The Madhuram Narayanan Centre for Exceptional Children (MNC) celebrated its 16th anniversary on 12 December 2005. The children exhibited their talents with their parents. They sang and danced for a theatre performance titled, “Parakkum Theril Sirikkum Kuzhandaigal”, based on Thyagabharati’s songs. What is noteworthy is that the centre makes it a point to get the parents involved in all its activities as much as possible to ensure that they carry forward the development work at their home. In his welcome address, Air Vice Marshal V Krishnaswamy, Director, MNC, said that it was an important part of their early intervention programme to improve the morale of the parents of children suffering from developmental delays and mental retardation.
Children and parents of the centre who participated at the anniversary celebrations.
In his presidential address, V Narayanan, Director, Willingdon Corporate Foundation, commended the work done by the centre in helping special children and their families. He appreciated the excellent
performance of the children with their mothers and added that it clearly demonstrated the empowerment of the children. He spoke highly of the committed service of the centre and said that it is a valuable resource centre for the global community.
N Ravi, Editor, The Hindu, the chief guest, lauded the centre for setting a ‘valuable precedent’ of what private initiatives could achieve in the objective of extending equal opportunities to all. He hailed the efforts of K S Narayanan and the Sanmar family for starting the centre and running it so successfully since 1989 as a community service centre. He stressed that primary education is the fundamental right of all children irrespective of their abilities and that schools must adopt a diversitybased approach to education after identifying the diverse needs of the children.
From l to r: V Narayanan, Director, Willingdon Corporate Foundation, N Ravi, Editor, The Hindu, P Jeyachandran, Director, Vijay Human Services and V Krishnaswamy, Director, MNC, at the anniversary celebrations.
In his message (read out by V Narayanan) K S Narayanan, who could not attend the function, said the centre was disseminating its early intervention programme to various parts of the country through seminars and workshops and wished many more years of committed service to the society.
The children demonstrate their artistic skills.
A section of the audience.