People
- One of the aims of Society for Living Angels is to help beneficiaries develop their abilities. Our association is supporting one mildly intellectually disabled artist through donation of art materials and organising for him to meet art educators and other artists to get advice for improvement. We have organised an expo-sale of his artworks at the Galerie D’Art Amrita Dyalah in Grand-Bay in December 2014 and we have been able to remit to him a cheque of Rs 27,561. // after recovering all associated costs with the help of the Ministry of Arts and Culture through the Visual Artist Grant. We hope to extend such support to other beneficiaries with different abilities as well.
Advocacy
- The association strives to safeguard the rights of people with intellectual disability and ensure that they are get equal opportunity in their endeavours. Earlier in 2015, only half of the amount of the Visual Artist Grant was approved by the National Art Gallery for Ali Asghar, our beneficiary. After the intervention of Society for Living Angels, the full amount of the grant was finally approved and we are very grateful for the cooperation of the Ministry of Arts and Culture.
- In March 2015, we wrote to the Minister of Finance and Economic Development to report an unfairness that was in the tax system by which family members of intellectually disabled people were being penalised. Our previous tax system was not allowing family members (apart from parents) taking the duty of care of intellectually disabled people to consider the latter as dependents for tax purposes. We are fully satisfied that this unfairness has been subsequently remedied and we were pleased to find the following amendments to the tax system :
“Dependent” means a spouse, a child under the age of 18 or a child over the age of 18 and who is pursuing full time education or training or who cannot earn a living because of a physical or mental disability.
“Child” means
• an unmarried child, stepchild or adopted child of a person;
• an unmarried child whose guardianship or custody is entrusted to the person by virtue of any other enactment or of an order of a court of competent jurisdiction;
• an unmarried child placed in foster care of the person by virtue of an order of a court of competent jurisdiction.
