Media Release
Belthangady, Mar 6: On March 3, the Annual Day of Daya Special School was celebrated at CKSK premise at 10.30 AM. The celebration was started with the prayer dance of the school children. Fr Dr Paul Melwyn D’Souza, vice provincial presided over the programme. Fr Vinod Mascarenhas, the director Daya Special School, Fr Rohan Lobo, the assistant director, CKSK Belthangady, Veerupakshappa, block education officer Beltangady, Lavina Furtado, former secretary Kuwait Canara Welfare Association, Padmanabh Nayak, chief manager of SBI Belthangady Branch, Lancy Rodrigues, ex cultural secretary, KCWA and an active member of KCWA, Ashok Bangera and staffs Muliya Keshava Bhat Jewellery Belthangady, Sudhakar parent representative and master Mahammad Shahid children representative were on the dais.
Fr Vinod Mascarenhas, director CKSK Belthangady in his introductory speech has congratulated the children and the staffs of Daya Special School for successfully completing six years. He remembered the days when the school was started with only 10-15 children in the initial stage and reached up to 150 children in the six years. He thanked the staffs, parents and the children for their cooperation in these years. He said the Organization is trying to do the best for these needy, deprived and excluded children of the society by motivating their parents and caretakers and by setting up full-fledged therapeutic centres for physiotherapy, speech and hearing therapy, vocational courses and by appointing qualified special teachers, dedicated ayas and drivers. The service which we provide these children is far better than we just perform any poojas, rituals and other forms of practices to please the God. As human beings the first and prime most preference is to respond to these children who are in need and who still are waiting for the opportunities to come to the main stream of the society. He remembered and thanked the good hearted members of KCWA and the project MANOS UNIDAS and the local donors without whom the Organization would never provide this opportunity to these children.
Divya head mistress of Daya Special School presented the Annual Report of 2022-2023 and explained all the treatment, therapeutic, academic and co-curricular activities carried out in the school for the year. The improvements of the children in terms of academic, physiotherapy, speech and hearing therapy, vocational therapy etc were put forwarded to the audience.
Lancy Rodrigues, inaugurated the program and in his inaugural speech, he thanked Fr Vinod Mascarenhas for providing the opportunity to these children to recognize themselves in the society and the staffs of the school for their selfless work towards these children and their parents. He also thanked the organization for providing the opportunity for KCWA for participating in the event and for remembering and honouring the KCWA. He said, KCWA has completed its 34 years of its establishment and had supported for lot many causes, mainly related to the children and their education. The members of KCWA believe in the ideology of contributing 1% of their income towards the needy people of the society and thus providing opportunity to them to improve their living standards. And as a member of KCWA he has the strong belief that the real rights holders of these help are these children of Daya School and he appreciated the parents for sending these children to the centre and make use of all the facilities available in the school.
Padmanabh Nayak, chief manager of State Bank of India Belthangady Branch congratulated Fr Vinod Mascarenhas and the organization for initiating the work towards these special need children. He said it is not important to perform any poojas and rituals to please the God instead we have to do follow the works of Daya which is more valuable in the eyes of God. We really have to appreciate the teachers of these children for constantly motivating children and for providing them the opportunity to grow up. Each child has very unique and special talent in them and it is the prime responsibility of the parents and the teachers to identify them and nurture them to become successful in their life. We are very proud for being a part of this Organization and we will also be with you in your future endeavours.
Sudhakar, the parent representative appreciated the school endeavours and congratulated for completing the six years of its service. He said, we can imagine how difficult to organize these events in this type of school. The teachers, Ayas and bus drivers are very much responsible towards our children. This school had started with very minimum strength and now it has 150 children and it is very commendable. So as parents we have to think about our children’s ability and capacity and we should not force them to attend the normal schools or hostels where they have to compete with many children with high capacity and intellectual ability and it will definitely affect our children’s confidence level. This school has provided very good opportunity to our children. We can keep our children with our family and can give better education rather sending them to any hostels. So we have to utilize this opportunity for our children and we assure our full support towards the development of the school in the future.
The representatives of Muliya Keshava Bhat Jewellery, Ashok Bangera and staffs distributed the mementoes to all the children of the school and wished all the success to the management and the staffs in their future endeavours.
Fr Dr Paul Melwyn D’Souza, the vice provincial distributed the certificates to the children along with their parents for completing their S.S.L.C exam.
Fr Dr Paul Melwyn D’Souza, the vice provincial appreciated director Fr Vinod Mascarenhas, assistant director, Fr Rohan Lobo and all the staffs of the organization for their immense help towards these needy children. He said; let us appreciate them for their sacrifices, service and efforts. We can consider with special needs as the children with special talent, special strength and special spirit. We have to appreciate the motivation, attitude, acknowledgement and contributions. While doing the survey in the initial stage Fr Vinod Mascarenhas has got many cases in Belthangady Taluka and for uplifting the interest of the children and helping their parents he established the Daya School with the support of innumerable donors. As we know we had only 15 children in the initial stage and now it has 150 children and this will show us the improvements that the school made till now. The government has also acknowledged the school and the marks card which the children get is valuable. We have done tremendous work during COVID for these children and all were able to pass their SSLC exam. The school is running through the support of various donors and I pray for you all and especially kind hearted donors, supports and well wishers and may Jesus Christ help you in all your future endeavours.
Veerupakshappa, block education officer Belthangady, by congratulating for successfully completing the six years of journey, said that last year we have supported six children by providing the children to support the special children to appear for their SSLC exam. This year also we are supporting five children to completing their SSLC and we appreciate the efforts that the School has taken to improve the living standards of the children by training them in various vocational courses which help them to lead their life by earning their livelihood and I wish them that they become successful in their life.
Later Fr Vinod Mascarenhas, Fr Rohan Lobo and Divya, head mistress honoured Fr Dr Paul Melwyn D’Souza. All the guests on the dais were provided the mementoes prepared by the children and thanked for their support towards the school.
Dhanya K V thanked the gathering and Rashmi compered and managed the programme. Children exhibited their talents by performing various cultural activities. By providing the lunch for the children and parents the program was concluded.